Biswanath Dutta Archive

8/10/2019 Biswanath Dutta Archive

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Biswanath Dutta Collection: Introduction and Notes

Project submitted towards fulfilment of the requirements of

the Digital Humanities and Cultural InformaticsPost-Graduate Diploma Course under

the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University

Sujaan Mukherjee


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INTRODUCTION

Sri Biswanath Dutta would not mind in the least if he were to be remembered only as

a disciple of Jatindra Charan (Gobar) Goho (1892-1972), a legendary wrestler from

Calcutta. There is not much of interest that I can add to the work that has been done on the

subject by Abhijit Gupta on the life and career of Gobar Goho . The Physical Cultures of

Bengal Project that started under the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur

University, guided by Professor Supriya Chaudhuri and Abhijit Gupta, benefitted greatly

from the association the latter had formed with one of Gobars disciples, the aforementioned

Biswanath Dutta. The meeting took place fortuitously. In a column titled Brief Lives

published by The Telegraph, Gupta had written about Gobar, little knowing that it would lead

him straight to one of Gobars most devoted students and even more astonishingly, one who

practices his art to this day. The akharais functioning under the able guidance of Biswanath

babu and Sri Jayanta Goho. The association grew stronger with time. As part of the Physical

Cultures of Bengal Project, an extensive interview with Biswanath babu and Sri Jayanta

Goho was shot at the akhara itself by Kalpan Mitra and Dipankar Lahiri, students of the

Department of English, Jadavpur University. The interviewers included Deeptanil Ray,

Nikhilesh Bhattacharya, and myself. A practice session was also documented. A documentary

titled Gobar Goho o tar Uttaridhikar: Banglar Shorir Chorchar Itihashe Ek Bishesh Odhyay

(Gobar Goho and his Legacy: a Remarkable Chapter in the History of Physical Cultures in

Bengal) was compiled and screened at the Physical Cultures: Bengal and Beyond

conference held in February 2014, organized by the School of Cultural Texts and Records, as

part of the Physical Cultures of Bengal project.

To get back to where we started Biswanath babu would not indeed mind if he is

remembered only as such. What better way, one may wonder, to uphold ones teachers

legacy than by embodying it? This, as the documentary will make amply clear, he does. He


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is, so to speak, an archive himselfa man who stores in his physical form a memory of the

lessons that his master had imparted to him, a man who recollects first-hand incidents

surrounding his teacher, his Ostad-ji. But apart from all of this Biswanath babu springs a

surprise on us from time to time by revealing, say, a series of newspaper clippings about the

akhara that he had forgotten all about, or a photograph album that showcases neatly

photographs from the golden age of Gobar Gohos akharaan archive as we understand it

more literally. Understandably therefore the life and career of Sri Biswanath Dutta too has

become a subject of great interest to the Project, and while the Biswanath Dutta Archive

will offer a great deal of information on his teacher and on the contemporary wrestling scene

in the akhara, it can also be seen as an archive about Biswanath babu himself.

The present collection has approximately 165 images of various visual and textual

documents, including newspaper clippings, photographic negatives, loose photographs, and a

photograph album. Metadata has been prepared to reflect the contents of the folders. There

are a few items that are yet to be processed and catalogued, which are part of the collection

and will be filled in over time, such as a few magazines and a commemorative volume about

Gobar Goho. They have been digitized photographically. One draw-back of the metadata as it

stands right now is the fact that the physical dimensions are not entered. This is because the

circumstances under which the images were captured did not permit such measurement,

largely because shortage of time. Biswanath babu, understandably reluctant to let his archive

out of the house for too long, has agreed however to let someone visit him to collect any

further data that we may require, but this has not been possible thus far owing to a bout of

bad health that he has unfortunately been going through. Sri Debdipra Dutta, Biswanath

babus grandson has also offered to cooperate in this matter, and hopefully any missing data

will be collected at their earliest convenience.


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THE COLLECTION

Along with the akhara, Sri Biswanath Dutta parallelly runs a museum in the rooms that

surround the wrestling ring in their Goabagan premises. Previously he had given us kind

permission to photograph a few of the newspaper clippings that he had carefully preserved in

his museum, along with a few photographs that hang from the walls in wooden frames. The

light there is hardly suitable for archive-acceptable photographs, and our visit was made at a

time when none of us had any training in archival photography. As a result, the format was

not up to the mark, even though these images were used in the documentary that was

prepared subsequently. Following the video shoot on the first day a second visit was made by

Nikhilesh Bhattacharya, Deeptanil Ray and Kalpan Mitra to Biswanath babus residence.

During this visit, Biswanath babu had further given us a commentary on the fighting

techniques that were being shown in the video shot on the first day. On that day he had also

introduced us to Sri Debdipra Dutta, who has cooperated greatly with us subsequently in

conveying the images back and forth. We would like to extend our gratitude to Debdipra for

his help. I must also extend my thanks to Sri Kawshik Ananda Kirtaniya and Smt Debapriya

Basu, who offered ready advice in the matter of digitizing, and Nikhilesh Bhattacharya with

whom I worked on the first of the three days of archiving.

On 17 April 2014 Debdipra brought to Jadavpur University a collection of his

grandfathers holdings. These included:

a) Loose photographs

b)

Newspaper clippings

c) A photograph album

d) Negatives of photographs


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There were also a few magazines and a commemorative volume that were digitized, but have

not been catalogued or processed yet, as mentioned earlier. As it was impossible to leave

behind the physical data, owing to time constraints, images were shot while Debdipra waited.

A second session followed a week or so from the first day, and subsequently, when even after

two sessions the images could not be digitized completely, Debdipra agreed to leave behind a

few photographs that were returned to him in perfect condition shortly afterwards. As a result

of the constraints, perhaps some temporary limitations of the collection may be forgiven. If

there are mistakes, they may be attributed to the fact that this is the first visual archive project

that I have undertaken, and there is much that I need to learn yet. As mentioned earlier, I will

be happy to fill in any gaps that may have remained even so.

The collection is organized into four folders, as of now. With the addition of the

magazines there may be an increase. The folders, as they stand now, are as follow:

a) GG_001_loose_photographs

b) GG_002_newspaper_clippings

c)

GG_003_photograph_album

d)

GG_004_negatives

Among the 24 images contained in the first folder, GG_001_loose_photographs a few

images, GG_001, GG_002, GG_005, GG_008, GG_009, GG_013, GG_014, for example,

were in fact part of the photograph album. Because they had come loose, it was seen fit to

digitize them separately. For a higher quality of reproduction, these photographs along with

the other loose photographs that were offered by Biswanath babu were scanned rather than

photographed. The scanner used was an EPSON, Perfection V700/V750, available at the

Bichitra office of the School of Cultural Texts and Records. The images were croppedand

processed using SilverFast 8.0.1. The images reappear as part of the photograph album, and

this will be explained subsequently.


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The second folder, i.e. GG_002_newspaper_clippings, contains 15 items. Clippings

of newspaper articles that touch upon the achievements either of Gobar Goho, or of his

akhara or of Biswanath babu, or all three and more, have been preserved carefully by his

family. The articles are cut out neatly and pasted on white paper. The newspaper heading for

the day, bearing the name of the newspaper, the date and the name of the supplement (if such

is the case) are cut out separately and pasted along with the relevant article. The paper,

however, did not seem to be of an acid-free nature, and as such may cause damage to the

articles over time. It is impractical to try and transfer the newspaper clippings on to acid-free

paper as, being newspaper clippings, they are not printed on high-quality paper and are likely

to be damaged much more easily during such a transfer process. While Debdipra has been

alerted to the danger of using chart paper, there is little that can be done to the ones already

collectedit may be useful for future reference. The newspaper articles are in both Bengali

and in English and range between 1995 and 2012. The large pages are bordered in several

cases with a thin red line, probably the work of a felt-pen. These were photographed using a

Canon EOS 60D and processed subsequently in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The

contraption for photography is the standard one that is kept at the Bichitra office of the

SCTR. A colour-strip/scale was used, placed carefully beside the captured image so that the

white balance could be restored to normal later on.

The third folder, GG_003_photograph_album, contains 116 items. Of these 14

images are of the photograph album pages, taken whole using a Canon EOS 60D camera. The

rest of the 112 items were photographed using a Nikon D800E, placed on the contraption

available at the aforementioned office. The reason why a different camera was used for the

individual photographs is that since we decided on photographing the photographs as they

were on the pages of the photograph album, we needed a more powerful lens to override the

possible effects of the glossy paper. The photographs in the album are accompanied in many


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cases with captions written on white labels. A detailed description of how the album was

digitized may be of interest.

Given the nature of the photographs as they were pasted on the album it was

impossible to keep the camera at a certain distance that would have allowed for us to include

the colour-strip/scale within the same frame. In many cases the captions too have been

clipped in order to preserve the highest quality reproduction of the photographs. This too

shall be explained later. As a result, we were forced to take two shots of each photograph in

the album. For example, GG_040 and GG_041 are the same image, taken twice. The first is

without the colour-strip/scale, the second is with the colour-strip/scale, lying right across the

image. Both images have been retained for the purpose of the collection as the latter serves as

authentication of the former in many instances. During the processing in Adobe Photoshop

Lightroom 5.3 (Macintosh) the method followed was this: two images, say GG_040 and

GG_041 were imported in order. While correcting the White Balance the second image was

considered first. The dropper tool was placed on the white to select the Neutral Sample.

When the sample was identified the new values were noted in the White Balance menu.

These, then, were copied and pasted on to the White Balance settings of GG_040. The result

was that GG_040 would then be readjusted to the original light settings of the room. This, of

course, is not a full-proof technique since the camera is bound to make certain adjustments in

the image containing the colour-strip/scale because of its presence, even if these adjustments

are minute and barely noticeable. Yet, in the interest of preserving the highest quality of the

photographic images, this was the method that was followed. In cases where the photographs

came with captions, two or more images were taken to represent each of the artifacts on the

album page separately. The metadata will reflect the texts that were incorporated within the

album. A few of the images, as mentioned earlier, have been incorporated within the category


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of loose photographs. These images find place, however, as they appear to have been placed

in the pages of the photograph album.

Images GG_143 to GG_156 are images of the entire pages of the photograph album.

This gives a sense of the kind of photograph album that was used to store these images. There

is clearly a fair amount of foxing that has taken place and the photographs, being pasted with

some kind of wet adhesive on to paper that is far from being acid-free, have undergone

discoloration to a certain extent, but are physically in decent shape. The conditions, should

they be exceptional, are indicated in the metadata. The decision to photograph entire pages

even after photographing each individual image with great care was taken so that any attempt

at narrativization that may have taken place while creating the album is not lost in the process

of digitization. A clear, linear narrative does indeed emerge. Images of Gobar Goho smoking

his cheroot wearing the Nehru cap or of him standing in a masterly posture dominate the first

few pages of the photograph album. On page 7 of the album we are met with the inevitable

the demise of Gobar Goho. Photographs of the great wrestler and philosopher covered in

flowers, surrounded by loved ones follow over the next three pages, until they fade gradually

into the family life of the Duttas. The album created presumably by Biswanath Duttas

daughter carries captions that are of a personal nature. The label right below the image of

Gobar Gohos body covered in flower quote a few lines from Tagore (found in the metadata).

Gobar Gohos death is marked by a quotation from Tagore, something that may be read as an

attempt at universalizing ones sorrow in a custom of coming to terms with loss. The

quotation itself speaks of the inevitability and the universality of passing away of near and

dear ones. These are borrowed wordsan expansion of the individual.

The captions that follow incidents and images that are closer to the creator of the

album are remarkable personal in nature. At times the captions are so easy to identify with

they strike personal chords with the reader and can be rather moving. Say for an image like


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GG_110, which is the portrait of the compilers father in his Customs Office uniform, the

caption reads, My Dad though very strict is very jolly; or GG_146 the image of an entire

page, where the words My Dad when he was an [sic] young wreslter runs through the

middle in large pink characters; or GG_147, in which we find the caption, My Dad a

GREAT CHAMPION.Later on there are captions that are written with a thick-nibbed pen in

pink ink on the pages of the album itself. They are broad declarations offering description of

the photographs that are there on that same page. Many of them are illegible. Those that can

be read have been inserted into the metadata sheet in the relevant field.

The fourth and final folder, GG_004_negatives, contains digitized images of six

negatives that Sri Biswanath Dutta has given the archive. The contents of this folder too were

scanned using the abovementioned EPSON scanner with its special negative scanning

adapter. This is a unique folder because it is hard to guess at the provenance of these images.

There is one, GG_159.tif which is an oft-reproduced black and white sketch of young Gobar

Goho with arms folded. This is probably hand-drawn and stands out from the rest. The rest of

the images are probably of photographs or image reproductions of some other kind. The

images seem to have been pasted on card or some stiff paper, and stuck on to some surface

using nails (GG_157 and GG_162 are examples). The second one shows an elaborately

dressed person of some noble stature presumably seated in full apparel. There are writings on

the top and bottom of the image. However, the two images that are most remarkable in this

folder, and indeed two of the most remarkable in the entire collection are GG_161 and

GG_162. Using these two images one may enter upon a more general discussion of

photographing the male wrestler/pehlwan that may be supported by the archive that has been

built in the course of the Physical Cultures of Bengal project.


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GG_161 is of a wrestler standing in a green-house of some sort, surrounded by plants.

One is reminded of the description Walter Benjamin offers of a portrait of Franz Kafka as a

young man standing in one of the studios that would place the subject in some absurd

context, which would in turn, make it look almost surrealist in the absence of context for each

of the discrete objects in the frame. To begin discussing

we may take a look at an advertisement that appeared in

one of the books in the archive, Barbell Exercise and

Muscle Control by K. C. Sen Gupta and B. C. Ghosh,

printed in Calcutta and published by the authors from

Gurpur Road. If one takes a look at the images in the

book, the claim that they were shot in Open Air and

Neither in a Studio Nor by Artifical Light seems

unlikely. However, they may well have been shot

outdoors with only a black background, or perhaps even

cut out after shooting and pasted onto dark background. The physical form in its best-toned

state has often been compared with figures of western art. It can be said to have come full

circle because to begin with, especially if one thinks of the Olympic games in ancient Rome,

the sculptors sought to represent in stone and bronze the figures of men engaged in various

kinds of sports. Models (living or dead, especially during the Renaissance) were used by

painters and sculptors as subjects of study. Interestingly, with time and with the arrival of

photography body-builders started posing sometimes as and occasionally with statues. One


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immediately thinks of Jatayu in Satyajit Rays Jai Baba Felunath (The Elephant God)

(1979) engaging in a failed attempt at striking a pose similar to Angelos David. This

comes at a point when Gunomoy Bagchi is giving him a lecture where he is pointing out how

body-building is similar to art. The examples he draws upon (with the exception of David)

are Indian temple sculpture. Two images from the book may serve to illustrate the point. The

first image is titled The Panther on a Lion, shows S. Bose posing with the marble statue of

a lion. The second,

The Living Statue

shows the same

gentleman posing with

a marble statue of a

woman. The style of

both the lion and of the

woman are distinctively

imitative of the neo-classical Western mode of sculpting, reminiscent of articles found either

in British owned mansions in Calcutta or inside buildings like the Marble Palace on

Muktaram Babu Street.

On the other hand, in the same folder in the archive, we have an image of a wrestler

bearing a mace in his hand (GG_162). The moustache is similar to the one the Great Gama

used to sport, and the posture is quite like one of the more common representations of

Hanuman, the Monkey God, in popular visual art. Hanuman, as is commonly known, is the

resident deity in most, if not all, Hindu akharasand Gobar Gohos akhara is no exception in

this regard. Dara Singh, of course, would play the role of Hanuman on celluloid.


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Wrestling has a very long tradition in India. Among the few scholars who have

worked on this is Joseph Alter who has written extensively on the tradition along the banks of

the Ganges, especially in Benares and Uttar Pradesh. Without attempting to rewrite history

favouring Hindu lines of thought, one can easily retrace similar practices in the Mahabharata

and in the Ramayana. It is no surprise therefore that when wrestlers or pehlwans intended to

strike poses for the camera (or painters), they would often go back to Hindu traditions to

Bheema, or to Bajrangbali. Interestingly, India does not seem to have a recorded history of

displays of the male body not in the sense of an organized sport or spectacle. Even if it has

some lost tradition, the one we are witnessing in Sengupta and Ghoshs book is one that has

been probably brought in by Western influence. The reason why, perhaps, a body builder

needed to be flown in all the way from Calcutta in Rays Jai Baba Felunath is that it is a

different kind of show from the ones that can be witnessed on the ghat-s of Benares. This

latter tradition usually alludes to Western forms and postures when photographing or being

represented in the visual arts.


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CONCLUSION

Although the archive is by no means in a complete state, it can provide a very useful

resource to researchers who may wish to work on the history of wrestling and body-building

in Bengal. It is most definitely the most comprehensive archive on Gobar Goho and on Sri

Biswanath Dutta that is available. The Project itself is a valuable step towards reaching an

understanding and writing a history of the physical cultures in Bengal and this archive will

undoubtedly be one of its richest resources.

Biswanath Dutta Archive

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