KARACHI: One of the famous compositions and pieces of poetry ever performed and written in the form of a qawwali is Hazrat Amir Khusrau’s Aaj rung hai. It means the day of radiance or glow — the literal translation of the word rung is colour. It holds great metaphorical significance in the world of art — both in poetry and painting. Khusrau’s words are to do with his pir, or spiritual leader, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia.

The piece begins with the poet addressing his mother or a maternal figure telling her that he’s found his beloved mentor, implying that he’s now soaked in his guide’s dye. Artist Mudassar Manzoor also takes inspiration from a similar spiritual thought in an exhibition of his latest artworks titled Rung Dey — A Visual Transcendental Prayer, which can be seen at the Koel Art Gallery.

The crux of Manzoor’s effort can be gauged from the description that the gallery has provided with the invite to the show:

“The term Rung Dey can be found in almost every major mystic, religious and wisdom tradition throughout the world, spanning all ages. It points to a shift in human experience/realisation on the levels of perceiving, feeling and understanding. One learns to align/submit oneself to a higher dimension of life and experiences the entire world as a whole — a single, rhythmic, effortless flow of totality.”

After this intro, he quotes Rumi where the great poet talks about love that flies towards a secret sky…Now this is a tender idea. Manzoor treats it with equal artistic tenderness and the result is beautiful in the sense that it softens the viewer’s soul. The artist chiefly uses flowers to propound the above-given idea. Flowers, as we know, symbolise love with the kind of sensitivity that rejects all forms of cruelty only to be one with the lover or beloved — a transcendental concept. For example, with exhibits such as ‘The Self’ — I & II’ (gouache and pigment on wasli paper) he, through exquisite use of ‘colours’, presents the singularity of the self as something that needs to be enveloped in a bigger, lovelier view — an act of submission — hence the singular aspect gives way to oneness with a much larger creature. Engaging stuff!

The exhibition concludes on Jan 12.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2022