THE TREE OF ENLIGHTNMENT Painting

Bodhiselvam 25-October-1969 Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu. Buddha paintings, Mr. Bodhiselvam, who has given a new dimension to our conceptions of Buddha and explored the unchartered terrains in the Buddhist enlightenment. How Buddha would have looked like? The painter’s lines and dots provide an answer to this mystic question. Why has he chosen Buddha as the pivotal force for his portraits? The way Siddhartha in the third century B.C shed his cozy and comfortable princely life and set out to get at the root of answers to some mysterious questions about life, struggle and death has charmed Mr. Bodhiselvam. The spell is so deep and everlasting that he set out to identify his life and outlook with Buddhist teachings and also draw up portraits of Buddha in His state of nirvana. His paintings dexterously recapture the very moment of Buddha’s enlightenment, the ‘sambodhi’ moment as he calls it. He says about how he was captivated by His journey towards the roots of the universe. Disrobing himself of the royal comfort, he went out in search of the roots. Initially meeting five saints or sanyasins, he undertook a severe and austere penance, subjecting himself to a rigorous schedule of denial, forgoing food and water for years together. He was abandoned by His own men and yet He pursued his goal of enlightenment. Finally when He attained the most previous ‘gnanam’ or the state of nirvana, the roots of the universe such the expansive and elegant skies, sparkling stars, mesmeric and mysterious moon, winged winds, swinging plants, creepers and all brings buzzing with beauty got into His head. Around Buddha’s new head shone a halo, holy and blissful. It is this rarest of rare moment that has permeated Mr. Bodhiselvam’ s paintings. The traditional image of Buddha cannot be seen in his works. The portraits of Lord Buddha’s head over which the plants hang and His face exuding an air of the great enlightenment bring back alive Buddha in his magic moment of enlightenment from the archives of centuries. Like Buddha who did not have any guru or teacher in his spiritual journey, Mr. Bodhiselvam too did not have teacher to learn from. His painting style is absolutely self-made in the sense that as he is a self-made painter, he says that his portraits draw themselves. The moment he drew up Buddha’s head with a bamboo stick dipped in black, the rest of the features automatically came alive into the picture.