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Marg Magazine A magazine of the arts

In 1946, novelist and activist Mulk Raj Anand, along with a group of 14 artists, art historians and architects, founded MARG (Modern Architectural Research Group) in an India on the threshold of Independence. Over the last 75 years, our magazine and books have been a forum for pioneering research in Indian art and are acclaimed for their standards of production and editorial content.

10/01/2025

The Chandayan, edited by Richard J. Cohen, Naman P. Ahuja, Vivek Gupta, Qamar Adamjee is now available for digital access! Head on to the link in our bio to purchase a soft copy now.

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09/01/2025

📢 Looking for Volunteers 📢

Marg will be at the Kolkata Book Fair from 28th January to 9th February this year. We’re stoked to be back in the city and meet all of you lovely Kolkata folks!

Like always, to make our presence at the fair memorable, we’re looking for volunteers to help us ensure smooth sailing. Write to us at [email protected] if you’re interested in volunteering with us. We look forward to hearing from you.

11/12/2024

Within the landscape of cultural tattoo documentation and its conservation, Mo Naga pioneers the efforts in India when it comes to indigenous tattooing practices, particularly those of the Naga community. A tattoo artist himself, Mo runs the Headhunters Ink tattoo studio. In the latest Marg volume, he tells us about the tattooing practices of the Naga and the relevance of a community’s history, kinship structures and cosmology when it comes to understanding them.

The Naga use a specific tapping technique which, Mo says, brings a distinctness to their designs. He is weary of hasty and misguided conclusions on the practice of tattooing as a method of uglification, making a case instead for beauty and attractiveness as culturally determined concepts. Mo believes that the adoption of Christianity by many in his community have led them away from traditional tattooing. He holds this contradiction in the many identities he inhabits with pride: “As a Christian, as a Naga and as an artist, it is my job to look into the artistic material, to understand how these stories have shaped us, how they have helped our ancestors and how they can help us become stronger as a community.”

For him, the tattooing practices are linked to the community’s cosmology, history and kinship structures. “My study is the study of migration, of art, of the environment, the people and their philosophy. You can not just study tattooing to understand tattooing—it is simply not possible,” he says.

Read about traditional tattooing practices within the subcontinent in the latest Marg volume “Indian Tattoos: Only Skin Deep?”. Visit our website or click the link in our bio to place your order.

Photographs courtesy Mo Naga

05/12/2024

Shatabdi Chakrabarti, a film maker and photographer, talks to Marg about traditional tattooing as collective memory. With her work she seeks to generate a visual library of this otherwise understudied practice. “There aren’t any books that hold these traditional tattoo designs in their original form. They are mostly drawn from memory and like any oral tradition, there may have been additions and deletions in these patterns and these stories as well,” Chakrabarti says.
In her ethnographic practice, Shatabdi’s own tattoos have helped her connect with the communities whose traditions she seeks to archive. “Even if I am the ‘outsider’or the ‘modern woman’ in that space, the tattoos make us a part of a collective somehow.”
“Indian Tattoos: Only Skin Deep?”, edited by Naman P. Ahuja, explores traditional tattooing practices in the subcontinent and the contexts and meanings that characterize them.
Get your copy now. Link in bio!

Images courtsey

27/11/2024

Marg is gearing up for 2025 as it approaches. What better way to prepare for a fresh start than with the new Marg Planner, “Take a Seat”. This year, we mull over the act of sitting and the many meanings associated with it - leisure, productivity, and reflection. The planner explores “sitting” in its diverse connotations through 12 artworks.
Marg’s 2025 planner is now available for pre-order on our website.
Go get your hands on them - from the comfort of your seat! Link in bio.

#2025

25/11/2024

Shomil Shah is a tattoo artist with ancestral ties to the traditional tattooing practices of Gujarat. Particularly visible on older women in the community, Shah tells Marg about his efforts to document the art form. Initially limited to an instagram page, his work has since grown into India Ink Archive, a crowdsourced project that he intends to develop into an extensive database.

“On the ethics of making and getting tattoos specific to particular ethnic groups, Shah says “I have set certain boundaries for myself. So, for example, I would not do a Baiga tattoo on anyone. For the reason that it is very specific to that community, whereas, a lot of the other tattoos from Kutch, you see across several communities, across several state borders. Most of what I tattoo is things that I have observed being tattooed not just on one very particular community.” Through his practice, Shomil has helped people reconnect with their heritage by tattooing them with symbols that are culturally significant to the communities they hail from.”

The latest Marg volume takes a look at the tattooing traditions within the subcontinent, exploring the multitude of meanings associated with the practice. Visit our website to place your order for this volume, and enjoy the stories written in fresh ink, exploring old ones on skin.

Images courtsey .ink.archive

14/11/2024

The wait for the new Marg volume ends now! Indian Tattoos: Only Skin Deep is finally available. Go get your hands on the print edition, exclusively at the Mumbai Art Fair, or head to our website to purchase a digital copy. Dive in and enjoy!

The global trend of contemporary tattoos has gained popularity over the last two decades, slowly gaining precedence over south asia’s rich history of tattooing and the diverse meanings that colored it. The new Marg volume is an attempt to document the remnants of Indian tattooing traditions and its history through the contexts and meanings that guide it.
The volume explores tattoos as a display of varied meanings - of belonging, punishment or ostracism, ritualistic or ornamental meanings. The motives and meanings behind tattooing are explored through the instances of various communities - Pashtuns, Bhils, Nagas, Baigas among others. The volume rounds off these explorations with an inquiry into the decline of these practices, and a documentation of ongoing revivalist and archivist practices.

Read more about Indian Tattoos in the new Marg, Volume 76-1. Find the digital edition on our website or purchase the print edition at the Mumbai Art Fair. The print edition will be available for sale next week.

03/10/2024

Dr. Frei Otto, an architect-engineer, created the Umbrella Tent (shown here) for the Golden Eye Exhibition (1984-1985) at the Smithsonian University in New York. In the initial plan, a small umbrella tent was designed along with a separate large-span tent. At the time, the fire authorities did not approve of the structure, Otto then decided that the umbrella tent would be created to full-scale. The structure was produced in Rabindra Vasavada’s studio in Ahmedabad and shipped to New York for the exhibition. Otto conceptualised this structure as an umbrella that could be opened with a central mast supporting it. To be made using light timber members, the umbrella, once opened, would have the ends of the ribs supported on the floor so that the lower half of the central mast could be removed to make the floor space accessible. The tent could be folded up by bringing in the mast and using ropes. The unfolding and folding of the tent was controlled by strings and pulleys, fixed on the upper side of the mast.

Dr. Otto’s contribution to the development of lightweight structures, Rabindra Vasavada writes, was pathbreaking. Find out more in Rabindra Vasavada’s article “The Making of Frei Otto’s Umbrella Tent” in Marg’s latest issue, Tents: Cities on the Move, edited by Rahul Mehrotra.

IMAGES

1. The tent as it appeared from outside, upright on its mast and stand, which were later removed; the tent stood on the toes of the ribs. The fabric was richly painted with traditional motifs by artist Piraji Sagar.
2. View of the interior structure supported by the mast.
3. Interior view showing the stretchers and the ribs tied to the canvas fabric.

27/09/2024

Join us tomorrow for an exciting discussion on From the Depth of the Mould: Meera Mukherjee (1923-1998), A Centenary Tribute. Tapati Guha-Thakurta and Adip Dutta will be in conversation with Abhay Sardesai at 6 PM, at Pundole’s in Mumbai. Register via the link in bio!

One of Meera Mukherjee’s seminal works was her last one - the figure of the giant Buddha. Initially conceived as a commissioned art piece, the project transformed into something more monumental than it was meant to be. Meera envisioned this sculpture as an icon as vibrant as it was divine. Her technique of enlargement of form and multi-part modelling and casting created a 14-feet seated Buddha in his bhumi-sparsha posture, with an extended arm touching Mother Earth and conch-like ears seemingly absorbing the sounds of the universe as his eyes gazed into infinity.

Compressed into a few months with the aid of fifteen additional workers, the creation of the sculpture was carried out at Elachi with unprecedented fervour. While the work gained momentum, the casting process remained emotionally charged – as always. With anxiety and fear as permanent fixtures in the process, for Meera, it would culminate in either elation or heartbreak. She wrote about the tenuous process and how she would internally writhe with the same pain as the crucible tossed in the fire, her mind and body becoming one with the furnace. Meera would experience the emotional upheaval that came with casting one last time as the head of the Buddha emerged from the furnace. A few nights later, on January 27th, 1988, she succumbed to a heart attack. With around fourteen parts left to be cast and welded; the completed work still grappled with the future, and the fruition of the project momentarily stood on shaky ground.

The conclusion of the work warrants a deeper dive, and perhaps a post dedicated to it. For now, we end with the completed Buddha sculpture in all its glory, sitting atop a hill at the Badamtam tea estate. The Buddha, we might say, has undergone a radical makeover of his own–moving away from the art world to a distant hill-top, going from a contemporary art work to a devotional icon amidst the tea plantation workers.

19/09/2024

One of the most prolific sculptors of late 20th century India, Meera Mukherjee chose a mode of metal sculpting and a lifestyle that set her apart from most other artists of her time. The momentous turn in her career came with her decision to undertake a country-wide study of traditional metal crafting communities and techniques. This propelled the radical shift in her choice of sculpting methods and more broadly in her notion of art as labour and collective practice. Her artisanal self-image went hand in hand with her choice of a labour-intensive technique of sculpture-making in the reinvented indigenous lost-wax method of metal casting that she developed over time into her signature art form.

The book, From the Depth of the Mould: Meera Mukherjee(1923-1998), A Centenary Tribute is an in-depth exploration of the artist's life and work, her anthropological investigation into the indigenous metal-casting traditions of the country, her radical reshaping of her artistic self and practice, and her building of a community art practice. Like her moulds, the artist’s persona and productions emerge in these pages through layers of different kinds of writing and visual imagery. This is both an art and archival book, presenting hitherto unpublished photographs and personal papers as well as a rich spread of articles, diaries, memoirs and images.

Join us to hear the book's editors, Tapati Guha-Thakurta and Adip Dutta, in conversation with Abhay Sardesai on the 28th of September, at Pundole’s in Mumbai. Find the link to register in our bio!

19/09/2024

16/09/2024

We have exciting news for you, dear readers!
The Grand Annual Marg Sale is starting soon, with offers you can’t - and shouldn’t - resist! From up to 25% off on magazines to up to 40% on books, there is much for you to explore. Starting this Friday, the 20th of September, the sale will remain live until midnight on September 25th, Wednesday. Plenty of time for you to fill up your carts and add items to your reading lists!

The sale is only valid on our print publications.

16/08/2024

We’re excited to invite you to a conversation on Marg’s volume ‘The Risha’, this time in Delhi! A conversation between Aratrik Dev Varman, Jisha Unnikrishnan and Dr. Joy L K Pachuau brings this work and its makers to your city, where the textile and its histories will be discussed at length.
If you’re in Delhi on the 21st of August, come be a part of ‘The Risha’ at Bikaner House. Make sure to register through the link in our bio.

12/08/2024

The Palden lhamo or Shri Devi is a wrathful goddess and a wisdom protector in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In this Bhutanese thangka from the Rubins Art Museum, she rides an ass with a white nose, occupying the centre of the painting.

The figure at the top-centre is identified as Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the Tibetan monk who is celebrated as the unifier of Bhutan.

He is flanked on either side by the Indian mahasiddhas, Tilopa and Naropa.

Below the Zhabdrung is another wrathful deity Sahaja Chakrasamvara and his consort Vajravahi.

Finally, the bottom of the painting shows two figures engaged in a country chase, one rides a bull and the other a horse. They are understood to be local protectors associated with the Punakha area in Bhutan, Damchen Gomo and Tsenchen Jagpa Melen.

Depictions of Palden Lhamo are not uncommon in the Himalayan region, however, this particular thangka seems to enjoy a specifically Bhutanese context. In trying to understand the nature of Bhutanese art, Christian Luczantis and Dorji Namgyel explore a collection of thangkas from the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Read more in Marg's magazine Vol. 66, No. 4.

IMAGE:
Glorious Goddess PaldenLhamo. Bhutan, late 18th century. Pigments on cloth(silk?); 68.58 x 58.42 cm.Rubin Museum of Art,F1998.1.2 (HAR 602).

07/08/2024

Following Ahmedabad, Marg’s seminar ‘Creating a New Curriculum of the Arts’ is coming to Delhi!
The five readers (Readings on the Temple, Textiles, Dance, Modernism and Painting), beyond being an introspective exercise on The Marg Foundation’s contributions and historical trajectory, have also created an opportunity to reassess the shifts in the field and the kinds of questions and research it has produced.
These volumes are situated in a time when there is a need to think about how these subjects will be written into social sciences, beyond art history into wider histories, sociology, political studies, economic history and culture-studies. They raise questions linked to larger conversations on preserving culture and its revivalism, which are meaningful for the larger curriculum for culture industries.
IIC and Marg invite you to a seminar that rethinks arts education in India. Please RSVP via the form in the link in bio, or send us an email on [email protected].

06/08/2024

The wait for Marg’s newest volume ‘Tents: Cities on the move’ is over!
Guest edited by Rahul Mehrotra, this volume presents India’s rich history of tents, situating it within a global context. The historically relevant tradition of tented dwelling is explored and read with regard to its application to urbanism and contemporary contexts.The characteristics of tents—their lightness, agility, adjustability, reversibility and ephemerality—can inspire designers, academics, planners and policy makers in crafting an urban future which is more adaptable to negotiate the immense flux we face on the planet.

Within this volume, fascinating documentation of the Kumbh Mela, the largest human habitational space erected every 12 years, is provided alongside grand qanats and shamianas of the Mughals, Deccani sultans and Rajputs. The close examination of this mobile architecture makes the multiplicity of its meanings apparent and asks how tents may inspire urban design in its answer to questions of urban dwelling.

Head to the link in our bio to get your hands on this issue fresh off the press.

02/08/2024

India's transition from a colony to an independent state required quite the shift in perspective. As a new sovereign democratic republic entering the arena of modern geopolitics, it was important for India to be heard. To find its spot at the global table, India had to speak with the rest of the world in a language they could all understand. The State recognised the potential of India's cultural traditions and leveraged its rich heritage to establish international diplomatic relations. This was done by sponsoring and funding a wide variety of cultural organizations and events. One such endeavour that attracted generous funding from the government was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's brainchild, the Festivals of India programme started in the 1980s. These programmes were large productions, sometimes lasting for over a year. Performing artists from India were sent to partnering countries to showcase their cultural traditions and vice versa. Gandhi had cultural specialists like Rajiv Sethi, Pupul Jayakar and Lalit Mansingh, among others, research and execute cultural events like the Festivals of India. The programme is still alive albeit with a fraction of the interest, funding and importance compared to the 1980s.

Learn more about the role of state sponsors in bringing Indian performance practices to a global stage in Marg’s Readings on Dance: From 75 Years of Marg.

IMAGES
1. Folk Dancers from Madhya Pradesh performing near Eiffel Tower at the Festival of India in France. Courtesy: Purnima Shah

2. Peter Brook's Mahabharata featuring Mallika Sarabhai as Draupadi, being staged in the quarry near Avignon during the festival of India in France. Courtesy: Purnima Shah

3. Aroha Ascent, choreographed by Kumudini Lakhia with Uzbek and Indian Kathak dancers, being staged at the Festival of India in Tashkent. Courtesy: Purnima Shah

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Readings on a Temple From 75 Years of Marg

Marg's new issue, curated by Naman P. Ahuja, uses the decades of scholarship in the field to explore questions related to the different cultural histories associated with temples. It examines the nature of the activities and communities they fostered and how, in turn, temples also became the focus of urban centres as well as major centres of the arts. The issue is available as both print and digital versions at bit.ly/ReadingsTemple #MargMagazine #MargArchives #ReadingsOnTheTemple

Asian Affinities in India’s Culinary Heritage

With the recent launch of Marg's 75th anniversary issue (September–December 2021) titled "Asian Connections: Art, Food, Clothing, Shelter", this conversation will focus on a sub-theme: the adaptability and evolution of food in medieval, modern and contemporary India. The discussion will question claims to purity by referring to the indisputable presence of Asian flavours in India’s vast culinary heritage within the larger context of the unifying power of food and Marg magazine's own periodic coverage of the culinary arts. Pushpesh Pant Food critic, historian, author and academic Pritha Sen Culinary historian and development consultant Rakesh Raghunathan Food historian and raconteur Moderated by Prema Viswanathan Journalist and author

Inside Marg's Platinum Jubilee Issue

A sneak peek of our issue "Asian Connections". Digital edition available at https://bit.ly/Marg73-1 Print edition to be released soon #MargMagazine #AsianConnections

How Did the Buddha Shape the Modern Era?

A conversation on understanding Buddha as a “modern” figure, the role Buddhism has played in nurturing Oriental Modernism, and whether the truth of Buddha’s life and mission can serve a larger social purpose. The discussion will refer to landmark encounters and impactful exchanges around the figure of the Buddha through more than a century, as documented in Jairam Ramesh's recently-launched book The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined the Buddha, as well as ideas published by Marg. Jairam Ramesh Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and author of several well-known books Rizio B. Yohannan Writer, and Publisher at The Marg Foundation

Designing A Brave New Era

How must we design our post-pandemic living? A conversation on the four basic needs of design in our times: A disruptive conception of education; an enabling way to universal dignity by making inclusiveness matter; an elevating ecosystem that allows innovations to thrive; and an institutional governance that nurtures these. Charlotte Emma Leech Educator and co-founder of the Loka school Sanandan Sudhir Inventor and entrepreneur Shilpa Das Principal Faculty, Interdisciplinary Design Studies, at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad V.R. Ferose Founder of the India Inclusion Foundation and Head of SAP Academy for Engineering

A sneak peek of our latest issue "Designing a Brave New Era" which explores how design's disruptiveness can be enabling, and at its ethical best, a rare aesthetic of joy. Digital version available at bit.ly/margjune21 Print edition to be released soon. #DesigningaBraveNewEra #DesignForLiving #Design #MargMagazine #MargJune2021

In a world struck by the pandemic, design is redefining itself in myriad ways. Can design's disruptiveness be enabling? And at its best, a source of joy? Presenting our latest issue "Designing a Brave New Era". Watch this space for more! #DesignForLiving #DesigningaBraveNewEra #Design #Designing #MargMagazine #MargJune2021

Marg Magazine March 2021

Marg's March issue lies at the intersection of performance and remembrance. We juxtapose newer modes of performance with the community-based contemporary museum thinking to explore how modern, traditional forms of dance, theatre & music are evolving in a pandemic-stricken world. Find the issue at https://bit.ly/MargMar21

Designer of our reimagined magazine, Sarita Sundar: “A dip into the Marg archives is still relevant to students and practitioners of print cultures today”. Find our 75-year archives online at www.marg-art.org Read, Subscribe, Gift! #MargMagazine #MargArchives #TheMargFoundation #Margat75

Designer, crafts activist and contributor Laila Tyabji on the eclectic and unique nature of Marg magazine and how it has long been a part of her life. Find our 75-year archives online at www.marg-art.org Read, Subscribe, Gift! #MargMagazine #Margat75 Dastkar

To Read, To View, To Hear: New Awakenings in Indian Poetry

An evening of recitation and discussion on poetry as an enabler for cultural wellbeing. K. Satchidanandan Poet, critic, translator, editor, writing in Malayalam and English Salma Tamil poet, writer and activist Vijayarajamallika First transgender poet in Malayalam, activist Hemant Divate Marathi poet, publisher, editor and translator Hemang Desai Bilingual poet and translator, writing in Gujarati and English Sachin C. Ketkar Gujarat-based bilingual writer, translator, poet and academic

Photo historian and curator Rahaab Allana, whose issue on early Indian photography sold out within months, talks about how Marg influenced him. Every issue of Marg, published since 1946, has been digitized and is available at www.marg-art.org Read, Subscribe, Gift! #MargMagazine #MargArchives #TheMargFoundation #Margat75

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Marg is a Mumbai-based not-for-profit publisher whose mission is to encourage an understanding of Indian art in the broadest sense of the term. It strives to light up “many dark corners” in India’s cultural landscape and to spark debate on all aspects of heritage among academics, critics and interested general readers.

Since its inception in 1946, our quarterly magazine has reflected new trends, new research and new scholarship, from both upcoming and established art historians and scholars. The magazine is aimed at a wide audience and seeks to forge a connection between art and life.

Marg’s quarterly books, published simultaneously with the magazine from 1977 to 2009, have since diverged into independent publications, each a landmark contribution.

Among other avenues we pursue, Marg has been publishing special books outside the quarterly series in a variety of formats.

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Videos

Readings on a Temple From 75 Years of Marg

Asian Affinities in India’s Culinary Heritage

Inside Marg's Platinum Jubilee Issue

How Did the Buddha Shape the Modern Era?

Designing A Brave New Era

Marg Magazine March 2021

To Read, To View, To Hear: New Awakenings in Indian Poetry

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