Benode Behari Mukherjee (1904-1980), in his fictionalized memoir, Chitrakar, published in February 1979, described how he became blind as a consequence of a botched-up surgery in Delhi in 1957. “Since then it’s been almost 20 years that I haven’t seen light. I also haven’t made those paintings I did by dabbing various colours on white paper. Today I am an emissary of darkness in a world of light...”
Benode Behari was one of those great artist-pedagogues based in Santiniketan who played a seminal role in giving shape to modernity in Indian art. Back in Santiniketan after several years of sojourning and teaching elsewhere, when he had completely lost his vision, Benode Behari woke up to the possibilities of using his fingers to fashion toys with malleable substances like wax when his servant, Shyam, brought to his master’s notice the playthings he made with his own hands. “Gradually, the wax began to bear the impress of my wishes,” Benode Behari wrote in his account.
