Monk reading Vedic texts, Mayapur, West Bengal

Reading as a concentrated gesture

A seated man reads, with books in front of him and pictures behind. Light from the side picks out hands, paper and orange fabric. The photograph can be viewed as an interior with a reading figure, presenting knowledge through the physical meeting of body and book.

Mayapur lies in West Bengal’s Nadia district, a region with religious and scholarly traditions. Both meet in the subject of reading. The book is an object, a bearer of tradition and the focus of attention.