Kashmiri mysticism inspires artist S C Razdan

A visual representation of self realisation permeates artist Subhash Chander Razdan's body of drawings and paintings, which draws inspiration from Kashmiri and mystic art practices.
Razdan has brought together a series of artworks here in an ongoing exhibition titled "Samarasya". At the show that opened at the Lalit Kala Akademi recently, he employed abstract forms and images and structures to explore an inner world of meanings.
The artist says all his works are the product of the visuals that he could see while practicing 'Brahmanic Pranayam' or intense meditation.
Razdan seems to be following the path paved by art stalwarts like Gulam Rasool Santosh and P T Reddy who have done significant work in Tantric art.

Following his experiences of self fulfillment through engagement in meaningful art activity, Razdan says he sought to probe deeper into the mysteries of man's inner world, trying to understand its subtle realities with the help of the revelations in the texts of the Shiva tantric tradition of Kashmir.
"I used to do Brahmanic Pranayam and that's when I used to see various shapes and visuals. These were abstract visuals and shapes. When I told my guru about these he told me to paint my imagination being an artist. That's how I started painting these black white paintings," says Razdan.

"Pranayam is a way to know your inner self. One gets completely detached to the outer world and listens to the sounds coming from within him and that's when he gets a chance of interacting with the almighty," he adds.

The neo-tantric paintings serve as a bridge between the transcendent and immanent, being and becoming, the outer world and the inner space, universal and individual consciousness, building up a synthesis that resolves dichotomies. The art is based in the philosophical concepts and notions of non-dualistic Kashmir Shaivism.
The focal point of his visualizations was the Bindu, a fundamental concept of the Shaiva philosophy of language and phonemic mysticism. It signifies the manifestation of the supreme consciousness vibrating in the form of sonic energy.