wave often recall the theories and methods of eariier masters, foremost being Sergei Eisenstein. 6. Sumit Sarkar, Modem India: 1885-1947, Macmillan India, Madras, 1985, p. 83. 7. Ibid., p.m. 8. KA. Abbas in The Bombay Chronicle, 25 May 1940, quoted by Bapu Watwe, V. Damie & S. Fatte-lal: A Monograph, NFAI, Pune, 1985, p. 35. 9. Ibid., pp. 35-40. 10. Keamey, op. cit., p. 24. 11. For an original and detailed analysis of Phalke's contribution to Indian cinema see Ashish Rajadhyaksha, The Phaike Era', Journal ofArts Videos, July-December 1987. 12. This varies of course between different pictorial traditions such as Indian, western, Chinese, etc., but also between phases of the same tradition as for example the difference between Rubleyov's Christ; Giotto's St. Francis; Leomado's StAnne and the Virgin; Rembrandt's self-portraits, and so on. 13. Andre Bazin, 'LeJournal dun cure'de campagn and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson' in What is Cinema ?, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1974, pp. 125-143. 14. Ibid., p. 133. 15. TakingC.W. Pierces' division of the linguistic sign into its three aspects — the iconic.the index-ical and the symbolic -- film theoreticians have shown how especially appropriate this definitional procedure is to cinematic language and effect. See Peter ^o\\en. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, Seeker & Warburg, BFI, London, 1982. 16. See A.K. Coomaraswamy, Akimcanna: Self-naughting', in Roger Lipsey (ed.). Select Papers, Vol. II, Bollingen Series, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1978, pp. 88-106. 17. To recall again what Bazin says, the 'caste in Dreyer's Joan of Arc and Bresson's The Diary of a Country Priest is not being asked to 'act out a text, not even to live it out Just to speak it....' (italics mine), Bazin, op. cit., p. 133. 18. See Anuradha Kapur, Actors, Pilgrims, Kings and Gods : The Ramlila at Ramnagar' in Sudhir Chandra (ed.), Social Transformation and Creative Imagination, (Ed.) Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, 1984, pp. 335-354. 19. *We possess the wealth of words/With weapons of words we will fight/Words are the breath of our life/We will distribute this wealth of words among the people/Tuka says, look! the meaning of Word is God/With Word, we will extol and worship.' Translation.ofTukaram's verse quoted in Jayant Leie (ed.). Tradition and Modernity in Bhakti Movements, EJ. Brill, Leiden, 1981, p. 119 and f.n. p. 123. 20. Translation ofTukaram's verse quoted in G.B. Sardar, The Saint-Poets of Maharashtra: Their Impact on Society, Orient Longman, Bombay, 1969, p. 128. 21. For a fine discussion on Tukaram see G.B. Sardar, op. cit. 22. (i) See Sumit Sarkar, op. cit., pp. 328-330. (ii) Regarding the deification ofGandhi, from the point of view of historical deconstruction, see Shahid Amin, 'Gandhi as Mahatma : Gorakhpur Dis-tt.. Eastern U.P., 1921-2,' in Subaltern Studies III: Writings on South Asian History and Society, OUP, Delhi, 1984, pp. 1-55. (iii) I am grateful to Gyanendra Pandey for a discussion on Gandhi in the context of the present paper. 23. Kumar Shahani, The Saint Poets of Prabhat', in TM Ramachandran (ed.), 70 Years of Indian Cinema (1913-1983), CINEMA India-International, Bombay, 1985, p. 201. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid., p. 202. 26. The film Devi was made by Satyajit Ray in 1960; it was his sixth film and though he was already well established as an international figure this film did not have any great success in Bengal and bad some difficulty in obtaining an export permission owing to its critical handling of Journal of Arts & Ideas 107