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In the late 1950s when A Ramachandran first saw a photograph of his mentor Ram Kinkar Baij’s Santhal Family, he was struck by the acuity with which the sculpture conveyed a sense of the figures’ mysterious, almost atavistic bond with their environment. He experienced a similar response in the 1970s while travelling through rural Rajasthan, where he encountered the Bhil community. With close symbiotic ties to their land, they appeared to... In the late 1950s when A Ramachandran first saw a photograph of his mentor Ram Kinkar Baij’s Santhal Family, he was struck by the acuity with which the sculpture conveyed a sense of the figures’ mysterious, almost atavistic bond with their environment. He experienced a similar response in the 1970s while travelling through rural Rajasthan, where he encountered the Bhil community. With close symbiotic ties to their land, they appeared to inhabit a world full of ritual and mystery, one that remained largely inaccessible to an outsider. He later wrote, “In the Bhil villages around Udaipur, I found the images I was looking for and an ideal world that satisfied all my aesthetic needs. My interest in the peasants and the working class is not born out of any ideological commitment. Since I am not a social worker, I have no illusion of changing their life through my art. But to know them and their life in their own environment has been a rewarding experience for me.” (Artist quoted in R Siva Kumar, “An Enquiry into the Revivalist Tendencies in My Art and Hairstyle”, Ella Datta ed., A Ramachandran: A Retrospective - Volume II, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2004, p. 275) Bhil women subsequently became the primary subject of his art, and are elevated to personal icons in his sculptures, much like the present lot

Ramachandan’s sculptural vocabulary drew from childhood memories of the Krishnaswamy temple in Attingal, Kerala. Its elaborately decorated symbolic forms, which often appeared larger-than-life to him, offered a range of vivid sensory impressions that embedded themselves in his mind: awe-inducing dvarapalakas, the towering dhvajastambha (flagstaff), the kurma or ritual lamp. These images embedded themselves in his mind and later shaped the aesthetic and structural sensibilities of his work. The bronze Bhil woman in the present lot rises upright like a ceremonial lamp, her calm, meditative gaze reminiscent of the sanctum icon. Art historian Rupika Chawla remarks, “In his bronze sculptures, the warm coloured metal suggestive of Chola bronzes acquires iconic inflections strongly suggested in their still hands and heads, silent eyes and long straight backs. Such bronze sculptures, figurative and steeped in qualities, reflect the classical Indian iconic tradition. All the awe that Ramachandran feels about the mysterious world of the Bhils is transformed into ‘mana’, the power that he imbues them with…” (Rupika Chawla, “The Bronzing of Colours & A Portfolio of Sculptures”, Ramachandran Icons of the Raw Earth, Bangalore: Kala Yatra, 1999, p. 128)

Despite the relief ornamentation that embellishes many of Ramachandran’s sculptures, structure always takes precedence-a principle he imbibed from Baij while studying under him at Santiniketan’s Visva Bharat University. Though he transitioned from clay to bronze, his construction techniques remained largely unchanged from his student years.He began by shaping the preliminary form in clay around a vertical metal rod, which was then used to create a wax mould. At this stage, refinements were made and details such as jewellery, drapery, and surface patterns were added.

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