I

• Myths, legends, religious rituals, and practices have deeply influenced the form and style of Indian art.
• These elements determined postures (bhanga), attitudes (bhangi), seances (āsana), stances (sthāna), attributes(lakshana), and gestures (mudra), affecting both iconography and composition.
• The essay focuses on ideational notions that have shaped Indian art’s form, style, and character.
• Linear rhythm is a crucial element in Indian art, where the composition is determined by the linear arrangement of figures.
• In early narrative bas-reliefs (e.g., Barhut, Sanchi, Mathura, Amaravati), creeper stalks created rhythmic curves, binding isolated narratives into a unified visual sequence.
• Over time, the linear rhythm developed to unify individual parts of a composition into an integral whole.
• The classical tradition maintained this principle of linear rhythm, which was abandoned gradually with the decline of classical art traditions.
• Exceptions to this principle can be found in medieval art traditions like West Indian miniatures, Rājasthānī, Pāhādi traditions, folk art, and craft designs (e.g., textiles).
• The classical linear principle avoids sharp angles, sudden jerks, and abrupt movements, focusing on smooth, gliding movements and a sweeping major line.
• The goal is an overall rhythmic unity and harmony, experienced similarly in Indian music, dance, and lyric poetry.
• This artistic principle is rooted in the belief that life and nature are integral wholes, characterized by ceaseless linear flow, like a flowing river.
• Everything, even isolated units, is bound by an invisible yet realizable bond of rhythmic unity and harmony.
• A Vedāntist perceives everything in nature as part of a unified whole, symbolized by the Atman (Universal Self) or Brahman.
• This belief is also commonly felt by rural peasants, often at an emotional level rather than intellectual comprehension.
• Visually, this belief translates into the line as a thread of unity, with life and nature depicted as tensionless, reposeful, and harmonious in art.
• The linear rhythm reflects these qualities, with slow, sinuous, and tensionless movement in the composition.
• Artworks from the 4th to 12th century in the Ganga-Yamunā valley, Eastern India, Western Deccan, and Tamil Nadu demonstrate these principles of linear harmony.
• In Indian sculpture and painting, the plastic treatment of volume is central to the artistic tradition.
• Figured objects are typically smoothly rounded, with a generalized treatment of volume that smoothly transitions between planes.
• Even when the theme involves high tension, violent passion, or movement, there is little suggestion of such tension in the lines or volume treatment.
• The lines are slow, sinuous, and softly gliding, and the plastic treatment is often abstract and simplified.
• For example, in depicting an angry or agitated mood, the figures do not show nerves, muscles, or arteries but instead convey subdued and controlled vigor, portraying dignified relaxation.
• Tension is viewed as a transient state, not the norm of life, which is considered to be in its fullest when in a state of repose and relaxation, yet full of vitality.
• Vishnudharmottaram prescribes that figures should appear “endowed with life”, “breathing”, and have a smooth, rounded form, free of harsh breaks or joints.
• Action in Indian art is idealized when it has no internal tension, no passion, and no interest in results, reflecting the Bhagavadgītā philosophy.
• Krishna in the Bhagavadgītā advises Arjuna to fight without passion, hatred, or attachment to the outcomes, aligning with Indian ideas of action and repose.
• This ideology explains why there is no external tension in the plastic depiction of the human form in Indian art.
• Dynamic naturalism in Indian art reflects the intrinsic dynamism of life and nature, which is linked to the prana (life force).
• Art objects must align with the natural harmony of life and nature, making the linear and plastic treatment described dynamic and naturalistic.
• The Vishnudharmottaram suggests that art should be “endowed with life, as if breathing,” embodying the dynamism of life.
• The Vishnudharmottaram also emphasizes that the rules of painting require knowledge of dance, linking it to the linear and plastic treatment of the human body.
• Dance vividly demonstrates the linear rhythm, harmony, movement, and plasticity of volume of the human body.
• The statement in the Vishnudharmottaram about dance implies a deeper understanding of the artistic expression of the human form through immediacy and intensity of experience.

II

• The notion that human, animal, and plant life are essentially one and the same, forming parts of the same world of nature, is central to Indian thought.
• Early Indian art reflects this idea by giving animals, plants, and humans the same significance and value.
• In early narrative reliefs, animals, trees, and plants receive the same care and attention as human figures.
• This approach is characteristic of early agricultural societies worldwide and is also evident in folk literatures.
• Human faculties are often attributed to plants, birds, and animals in Indian art and literature throughout history.
• However, this attribution is a superficial aspect of the deeper connection between man and nature.
• The essential meaning lies in the vibrant sap of life that flows through all living things, and this sap is represented through the flexibility, freshness, and youthful life of plants and animals.
• By the end of the second century CE, in Andhra region narrative art, animal and plant life recede into the background, and man becomes the central focus in art.
• In painting, nature continues to serve as a background, but does not disappear from art entirely.
• The essential qualities of plant and animal life (youthful litheness, flexibility, glossiness, and vibrant sap) are transferred to the human figure.
• This transmutation of nature into the human figure is a significant feature of traditional Indian art.
• Indian art avoids depicting old age, disease, or physical deformity.
• Youth, with its freshness, flexibility, and creative vitality, is the idealized form in art, representing life at its fullest.
• Gods and goddesses are always youthful, with eternal sixteen as their age, symbolizing the pinnacle of life.
• In plastic art, youth is represented through the modeling of volume, outline, and general linear movement.
• The generalized modeling of the human figure in Indian art is influenced by the concept of youthful vitality in nature.