When Bappa was alive, I felt that he should write a book on the Arts of Karnataka, due to his passion for the subject, and his mastery of the field. "Vikas, a book of that nature has a high cost of reproduction, and who's going to lobby the Governmental agencies for it ?", he'd remarked, and the project was never considered.
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Today, I have been asked to write an article on Kamats' contribution to the arts and culture of Karnataka. I've accepted the assignment, because I feel that although not blessed by the state controlled art academies, my parents have done pioneering work towards the arts and artists of Karnataka. I am going to write about how Bappa is the only researcher to have studied and documented the unique form of Kavi Art (every other story on Kavi Art that I have seen is stolen from his book or website; that is the truth), and how my mother took so much trouble identifying and cataloging the various performing folk-arts.
Where else but on Kamat.com will you find such treasures as Paintings of Mysore Traditional School, collected from wandering house to house in the traditional town of Nanjanagudu? or the treasures of Mysore Maharaja which since Kamat photographed them, have been stolen and smuggled out of India by the same people who were supposed to protect them? or the painted leather puppets and their puppeteers who are so much sought after in the museums all over the world after they appeared on our website?
I think I have plenty of material, but if you have a tip or a suggestion, please
write to me at 
. I'd appreciate it; I have never written for an Art
Magazine before...
See Also:
- Links to Arts of Karnataka: Yakshagana, Folk Artists, Mysore Paintings, Dakhani Art, Hoysala Art, Chalukan Art, Ganjeefa Art, Bidari Art, Gudigars, Sandalwood Crafts, Silk Crafts, Kasuti, Patched-Quilts, Puppetry, Jain Art Wow!
- The Arts of India -- a much bigger section profiling art forms from all over the Indian sub-continent.
- Topics on the State of Karnataka
