I

• Fractional remains of objects from Indian plastic art show that art played a significant role in the lives of the people, fulfilling various needs and adding dimension to life.
• The motivation and nature of art products differed across time, regions, and communities, as shown by objects like the Indus Valley dancing male torso and the dancing girl from Mohenjodaro.
• Art needs varied from Vedic sacrifices requiring utensils and toys, to tribal art such as textiles, paintings, and earthen figurines, to rural art including toys, deities, and decorations for rituals.
• More sophisticated communities created paintings, sculptures, and decorative items for religious or semi-religious purposes, such as in Buddhism, Jainism, and Puranic Brahmanism.
• Art was also used for magic at all levels of society, in all regions, and at all times.
• Practical objects of everyday life like furniture, tools, weapons, and pottery were recognized as art, as traditional societies did not distinguish sharply between art and craft.
• Early texts, like the Aitareya Brahmana, Mahabharata, and Jatakas, show that all products of human skill were considered art or silpa, and the activity itself was known as silpakarma.
• Human skill in art was considered consciously acquired and differed from natural or instinctive skills seen in animals or plants.
• The eighteen śilpas referred to in the Mahābhārata and Jātakas included crafts like leather-work and basketry (low-status) and sculpture, painting, and weaving (higher status).
• Aitareya Brahmana suggests two key conditions for a work to be considered art: (a) it must involve skill, and (b) it must be chhandomaya—endowed with rhythm, balance, proportion, and harmony.
• The concept of chhanda is flexible, encompassing both simple and complex forms, such as the sharp curve of a swordor the complex reliefs at Ellora caves, Bharatanatyam dance, or Upanishadic poetry.
• Early Indian culture did not classify works of art by their complexity or the purposes they served, nor did it distinguish between the degree of skill involved in their creation.
• The Aitareya passage defines art as any work of human skill made with rhythm, balance, and proportion, even if the object’s purpose was utilitarian (e.g., a wooden chariot or metal utensil).
• This broad definition of silpa persisted throughout Indian tradition, encompassing all skilled human activity, from brick-making to engraving and calligraphy.
• Rgveda and Upanishads contain sublime poetry that articulates the boldest human imagination and deepest spiritual yearnings, with hymns also forming the basis of Indian classical music.
• Dance was an art form that the Vedic gods and sages greatly appreciated.
• Buddha recognized kāmachhanda, the rhythm of creative desire, as the source of art and acknowledged that art-activity involved the mind and imagination.
• There were references in the Aranyakas and Upanishads speculating on the nature of visual images, sensory perceptions, and their expression through rupa (form).
• Speculations in these texts about form and formlessness (rūpa and arūpa) and subject and object are relevant to art-related questions.
• These metaphysical speculations were likely related to life and art activities.
• Indus Valley art cannot be fully explained by later Indian civilization, and there is insufficient evidence of pre-Maurya plastic arts.
• However, Vedic verses and Upanishads suggest that poetry, music, drama, and dance were popular across all social levels, including lower ones.
• Aśoka’s edicts prohibited certain festivals associated with lower social levels, yet he contributed to Indian sculpturehistory by monumentalizing art forms.
• Sculpture and architecture reached monumental proportions during Maurya and continued in places like Barhut, Sanchi, Karla, and Amaravati.
• Performing arts like dance, drama, and music reached high levels of excellence, classified and codified in the Natyaśāstra by Bharata Muni.
• The Natyaśāstra is typically dated to the 5th or 6th century CE, but the original work likely dates back several centuries.
• By the beginning of the Christian era, certain arts like poetry, drama, dance, music, sculpture, and painting were recognized as higher arts, distinct from crafts.
• These higher arts involved not only skill and chhanda, but also an activity of the mind, with objects of art eliciting deeper sensory responses and meaningful experiences.
• The arts that communicated deeper feelings and experiences came to be recognized as high or superior arts.
• A distinction was made between higher arts and crafts or applied arts, though both were valued in society.
• The term kala may have originated from this distinction, referring to higher, refined arts, later expanded to include as many as sixty-four arts.
• Lalita kalās referred to more refined and delicate arts, while kamakala included imagination in sexual behavior.
• Over time, any activity aimed at creating refined and sensitive effects came to be called kala, with the more delicate ones called lalita.

II

• During the millennium before the Christian era, there was significant thinking among knowledgeable people about the nature of art and art activity in India.
• There was no systematic intellectual discipline or aesthetic theory akin to Western concepts of aesthetics.
• The idea of beauty in nature and art was not a major focus for Indian thinkers, such as tattvajñānis and darsanikas.
• Art was considered an activity aimed at producing objects, involving discipline of the senses and mind, which was seen as an ethical activity.
• The idea of the good (śivam, mangalam) was tied to epistemology and logic, while beauty in Indian thought was linked to psychology, particularly the theory of rasa and bhāva.
• Aesthetics was not an independent intellectual pursuit but was inseparable from ethics and the joy of bliss (anandam) and beauty (sundaram).
• There were technical treatises on various arts such as poetics, dance, drama, music, sculpture, painting, and architecture from the 4th to 17th century CE.
• These treatises were categorized as alaṁkāra-śāstras, sangīta-śāstras, nātya-śāstras, silpa-śāstras, vāstu-śāstras, etc., but were not strictly on aesthetics.
• These texts described materials, techniques, canons, forms, and sometimes the essence of art, its aims, and its functions.
• The texts from 400 to 600 CE mostly dealt with the physical constituents of art, focusing on techniques and classifications rather than the soul or essence of art.
• Bharata’s Natyaśāstra, dating to around the 5th century CE, was a landmark work that introduced the concept of rasa, classified into eight categories.
• Rasa (meaning “juice” or “essence”) was considered a subjective state evoked in the audience by the audio-visual effects of dance and drama.
• Art studies up to 600 CE focused more on the physical aspects of art, but Bharata introduced rasa as a central concept in art experience.
• Between the 8th and 11th century CE, a new wave of thinkers such as Bhatta Lollaṭa, Saṅkuka, Bhatta Nāyaka, Anandavardhana, and Abhinavagupta began discussing the soul or essence of art.
• These thinkers raised questions about the nature of art experience, its essence, and function.
• Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta elevated the study of art from a practical and academic pursuit to a philosophical discipline.
• Bharata’s concept that art experience is a pleasure induced by a systematized presentation of forms laid the foundation for later philosophical discussions on art.
• Yaśodhara’s commentary on Vātsyāyana’s Kamasūtram, explaining the six principles of plastic art, also from the 10th century, focused on the essence of the visual arts.
• Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta were imaginative and humanistic in their approach to art and art experience.
• They did not focus on finding the quality of art through logical or empirical categories, unlike their predecessors such as Bhatta Lollaṭa and Saṅkuka.
• Anandavardhana emphasized that the essence of art was in its suggestiveness (dhvani), which evokes a state of feeling.
• Abhinavagupta further built a theory of feeling, making art understood through creativity, vision, and imagination, rather than through formal properties.
• Pratibha (creative energy, vision, and imagination) became the soul or atma of art, with skill and chhanda providing the formal qualities of the art object.
• Art was understood as a product of the artist’s creativity, with techniques applied to different materials (e.g., words for poets, sound for musicians, gestures for dancers, stone for sculptors).
• The shift from early schools (prachina) to later scholars (navina) reflected an evolution in the arts themselves, shaped by what scholars witnessed and experienced.
• Earlier scholars mainly engaged with Mauryan and Buddhist art, such as sculptured reliefs, terracottas, and scroll paintings, and the popular narrative gāthās and ballads.
• The art of the classical Gupta period may not have been fully understood by earlier scholars, as they were more focused on descriptive and representational art.
• The focus for earlier theorists was on clarity, understandability, balance, rhythm, and technical skill in the formal construction of art, seen in works like Sūdraka’s Michchhakaṭika and Bhāsa’s Svapnavāsavadatta.
• Bhatta Nāyaka, Anandavardhana, and Abhinavagupta lived through the entire classical heritage of Sanskrit poetry and drama, including works like Abhijñāna Śākuntalam and Meghadutam.
• Their experience with art led to the realization that art experience is induced by the emotional state evoked by formal construction, not by analysis of technical qualities alone.
• Yaśodhara also emphasized emotional states (bhāva) and grace (lavanya) as constituting the soul of art in his analysis of the six canons of plastic art.
• Classical sculpture and painting (e.g., Sarnath, Mathura, Ajanta, Ellora) were seen as experiences where bhāva and lavanya defined the essence of art.
• Earlier theories on art were formal and academic, focusing on materials, techniques, types, and classes of art.
• Creative process questions, such as the transformation of stone into art, were not addressed in earlier treatises, as these focused only on formal aspects of art.
• The relationship of form and matter, the artist and the art object, and the creative process were speculative issues not raised by earlier treatises.
• Art was seen as a product of nāmā and rūpā (name and form), connected to kāma (creative desire), while the final goal in Indian thought is moksha (extinction of desire).
• The role of art in the quest for moksha or nirvāṇa was not addressed by the formal treatises, highlighting the sociological aspect of art in the broader context of life.
• Treatises on art did not address questions about the place of art in the overall scheme of life or the use of art for those seeking spiritual liberation.
• The treatises on art assumed certain findings in speculative thought and historical sociology that had already been established by the beginning of the Christian era.
• A study of Indian art should account for these findings to better understand the evolution and experience of art through the ages.
• The question of whether those who attained moksha had any use of art remains an important philosophical consideration.
• Moksha or nirvāṇa was the ultimate concern in India from around the fifth century BCE, seen as the absolute liberation of the human spirit.
• This state of existence belonged to the realm of namelessness and formlessness (arūpa), contrasting with the realm of name and form (nāma and rūpa), which is associated with art.
• Speculation about art, art activity, and art experience primarily concerned the world of externals, which did not directly contribute to the goal of moksha.
• Certain early Indian thought schools, such as Buddhism and Jainism, viewed the pursuit of art as a hindrance to spiritual discipline.
• Buddhism and Jainism regarded music as an instrument of infatuation and art as a source of momentary pleasure (muhūrta sukha) and desires (vasana).
• Buddha’s aversion to painted decorations in his living quarters reflects this early Buddhist stance against art.
• However, later in life, Buddha acknowledged that painting and sculpture were products of the mind and permitted some visual art in certain monastic contexts.
• Early monastic Buddhism and Vedanta were averse to art, viewing the world of name and form as maya (illusion), and thus an obstacle to reaching paramukti (absolute freedom).
• The attitude of early monasticism is evidenced by sannyasis, yatis, and munis, who renounce all material objects, including art and personal identity.
• Despite doctrinal aversions, both Buddhism and Jainism contributed significantly to Indian art through the propagation of their myths and symbols using visual arts, music, and drama.
• The monastic leadership of these traditions found art effective in spreading their teachings and attracting new followers.
• The Upanishads, especially the Kathopanishad, introduced the concept of mukti being achievable here and now, in this lifetime, through the realization of the self.
• The ideal of jīvanmukti (freedom in this life) became prominent around the 5th century BCE, influencing the Indian worldview.
• This shift in focus transformed the Indian ethical ideal, promoting the realization of liberation not in the afterlife but in the present.
• Jīvanmukti emphasized a life of harmony, achieved through refining and purifying natural impulses, rather than repressing them.
• The Bhagavad Gita describes this harmony through an equal love for all, passionless purity, and emotional balance.
• The culture of emotions was seen as the first aim of life, with the discipline of feelings being crucial for achieving this ideal.
• Art played a key role in training and refining human feelings and emotions, making it essential for spiritual development.
• Early treatises on art, such as the Aitareya Brahmana, considered art a means for the cultivation of one’s self, particularly emotions, with intellect coming second.