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VOL. 28, NO. 19, Jan 16, 2009 (Magh 03 2065 B.S.)
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Bagmati Civilization
Two dozen artists display their works of various stages of Bagmati River
By A CORRESPONDENT
When one sees the paintings pasted at the wall of Siddhartha Art Gallery, one is compelled to imagine what he encountered is not a reality but an imagination of artist.
Every one has right to interpret the paintings on his own terms but what the paintings pasted currently at the Gallery is the art works drawn looking at the various facets of Bagmati.
Just two decades ago, the water in Bagmati River was so clean that even people used to drink it. There used to be hectic activities of human beings including washing cloth, taking dip and swimming. The reality is now completely different. The state of the river at present is in such a position that there is just dirty black water and there is no life at all.
The cultural and religious values of the river are such that there used to be a saying that taking a dip in the river washes one of all the sins. Every person wished to take dip in the river all the time.
This is what one can see in the paintings painted by various painters. Some of the works painted three decades ago depicted the purity of water of river Bagmati and the artists painted the various human activities at its heydays.
Some of paintings painted recently show devastating situation where there is virtually just a dead river with black and dirty water. The river banks were encroached by illegal settlers and the temples and other such places along the bank of river is in the process of ruin.
Looking at the paintings drawn in the recent times and past decades clearly shows how growing human population and untreated sewerage released in the river made it virtually an open drain rather than a river.
There are paintings of various important religious sites of Bagmati including Sankhamol, Kalmochan, Pashupati and other areas.
All the five rivers of the valley finally converge into the Bagmati and it carries its name up to Nepal-India border.
Thousands of articles have already been written and numbers of book have already been published highlighting the plight of Bagmati River. However, the paintings displayed by half a dozens of artists are so effective and powerful that nobody can match with the strength of their message.
Bagmati River, a main river of Kathmandu valley, has seen many ups and downs in the last three decades. Known as a holy river, Bagmati has now turned into sewerage.
With the swelling of population in the valley over last three decades, the discharge of human wastes increased. As there is no other river system to drain, people started to use the river to finally release their wastes. This transformed the holy river into a dirty sewerage.
Along with the rivers, there are more than a dozen of pilgrimage sites at the bank of the river. All are in the bad shape and process of ruin. After looking at the paintings in Gallery, one can just say sorry for Bagmati.
The paintings of artists are so powerful that they injected life in the river.
