Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre: An equal river

Pilgrims at Gwarighat, Jabalpur, perched atop hand-painted steps. Pics/Hari Mahidar

When commercial photographer Hari Mahidar purchased Italian writer Aldo Pavan's The Ganges: Across The Sacred Waters at the Mumbai airport in September 2007, he asked himself two questions. ‘First, if an Italian sells his story (and photos) of a much written-about, much-polluted Indian river, am I waiting for another foreigner to photograph the splendour of India's oldest river Narmada which predates the Ganga and the Himalayas? Second, being born in Jabalpur and raised on the banks of Gwarighat, (a town on the banks of Narmada), who (if not me), can get closer to Narmada's mystique, its infinite power to cleanse physically and psychologically, its influence on the Indian belief system?'

Mahidar, a Mumbai-based photographer bound by corporate sector assignments, decided no commitment would delay his documentation of Narmada's ghats (he has concentrated on 12 of the 30-odd), its hilly and fertile tracts, running through three Indian states in a 1,312 km stretch that allows a unique circumambulation (Parikrama) - a cultural spectacle like none other in the world. He felt it was time to celebrate the Narmada because there is no other Indian river that matches the diverse vistas and ecological delights she nurtures - lush vegetation, aquatic life, hardwood forests, biosphere reserves and fossil parks.

Vithal C Nadkarni and Hari Mahidar have now devised a 40-minute Narmada talk template in which they focus on the river's rich facets. They are also seeking sponsors for Narmada orientation tours in which they will play guides. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

As Mahidar decided to follow the river, his mind travelled to an afternoon in 1965 when he had caught three schoolboys in mid-leap at Bhedaghat with his twin-lens Rolleiflex. "It was among the many images that inspired me to leave the family marble tile business and take on photography for a living in Mumbai." The same image was now calling him to start at the beginning - Narmada Udgam (origin) at Amarkantak where a rivulet (‘Nano Narmada') goes underground only to emerge as a leaping wild torrent at Kapildhara.

Mahidar's pursuit of Narmada, now hard bound in an opulent self-published self-distributed coffee table book Benevolent Narmada, lasted for six years on his own; and two years with co-author Vithal C Nadkarni, a journalist-scholar equally enamoured by the river's restorative prowess and currently engaged in the process of writing two books (one on folk bronzes and one on Hath Yoga) that rest on research of the Narmada basin. Together, Mahidar (74) and Nadkarni (67) have tracked the pulsating primeval stream in its myriad moods and phases, with an emphasis on the colourful fairs and festivals held on the banks of the river. For instance, both authors revere the annual Narmada Jayanti in February (Shukla Paksha Saptami day of appearance on earth; emergence from Lord Shiva's sweat) - which is a rare birthday celebration in Madhya Pradesh marked by the floating of traditional diyas.

A photograph of a cow at Amarkantak. A sadhu here compared the bovine to the river Ganga, which comes to sister Narmada once a year for cleansing

They are also impressed by the before-the-crack-of-dawn thoughtful Holi played by the Bhil adivasis of Kathi village, a settlement at the foothills of the Satpura mountain range from whose north-eastern end Narmada originates. Similarly, the authors underline the heterogeneous demographic mix nurtured by the Narmada, cutting across barriers of caste, religion, language and social class - Jain icons co-exist with mosques, Gurudwaras flourish with a dazzling 500-odd temples. Mahidar's photos of Kabirvad - an island near Bharuch which has a 300-year-old grove of a single banyan tree grown over 2.5 acres - underscores saint poet Kabir's choice of Narmada for meditative peace.

More than the exotica about religious rituals, Benevolent Narmada grants precedence to the visuals of people-to-people exchanges. Its core lies in the humbling experience of Parikrama (3 years, 3 months and 13 days afoot) that the river offers as a treat. In Nadkarni's fluid prose, it is a journey of the soul, by the sole; a transformative walk along the river from its origin to the finish in the sea; encouraging devotees to leave behind narrow concerns and immerse in an aseem parivar (boundless family) subsisting on alms and the kindness of strangers.

The photograph by Hari Mahidhar of the three boys at Bhedaghat caught in mid-leap over the Narmada

Nadkarni provides the sociological-mythological context to Mahidar's cauldron of images, thereby locating the contemporary frames in the realm of the larger social narrative. While recounting ancient mentions of Narmada's greatness (Adi Shankaracharya called her as Punya Sarvatra Narmada), he quotes all experts (including scholar Diana Eck who has written extensively on the Ganga) who acknowledge Narmada's uniqueness. He references the earlier books on Narmada - Amritlal Vegad's pioneering foot-travels dating back to 1977; Bharati Thakur's "inner journey" accomplished in 2005; current Environment Minister Anil Kumar Dave's Hindi book Narmada Samagra. Interestingly, Mahidar and Nadkarni have separately and jointly interviewed people who have circumambulated the Narmada (also those who have swam across and rafted through the river) and also those involved in community activities in the Narmada valley, merely to understand people's identification with the river.

Mahidar's camerawork owes a lot to the dialogue with locals, temple trusts, ferrymen, traffic police and government officials who provided the right tip-offs for the right compositions. As his mission was self-initiated and not wedded to a deadline, he could allow extended timelines for exact shots - particularly while chasing the critical hour of overflow of the Sardar Sarovar gravity dam built on the river (Navagam, Gujarat); not to forget the concentration of crocodiles near Kevadiya which required seasonal monitoring. But, his perseverance test was the Ganesh immersion photo at Bharuch (north bank), which entails a panoramic sweep to Ankleshwar (south bank).

He composed wide angle shots of both the banks, just so that he could get the Lord's profile at the opportune moment before the dip. In another attempt to arrest the train and vehicular movement on two parallel rail-road bridges (before Omkareshwar) Mahidar waited in a dinghy anchored mid-water for three hours; similarly to catch the island shape of Omkareshwar Mahidar drove atop the dam parallel to the city. A book on Narmada's current status should be, ideally, a state tourism development corporation venture, as it complements the efforts of governments in M.P., Gujarat and Maharashtra to create public opinion against the debris thrown into the Narmada. "As freewheeling explorers, ecology was one of our concerns. Our guiding force was the love for the river, a personal grasp of its terrain, our appreciation of the hold she has on the popular discourse. That gave us the wherewithal and the chutzpah to present Narmada's story to the uninitiated."

Sumedha Raikar Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub text. Write to her at sumedharaikar@gmail.com