The Hook-swinging Festival (Chadak parvan)
1798
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1798
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Hook-swinging Festival (Chadak parvan) is a 1798 paint by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a crowded scene of people swinging high on bamboo poles tied with ropes. Men and women hang upside down or kneel on slim bamboo stages, some reaching five meters up. The festival is called charak pûjâ. Devotees fast all month, eating only fruit. Then they swing as penance, testing their faith and endurance in front of crowds. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more Company paintings.
The image depicts the culmination of the *charak pûjâ*, a Bengali festival of penance in which participants fast from sunrise to sunset for a month, consuming only fruit. During the festival's climax, devotees ascend bamboo stages erected on poles three to five meters high and swing forward using ropes tied to their bodies. The work is classified as a Company painting, created by an unknown Indian artist for British patrons in 1798, as indicated by the inclusion of a discontinued military headdress from the Bengal Native Infantry. The artwork was acquired from T. Toon (or possibly J. Joon) of…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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