National Emblem row: Original designer visited the zoo for months to observe lions, says his family
The family members claimed that a replica of the original Ashoka Pillar artwork designed by Bhargava is still in their possession as they completed it many years later, around 1985.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the unveiling ceremony of a bronze national emblem at the new Parliament House in New Delhi, Monday, July 11, 2022.
Family members of Deenanath Bhargava, co-star of the team that designed India’s original national emblem, said on Wednesday that to accomplish the task, he would visit a zoo in Kolkata for three months to get a closer look at lions.
The family members remembered it amid a row over the national emblem installed above the new Parliament building, which has been objected to by opposition parties, with the “beautiful and regularly reassuring” Ashokan lions at the center depicting people with dangerous and aggressive postures. accused of converting.
Bhargava was part of the group that designed the national emblem that adorns the manuscript of the Indian Constitution. It was designed based on the ‘Lion Capital of Ashoka’, an ancient sculpture dating back to 250 BC in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.
Bhargava’s wife Prabha (85) said, “India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru entrusted the work of designing the original manuscript of the Constitution to Nandlal Bose, principal of Rabindranath Tagore’s Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan and noted painter.”
But Bose had entrusted the task of painting the Ashoka Pillar to her husband, who was young at the time and was studying art at Santiniketan, she said.
“Following his mentor’s instructions, my husband went to the Kolkata zoo for three consecutive months to watch the lions’ expressions closely and see how they sit and stand,” she said.
The family members claimed that a replica of the original Ashoka Pillar artwork designed by Bhargava is still in their possession as they completed it many years later, around 1985.
The artwork designed by Bhargava using gold leaf shows three lions with their mouths open slightly and their teeth are also visible. At the bottom, “Satyamev Jayate” is also written in golden colour.
Meanwhile, Bhargava’s daughter-in-law declined to comment on the controversy over the difference in the design of the new Parliament building and the original emblem designed by her father-in-law.
“I don’t want to get into this controversy, but it’s only natural that there’s bound to be a slight difference between a picture and an idol,” she said.
She demanded that any art gallery, place, or museum in Madhya Pradesh be named after Bhargava, to preserve the memory of the artwork he designed for the Constitution.
“Despite assurances of several leaders to the family on this issue, this demand has not been fulfilled to date,” She said.
Family members told that Bhargava was a resident of Betul town in the state and he breathed his last on 24 December 2016 at the age of 89 in Indore
