A Dance of my Eyes – Paras Dasot ( Natural Collection Lord Ganesha )

It was another day of my journey of my art-creation. It was a day of 1987 when one of my neighbor whose house was near to my Ganj Basoda (MP) house was about to cut a branch of a tree in his premises. As I was constantly peeping into what was happening in his premises, he asked Do you want this branch for your collection?

Since I collect natural objects, I quickly nodded. Soon my neighbor sent the branch to my house. Next morning when I was trying to figure out an art pattern on the branch I was amazed! The patterns on the branch posed a six feet long figure of dancing Lord Ganesha and I soon realized that Lord Ganesha has given His first grand appearance in my courtyard.

The work of art became my first addition to the Paras Ganpati Collection and it became my inspiration and my lucky charm.

Dancing Ganesha inspired me to an extent that I started finding Ganesha in every tree, shrub and my creativity had a new channel and I craved for an image of Ganesha in pebbles as well. Soon, this search became more intense and turned into devotion and perseverance. My persistent search did get results. During the search, I also got some outstanding natural artifacts of Hanuman ji, Goddess Durga, Lord Bal Krishna, Lord Shankar and many other incarnations besides many animals, birds, fishes, and some natural art forms resembling the faces of artist MF Hussain, Ravinder Nath Tagore and some modern arts.

I was a student of Geography and I have no formal education in arts. Despite being wholeheartedly devoted to my job of being a principal in a college, I had preserved my creativity. Following this pursuit and a habit of travelling on foot, I used to collect any pebble in my way. This habit also attracted much criticism and whenever I picked a pebble, somebody or some passerby whispers mad guy or asks loudly what you got it show us? Despite all this criticism, I pursued my motto and I was able to collect many natural art forms from en route or from riverside.

I first washed the collected pebbles with clean water and when it completely dries, I closely pondered over to find an image or pattern on them. I am greatly indebted to my college colleague Shri Narain Singh Rai and my wife for their immense contribution and help at every stage of my pursuit.

I have found these art forms primarily at foothills and at riversides. The rivers include Betwa, Parasari, Narmada, Sutlej, Benas and Luni.

Either my family or I have never attributed religious significance to these artifacts and I have dedicated these entirely to art. However, some Saints have seen these and appreciated it. In addition, some politicians, social workers and common people have seen it and appreciated it largely. Among all, Saint Morari Bapu has asked me to leave my job and dedicate my life to this passion. Although, I went on with my job in the college in order to earn livelihood for my family but I kept on finding life forms into such art forms and the collection soon became my lifeline.

Today, after a span of 30 years of dedication and devotion, the Paras Ganpati Collection has over two thousand art forms made of wood, stone, and amber. All have one or the other image of Ganesha. The size of these artifacts varies from as tiny as the point of a needle to that of a six feet three inches tall art piece. Smaller pieces of art are preserved in small jewelry boxes. These are kept safe in three almirahs for display. My son Kuldeep Dasot has prepared a multimedia presentation of some of the art pieces. Besides, a photo album of all these have also been prepared to give an instant glimpse of the art forms in these natural objects.

The stone art forms are primarily made of sandstone, limestone, igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks like marble etc. Maximum stone crafts are made up of limestone. The collection gives a glimpse of almost all facets of the infancy, childhood, youth, old age besides various other life activities such as a gallant posing with a shield and magical powers, as a musician with Ek Tara and Dholak instruments in His hand, as a sportsperson playing cricket, a Yogi, a Seer in asana, as if riding an elephant, lion, mouse, posing in the hammer in a court, posing with Riddhi and Siddhi, with the child in His lap, posing as a woman, pose with one trunk, two trunks, three trunks, big teeth, three heads, magnificent Ganesha and Ganesha in modern art. In addition, Ganesha also appears in various manly forms-actions in the art forms.

The main attraction of these art forms is that all these appear in a form that is complete in itself. The image forms have all the body parts in exact proportion. Eyes, trunk, tooth, belly, chest, all have exact proportion and place. These body parts pose as if Ganesha Himself has incarnated. These pieces of art depict that nature, rivers, waves have played the role of an artist and have carved out the effigy of Lord Ganesha in stones, pebbles etc.

The collection is my research. It can also be termed as:-

1. It is the essence of fundamentals of art.

2. It is another name of Creation-world.

3. It is a form of the struggle that is eminent in the process of creation.

4. It is the form of creative process.

5. It is the result of revolution of earth over its axis.

6. This is the result of the stepping ahead of the creative OM.

7. This also symbolizes balance of the imbalance in nature.

I have never imagined that such a great thing will happen in such circumstances, journey of art, nature. It happened and it happened magnificently. The collection is not only a source of inspiration and study for religious people but is also open to all students of arts, art lovers. However, it has been on display for long but now I am in the process of establishing a museum so that this collection gets a concrete use.