Shiva and Parvati

In this work divided into two strata and populated by figures in active motion, Burman offers a pictorial hymn to the extended family. He developes parallel between the divine domesticity of  Shiva?s family, attended by the child Krishna in a departure from conventional depiction, and the domesticity of the human family. The humanisation of the divine family is a theme that we find adumbrated in Pahari drawings and paintings as well as in Kalighat watercolours and prints, and Burman is certainly inspired by these sourses of cultural energy. Significantly, as a Kalighat practice, Shiva is portrayed as an ascetic who does not care to play the dandy, while Parvati wears the elaborate sari of the Bengali bhadralok lady but the crown worn by mughal queens, as depicted in the late Agra ateliers and the regional styles of Lucknow & Patna.

- Ranjit Hoskote