Jamuna Sen

Jamuna Sen (née Bose) (Bengali: যমুনা সেন) (7 October 1912 – 10 February 2001) was an Indian artist, known for her design work in a variety of mediums including Batik and Alpona as well as developing, in an Indian context, a variety of traditional crafts from across the world. She was a pioneer in establishing the practice of Batik (wax resist dying) in India in modern times. Daughter of Nandalal Bose, a central figure in modern Indian art, she was brought up in the artistic and intellectual milieu of Santiniketan and made significant contributions in the field of design.
Jamuna Sen was born in Haveli Kharagpur in Munger District of Bihar in 1912, the third child of Nandalal Bose and Sudhira Devi. Her father Nandalal Bose was a key figure in developing a modernist art movement in India. Indeed, she grew up in a family of artists: her elder siblings Gouri Bhanja (née Bose) and Biswarup Bose were both artists. The former developed and perfected the Alpona art form of Santiniketan. She also had a younger brother, Gorachand Bose, who was an engineer by profession.
At the invitation of Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose took charge as the principal of the nascent art school Kala Bhavana in 1921. Under his tutelage, and with the guidance of Rabindranath, Kala Bhavana would soon go on to become one of the most important art institutions in the world, and more broadly, Santiniketan would develop an aesthetic style in its everyday activities that became part of a wider cultural norm. This is the environment in which Jamuna grew up.
Jamuna married Keshab Chandra Sen (known as Sebak Sen), brother-in-law of Kshitimohan Sen, in 1936. Keshab Chandra Sen was an electrical engineer by profession. Their son Suprabudhha Sen was born in 1938.
Jamuna Sen was an accomplished dancer from a young age. She wished to learn classical dance formally, but social conventions of the time contravened. However, Tagore spotted her talent and gave her instructions himself on dancing to his music. It is in this field of Rabindra-Nritya, the dance style that evolved under Tagore in Santiniketan, that Jamuna excelled. Diyali Lahiri provides a wonderful account:
In 1929 Tagore invited Jiu Jitsu teacher Shinzo Takagaki from Japan to visit Santiniketan. With a teacher free from social restrictions, Tagore encouraged both men and women to learn the ancient martial art, and Jamuna, along with her compatriots Amita Sen, Nivedita Bose (née Ghosh), was one of the students. Bearing testament to the progressive ideas of Tagore and Santiniketan, they even performed Jiu Jitsu at New Empire in Kolkata.
Jamuna joined Kala Bhavana as a student in 1931. At the time, instruction was not formalised, nor was there any fixed graduation date. After her studies ended in 1936, Jamuna remained associated with Kala Bhavana as a teacher, joining formally as faculty in 1943. Her diploma provides an insight into the scope of her work, certifying attainments in painting including mural painting, decorative and ornamental work, Batik, needle-work, weaving in Manipuri handloom as well as stage and festival decoration. The certificate also recognised her work as a teacher while still a student.
In 1951, Kala Bhavana instituted a two-year certificate course in design. Jamuna Sen was given the responsibility of directing this course with Nanigopal Ghosh. This covered a variety of subjects including Batik, tie-dye, embroidery, leather works, Alpona and weaving. This would later lead to the creation of Karusangha. She remained in her post until her retirement in 1975. In 1951 Jamuna Sen published a book of embroidery designs. This was re-published in an augmented version by Ananda Publishers in 1984. In his introduction to the book, Nandalal Bose writes that the success of the designs is achieved through the artist's unique perception in filtering nature.
Pratima Devi, Rabindranath Tagore's daughter-in-law, had learnt the techniques of Batik in Paris from a French artist and in 1923, brought this knowledge as well as some Batik instruments to Santiniketan. With the help of the French artist Andrée Karpèles, she started a small workshop to explore this technique further. Later Silpa Bhavana (precursor of the current Silpa Sadana) would develop this practice on a larger scale. It is in this venture that Jamuna, along with her sister Gouri, would come to play a key role. Through the instruction of Nandalal and other Kala Bhavana faculty such as Benode Behari Mukherjee, Ramkinkar Baij and Sukumari Devi, Jamuna had developed her own style of design distinct from others around her. Rather than a certain fluid structure of Alpona design developed by her sister Gouri, Jamuna's design style relied on repeating intricate motifs, often juxtaposing several elements to create a complex structure. Photographs of her Alponas and her surviving Batik works bear testament to her artistic vision and supreme skill in executing painstaking tasks. The efforts of Jamuna Sen and Gouri Bhanja in Santiniketan established Batik as an important art form in India in the modern times and from there the practice spread to all corners of India. Indeed, just as initially Indonesian Batik motifs and techniques had influenced the practitioners in Santiniketan, motifs developed in India would later spread outwards.
Jamuna worked on several murals in Santiniketan. According to "The Santiniketan Murals," she was part of the teams that worked on the murals in the following buildings: Santoshalaya (inside the hall), Sree Sadan hostel, Pearson memorial hospital (outer wall), Kala Bhavana Old Nandan (west wing) and Dinantika (ground floor).
Jamuna also worked as part of the team illustrating the Constitution of India under the guidance of Nandalal Bose.
Apart from her artistic career, Jamuna Sen added an important chapter in the institutional history of Santiniketan. Nandalal had started an organisation called Karusangha in 1930, which did not last very long. Around 1960, the modern incarnation of Karusangha started under the leadership of Jamuna Sen. As noted above, this evolved from the certificate course in design at Kala Bhavana. As her daughter-in-law Deepa Sen writes "Even after her regular teaching duties and chores for running a home, Ma felt that the women of Santiniketan among her students would benefit from an organisation to enable them to earn a living through the skills they learnt from her. This was the idea behind the establishment of Karusangha in 1960… To this day, her students are using her designs to create works of Batik, embroidery etc… Women from many poor families have benefited from this."