Indian
art in all its spheres of craftsmanship has its own individual uniqueness,
uncomparable in many respects to the Western art. It is the record of the
racial, national, philosophical and religious experience of the people and
serves the purpose of life for which India has stood from time immemorial. It
is produced always in response to a demand, a demand arising not from without
but from within. It is produced by master craftsmen following the tradition of
the race; tradition in India is a living thing. Life is eternal and immortal;
both the animate and the inanimate express it in accordance with their state of
evolution and understanding. So also with art, whether it expresses itself in
the form of architecture, sculpture, painting, music, dance or poetry. Indian
tradition allows no barrier between the arts of the folk and the canonical
arts, of fine arts and decorative arts. Art, according to ancient Indian
teachers, is not for art’s sake but for the love of life, a life which leads
humanity ‘From the Unreal to the Real, from Darkness to Light and from Death to
Immortality.’
Always
the motive is spiritual, a motive which stands in close relationship to the
Gothic art of Europe. The theme is spontaneous, seeking to reveal the different
aspects of the Infinite. Un-like Western art, Indian art has very little to do
with the outer manifestation, either of nature or of any material
artificiality. In Indian art there is greater expression of life and its
psychic vivifications, and its supreme function lies in its distinctive power
of suggestiveness. In representing a man, for example, Indian art sticks to a
conception of man, a mental image of what the artist understands man to be,
for, it is not human anatomy only in which he is interested; it is rather man,
an idea, not a picture, which he strives to evoke in the mind of the spectator.
The origin of art-sense, according to Indian tradition, is that this phenomenal
universe is pervaded by an infinite energy (Sakti) which pours itself
into every name (Nama) and form (Rupa) and in its more refined
state generates in man a creative urge in response to which he develops his
arts and letters.
Therefore
the artist, according to ancient teachers, is the vehicle of divine expression.
The One, for fulfilling His desire to be all-pervading, infuses in each and
everyone an abundance of creative energy which in its turn demands release in
the projection of finite forms. Thus the artist also makes the creation of a
piece of art into a complete act of divine efflorescence. As such he creates a
form, a name to proclaim to the world the glory of Divine Art. He has no other
longing than to touch this divine source of life: his joy, and his bliss lie in
this eternal search alone. ‘He forgets all, becomes overwhelmed with its Joy’
(Swami Vivekananada: ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ for 1933).
So
we find him devoting his time and energy to his work of unveiling the
Incomprehensible, the realm of the Unseen, the Eternal, and the Infinite, to
bring down to earth something of the beauty of the things above. To manifest
this Vision on earth in human form, even though it might be perfect and
beautiful to the human eye, is inadequate, as His beauty and His divine nature
are beyond all forms and names. ‘Meditating on the Ultimate perfection one
could perceive some glimpses of the beauty of the God-head’ is his motto. So we
find him never glorifying, like his brother in the West, bodily strength.
According to the Indian artist, beauty could be perfected only by the surrender
of all worldly attachments (Samsara) and the suppression of worldly
desires (Vishaya). Therefore he seeks an idealistic, mystic, symbolic
and transcendental form of the Divine Vision. The work before him is a gigantic
one, like the landscape of his motherland, but he is never pessimistic over his
task, as he has the resources of a poet, priest and philosopher in his very
self. In this respect we can find a companion, a fellow pilgrim to him in the
Gothic art. As a matter of fact, his Gothic brother is no stranger; is he not
also on the same path to tackle the dynamic, divine consciousness in his
creative art? Even though its form is the outcome of the Western environment,
Gothic art-consciousness is universal. The Gothic artist is more emotional at
times, more sentimental, but the Indian artist is not satisfied with these
spheres of expression, as he considers them mere passing life’s streams. He
goes beyond these; he appeals to the imagination and intuition (Buddhi,
Jnana) and places, before us an abstraction of a
superterrestrial sphere, rather than mere bodily griefs and sufferings.
In
other words, the power of mind over matter is his main motive. It is the
great synthesis embracing many different theological and
mythological elements which he exploits for his ideal. The idealism of the
Vedas is the life and soul of Indian art. Always Indian art seeks the Himalayan
vision and its eternal glories, for its motive, for its inspiration. ‘Him and
Him only knowing, one crosseth over Death; no other path at all is there for
him to go.” (Upanishad)
There
are many peculiarities in Indian art, and in particular in Indian sculpture and
other plastic arts, in comparison with the Gothic and other spheres of Western
art. In Indian art, renouncement and bliss (Tyaga, Ananda) are perfectly
tuned and in this connection it is an art most intimate and reserved, an ideal
we can see to some extent in Gothic art. To appreciate any
piece of Indian plastic or painting, one requires self-realisation as a necessary
step and then alone, as in Indian Philosophy and Religion, one can understand
and love its dynamic significance, symbolic and spiritual. Every gesture, every
pose and sway springs in god-like fashion directly from the natural disposition
of the mind.
Like
its sister the Gothic, Indian art never allows any model, either for the
representation of the divine personality or an earthly figure. It expects an
inner, intuitive feeling (Samadharana) not an observation of an outer
model in this respect. Even though technical perfection is an essential factor,
Indian canons of art say they can be acquired through practice and they are a
matter of skill and knowledge, but not of vitality.
All
themes, as the Gothic ones, are impersonal. Hence the artist has full freedom
to use his own imagination and intuition, his own ideas, transcending all
man-made laws and regulations. As we have seen already, to an artist in India,
an outer phenomenon, even though very attractive and fascinating, is a passing
one, and as such, has brief duration; it is a surface effect. He knows this and
sticks to the main conception, a conception which is infinite and eternal. This
attitude towards all things seen and unseen has alone maintained him both
through tradition and philosophy to follow his craftsmanship without a break
from time immemorial. Many empires arose and disappeared, many a passing thing
happened in the history of his land, but none of these things have ever
destroyed his art-consciousness.
Further,
he has pursued his craft undisturbed by any questionings as to the relative
importance of this appearance or that as against his symbolical expression of
ideas or emotions: while the Gothic and the other successive stages of art in
the West have been experimenting either with the problem of optical illusion or
the simultaneous and consecutive vision, the comparative strength of d straight
line in relation to a curved line etc. Indian art says all it has to say by the
use of a peculiar mastery of line and pure radiant colours. Unlike his
co-workers in the West the artist had not to seek his public. The public is
there to appreciate his universal language of the Divine; from north to south,
from west to east, he is understood, he is honoured, an
honour which at times even the monarchs envied.
Moreover,
art in India, unlike the Gothic, is free from aristocratic aloofness, either in
its overbearing, submissive or humorous representation. It is an outcome of an
inner state, of innocence, of an unbroken sense of Being. (S. Kramrich: ‘Indian
Sculpture.’ Pp. 101, 102). Whether it be compassion or resignation, it sheds
to the outside world what it has seen within and without. An insoluble form is
stated in definite and in a measured art form; the eternal form is shown in all
its elaborateness and lavishness without fear or force. It is definite and
full. In other words
it seeks to show us a state beyond our vision, beyond our perception, in all
its manifestations and attributes. It is heroic and, at the
same time, reserved and well-balanced.
Yet
this art is profoundly naturalistic, but not in the sense one uses that word in
Western art. Appearance for its own sake and as an end in itself is never made
an object of study in Indian art. Surface things are naturally appreciated for
their visible quality but the artist goes beyond this: he accepts them for
further stimulation of his inner experience. He takes the visible world to
correct his inner experience of nature. ‘It is innervation, and at the
same time transubstantiation.’ (S. Kramrich: ‘Indian Sculpture,’ Pp. 135, 136)
All forms are homogeneous as they are brought about by movement and thus the
manifold types are keenly observed and understood. Nature, according to
tradition, though an active agency of man, reacts upon and impresses the seeker
after Truth with the sense of the supernatural.
Time
and space have no special role to play, like in western art. This does
not mean that an Indian artist has either neglected or avoided this natural
force of phenomena. He has taken them for granted like any other phenomena of
the passing world; Further, to him all living forms and living beings are none
but transformations of space-time. As the latter is void, it is opposed
to life cosmic. Past and future are united in the present. The infinity of time
is continued in the quiet of eternity. (H. Zimmer: ‘Journal of Indian Society
of Oriental Art’ 1933) Further, Indian art is a vehicle, an immediate
experience of the ‘Becoming’, of an inner life movement.