A Book Of Paintings

The book is a product of several years of the author?s experience of life among the tribes of the north-east. Sujata Miri has painted in many different styles; however, the particular style of paining, which is more or less uniformly evident in the paintings reproduced in this volume, is not the result of a conceptually planned scheme, but comes spontaneously from the depth of her mainly intuitive musings about tribal imagination and creativity. Perhaps it was her dissatisfaction with abstract discursive, stereotypic descriptions of life in tribal India that led her to take to painting in this particular genre and rely on her intuitive understanding of things rather than philosophical and anthropological ratiocination. The point that is being forcefully made is that tribal life can be articulated perhaps with much greater authenticity through the medium of painting than that through words. The paintings are, of course, also meant to be enjoyed just as paintings, and not simply as depicting some form of life or other.

Sujata Miri is a Professof of Philosophy at the North-Eastern Hill University, She is also the Dean of the School of Humanities, Languages and Education of the same University.her published work on tribal world=views and their philosophical underpinning is well known. She has authored half a dozen books on this theme. It is generally agreed in academic circles that her work breaks new ground in this fascinating areas of research. She has also published a novel, entitled, Days and Nights, which has received much critical appreciation. Another of her novels is in the press. The present volume is her first book of paintings. She has held exhibitions of her paintings in several major cities of the country, and given lectures on them.