Born on 29th January 1942 in Palita village of East Bardhaman, Ananta Malakar was legendary as a master Sholapith artist. Sadly, he passed away on March 21, 2022.
Ananta, who was passionate about drawing and crafting clay models from an early age, came from a family of traditional shola artisans. During his childhood and youth, the shola cottage industry, intrinsically linked with Bengali culture, was seasonal. Shola crafts were in demand primarily at marriages and pujas and other social events. With no assured income through the year, the family’s livelihood was severely impacted.
Going to school for the young Ananta was thus a challenge as he could barely afford the fees. However, being a bright student, he managed to get by: winning essay competitions and thus a stipend, assistance from senior students and so on. His widowed sister enrolled him into high school and he would walk for miles after crossing the river Ajoy to reach his school. But all his efforts came to nought when the river Ajoy flooded Ananta’s home in 1956. His home, his books, everything that the family possessed were engulfed by the raging river. The family was relocated to a relief camp. For Ananta, who had just completed class IX, this marked the end of his studies.
His father, Aswini Malakar, now encouraged him to join the family business, but Ananta who had recently discovered Tagore, preferred to spend his time reading vociferously, much to his father’s annoyance. It was his empathetic sister who once again came to his rescue – as a result, Aswini agreed to get his son admitted to Kala Bhavana, the fine arts faculty of Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan. Aswini had had the opportunity of meeting Rabindranath Tagore and used to deliver shola flowers to Santiniketan at Tagore’s behest. On one of these visits, he had met Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij. With Ananta by his side, he now revisited the masters and showed them some of the clay models that Ananta had made. Nandalal Bose felt that Ananta would need to complete class X first before progressing to Kala Bhavana. But realizing this would be difficult to undertake for the impoverished youth standing before them, Ramkinkar agreed to give him private lessons to advance and his inborn modelling skills. This was a milestone in Ananta’s young life. For the next three years, he would walk 18 miles from his village in Palita to the legendary sculptor’s home in Purba Palli , Santiniketan – spending 4-6 days at a time. After observing Kinkarda (as he called him) work with terracotta and plaster of paris, Ananta would go home and try and recreate on shola. This was greatly appreciated by the master.
The incredible environment in his master’s home, surrounded by renowned artists, transformed Ananta into the complete artist. Other than the traditional shola, he also began to sculpt in terracotta, cement and fiberglass.
Attaining fame gradually, he received invitations from private individuals to showcase his work abroad before the government took notice and began sending him all across the world.
His public recognition began with a 5 foot Saraswati statue (with a chali of 8 feet) he had sculpted in shola for the Saptarshi club at Bhowanipur, in 1966. Nobody had ever attempted this before and when he accepted the challenge from a friend, his father was most agitated. Unperturbed, Ananta poured his training and skills into the sculpture and what emerged was a masterpiece. Ananta was all of 24 then.
Word of his fabulous creation spread like wildfire and people thronged to see the Saraswati in shola. The news reached the office of the Development Commissioner, Handicrafts and the director of the Regional Design Development Center, Prabhas Sen acquired the sculpture for the Handicrafts Board in New Delhi. Inspired by Prabhas Sen, he sculpted an idol of Lakshmi in the Bengal School style, for which he received his first award in 1968. The following year, he attempted a 2.5 feet image of Durga. This not only won him great renown but also the National Award in 1970. The icing on the cake was an invitation to a reception with dinner hosted by prime minister Indira Gandhi.
There was no looking back for Ananta since. High awards for his shola sculptures and invitations to showcase abroad rained on him for the next 40 years. This included workshops, exhibitions and demonstrations. He also received an award for his terracotta sculptures. In 2004, he was recognized as a Shilp Guru. The Shilp Guru Award was instituted in the year 2002 on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee year of the resurgence of handicrafts in India. It is given to 10 master craftspersons for their body of work to promote and disseminate crafts, and his/her skill level.
Ananta Malakar’s work is preserved at prestigious museums in cities across the world and in India as well as in personal collections worldwide. In India, archives displaying his work include the National Museum, New Delhi, National Crafts Museum, New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum, Mumbai, the Indian Museum, Kolkata, Nehru Children Museum, Kolkata, Ashutosh Museum of Kolkata University, and the Birla academy, Kolkata.