For the unjaundiced eye, the joining of male rat snakes (non-venomous) in a combat ‘dance’ amid lush monsoon grasses constitutes an epitome of natural splendour.
Though frequently mistaken for mating behaviour, it is actually entwined males vigorously resorting to one-upmanship to establish suzerainty over territory, prey and females. This iconic behaviour is often witnessed in mating season and can last as long as an Olympic wrestling bout. A case from Gandaki province in Nepal on May 30, 2023, involved three males battling for 150 minutes in proximate human view.
Rat snakes in combat do not often bite or wound each other. A submission of the other by what appears a ‘snaky arm wrestle’ involving their upper bodies is considered sufficient to herald dominance. Various aggressive behaviours such as pushing, topping, head butting, head raising, constriction and twisting have been observed. On the other hand, mating behaviours and rituals involve significantly different actions in seclusion.
Though rat snakes are otherwise shy and swift in retreating from human presence, during combat they shed their apprehensions, becoming so engrossed in putting the other down. The victorious male holds his head high and aloof like a triumphant army’s unfurled flag as the vanquished slithers away.
In certain sub-continental cultures, male combat is mistaken for mating/symbol of fertility, in other cultures as a bad omen. It underscores how irreconcilable and ignorant are human perceptions of natural phenomena.
Shaking a fist against fate
{{/usCountry}}Shaking a fist against fate
{{/usCountry}}Human ingenuity invariably finds a way to subvert cruel disabilities. The German music composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, overcame the terrifying silence of deafness through super-heroic struggles. Beethoven left behind not only an immortal oeuvre of art but one of the great stories of humanity.
At the ongoing exhibition, ‘Celebrating Together: Women Artists of Punjab & Chandigarh’ (Punjab Kala Bhawan), Raktima’s watercolour arrested the gaze. Titled, Bloom beyond sight, the artwork is touched with a delicacy of colour and depicts a lady inhaling the scent of a rose. It could have been just another artwork of genteel persuasion but for a cloth across the lady’s eyes.
Raktima, a student of the Government College of Art, was born with severely impaired speech and hearing. ‘Bloom beyond sight’ is inspired by her friend, Sukhpreet ‘Annie’, who suffers from the same disabilities as well as blindness. “Annie utilises a heightened sense of touch and smell to know people and objects around her. When Raktima is near, Annie knows with certainty that it is her. Raktima’s painting uses the symbolism of a scent to convey Annie’s ability to know...it is a rose,” Raktima’s mother, Rupa Singh, told this writer.
Shakespeare deplored ‘hope’ as a ‘flatterer, a parasite, a keeper-back of death’. But it shines irrepressibly through an intriguing woodcut print titled, ‘Towards the light’, by Manisha Chauhan. An art teacher at Bhavan Vidyalaya, New Chandigarh, Chauhan invokes the symbolism of sunflowers drawn to the sun, as humans blinded by darkness are to a lantern’s distant glimmer.
“The lantern is a recurring, central visual and symbolic presence in my compositions. The lantern represents hope, positivity, optimism and guidance — a source of light that shines even in moments of darkness or uncertainty. I explore the idea of how humans, much like nature, instinctively seek light and direction. Just as sunflowers turn towards the sun, the human figures in ‘Towards the light’ are looking towards the lantern. I wanted to create a visual parallel between the natural inclination of a sunflower and the human instinct to seek hope,” Chauhan told this writer.
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