Karma And Fate: Collective Stories From Mahabharata

This studio was focused upon the idea of how everything present today carries with it a long history of collective stories. I had always been interested in Greek and Indian mythology, so after some guidance from our mentor Dr. Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay, I settled upon the theme of Indian epics as they are a prime example of a collection of stories.

After thorough research upon an epic’s characteristics and narrative structures, I analysed the stories from Mahabharata, noticing an intriguing pattern of loop, wherein every action or decision taken by a character, bore them a consequence in the future. Ten such stories with a circular narrative structure were selected and visually represented in the structure of the ouroboros. I hoped to provide the viewers with an interesting perspective on the stories they had grown up seeing and hearing.

As this was a larger undertaking, I was very uncertain about making hand drawn illustrations due to my inexperience in the field and the fear of failure. However, my previous experience with the Madhubani art form motivated me to go for it, and I soon became comfortable with the art style, immensely enjoying the process. This project also involved deeper secondary research upon various versions of the myths, readings on other epics and their characteristics and frame story structures.

The project was fueled by my interest in mythologies and visual storytelling, and the result only furthered my interest in this field, making me pursue it for my final project.