Proposition – An Approach to Indian Art – Niharranjan Ray

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Book No. – 45(History)

Book Name – An Approach to Indian Art (Niharranjan Ray)

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Proposition

An Approach to Indian Art – Niharranjan Ray

Chapter – 1

Harshit Sharma

Alumnus (BHU)

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Indian traditional values of high art and aesthetics have been resurrected through the last century’s conscious efforts.
These efforts were based on studying relics from the past, buried or unnoticed in literary texts and art objects.
In the feudal and semi-feudal courts of the 18th and early 19th centuries, some formal values in art remained, especially in rural and tribal arts and domestic crafts.
By the mid-19th century, traditional court art had declined, and Western mercantile economy had impacted all traditional creative arts.
By this time, significant traditional art forms and heritage were lost or underappreciated; Sanchi, Amaravati, Mathura, and Ajanta were neglected or swallowed by nature.
By the 1830s, the adoption of English as a medium of instruction and the shift to Western education marked a significant cultural change.
The Indian market became flooded with Western goods, including engraving, oleo-prints, and litho-prints of mediocre British and European artists.
Indian aristocracy and the growing middle class in Calcutta and Bombay began adopting Western tastes, leading to a decline in interest in traditional Indian art and crafts.
Despite India’s rich artistic heritage still being visible in architecture and crafts, the urban elite lost interest, and the rural poor lacked the resources to appreciate or preserve these forms.
Warren Hastings was the first European Orientalist to show an interest in Indian literary and religious heritage, which led to the founding of the Asiatic Society by Sir William Jones.
This tradition continued, influencing German Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and subsequently Englishculture, as well as European philosophy.
Indian visual arts were not met with the same enthusiasm in Europe as literature and philosophy. Indian miniatures, brocades, and gold and silver wares were viewed as ‘Oriental curios and often misattributed to Persia or China.
Many European critics, like John Ruskin, George Birdwood, and Vincent Smith, dismissed Indian art for its grotesque, bizarre, and exaggerated forms.
Indian art was often seen as pre-occupied with religious and fantastical imagery, which European critics, like Roger Fry and Clive Bell, found devoid of aesthetic and human values.
A few, like Rodin, had an understanding of the formal values in Indian art, such as the Siva-Nataraja bronze, but such exceptions were rare.
The European attitude toward Indian art was rooted in ignorance of its traditional life, aesthetic, and formal approach, which were different from Western heritage.
Nineteenth-century European art, especially English art, was dominated by Graeco-Roman and Renaissance values, which were applied to view Indian art.
Indian art’s content was largely mythological, symbolical, and ideational, with imageries meaningful only to Indians, unfamiliar to the Western mind.
The ‘obscurity’ and ‘unfamiliarity’ of Indian art’s content prevented European appreciation for its imaginative, aesthetic, and formal values.
By the late 19th century, European art began to acknowledge alternative aesthetic values, influenced by France, which set the trend for other countries, including Britain.
This shift in European art included the revival of interest in medieval Christian, Byzantine, Japanese, and Chineseart.
India’s direct contacts with British culture, mainly through English language and literature, delayed India’s involvement in contemporary European art movements until after World War I.
Despite this, European literature and thought made successful inroads into the Indian elite through English translations, influencing India’s cultural transformation.
Indian nationalism emerged slowly in the 19th century, with Rammohun Roy sowing the seeds in Calcutta, which became the center of British trade and European intellectual pursuits.
The Bengal School of Art, led by Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose, was directly connected to Indian nationalism and influenced the revaluation of India’s cultural heritage.
Nationalism has two faces: one extroverted, looking forward and drawing inspiration from other nations, and another introverted, drawing spiritual sustenance from the nation’s own traditions.
The success of nationalism depends on the balance and integration between the past and present, between national heritage and external influences.
Indian nationalist leaders worked towards this balance, leading to the country’s creative and intellectual growth, though it was a gradual process.
The revaluation of India’s national cultural heritage became clearer with more knowledge of its ancient, medieval, and 19th-century history.
The impact of Western culture on India led to a conscious attempt to uncover India’s lost glory, a pursuit initially driven by European scholars, missionaries, and travelers.
By the early 19th century, Indian intellectuals joined this pursuit, while simultaneously absorbing Western literatureand thought, learning from Western institutions.
The fusion of these intellectual directions shaped India’s 19th and early 20th-century revaluation of its cultural heritage, often mistakenly called a renaissance.
Indian intellectuals were heavily influenced by European scholars and intellectuals until the end of the 19th century, shaping their views on India’s cultural heritage.
The approach to Indian heritage was based on fragmented historical perspectives, primarily through literary texts, hierarchical religious texts, socio-legal treatises, and romantic literature.
This led to various images of India:
- A mystical and metaphysical India focused on the soul and ultimate reality.
- An India of wealth, epic heroism, romantic splendor, and pomp.
- An India in peaceful isolation, with people living in quiet villages, spiritually detached.
- An India of ascetics (e.g., sadhus, sannyāsis, faqirs) living apart from society in mystical contemplation.
These images created a general picture of traditional Indian life as religiously spiritual, other-worldly, and idealized, influenced by Orientalists.
Ruined cities and ancient monuments reinforced this mystical, esoteric image of India.
Cult icons and religious texts (Yogic, Tantric, Agamic) contributed to the image of India’s other-worldliness.
The hieratic and doctrinaire approach to studying India led to historical inaccuracies and a failure to correlate different parts of Indian life.
Western-educated Indian intelligentsia, detached from traditional roots, found solace in this romanticized image of India’s past, which emphasized wisdom, spirituality, and contrast to the materialistic West.
This image fueled the national consciousness, particularly for the first generations of intellectuals, such as Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore, who attempted to rationalize India’s heritage through 19th-century Western thought.
While this process was uncritical and untrue, it provided sustenance and inspiration for the national movement.
E. B. Havell and Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy played key roles in the revaluation of Indian art, bringing attention to its traditional values.
In Bengali literature, figures like Madhusudan Dutt and Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay integrated Western and Indian aesthetic values early, whereas in visual art, this shift came later.
Ravi Varma, in the south, created imitations of English narrative painting and portraiture in oils, lacking understanding of Indian art’s content and spirit.
Despite his historical importance, Ravi Varma’s work had facile realism and a lack of imagination, yet was patronized by Indian princes and some British dignitaries due to its mythological content and realism.
Havell and Coomaraswamy raised voices of protest against the degenerate aesthetic perception of Indian traditional values and culture.
Havell was an artist with deep knowledge of Indian culture and civilization, particularly in Vedic, Upanishadic, and Buddhist traditions.
On arriving in India, Havell studied and collected significant Indian art specimens to replace European-style artworks in Indian art schools.
Havell believed that Indian culture was fundamentally religious and spiritual, originating from the Vedas, Upanishads, and Gita, and that Indian art’s essence lay in its symbolic and allegorical meaning.
He considered Ajanta paintings, Sarnath sculptures, Chola bronzes, and Mughal miniature paintings to be examples of India’s spiritual and artistic achievements.
Havell’s primary goal was to make both European intellectuals and Indian contemporaries aware of the excellence of Indian art, leading him to write extensively, publish books, and engage in seminars with artists like Abanindranath Tagore.
Coomaraswamy, born to a Sinhalese father and English mother, was educated in England and initially trained in biological sciences before dedicating himself to Indian cultural nationalism and art.
Coomaraswamy’s work focused on re-establishing the religious and spiritual base of Indian culture, conducting deep research in multiple languages and sources (e.g., Sanskrit, Greek, French, English).
He became an advocate for the traditional Indian way of life and the symbolical basis of Indian art and culture.
Coomaraswamy’s life was shaped by his nostalgia for his ancestral India, attempting to connect with its culture through sacred and secular texts.
His vast erudition focused on religious and doctrinal texts, leading to an intellectual perspective that was idealistic, transcendental, and skeptical of modern science and technology.
Coomaraswamy emphasized the symbolical and metaphysical content of Indian art, sometimes at the expense of aesthetic and human considerations.
His interpretation of Indian art focused on its literary, religious, and symbolical content, believing that its Indian-ness lay in these aspects.
Coomaraswamy has greatly influenced the study and understanding of Indian aesthetics, art criticism, and art history.
His work formed the foundation for the revival of Indian art during the early 20th century.
Many scholars, both Indian and Western, followed his theories and intellectual inspiration.
The present writer acknowledges the profound impact Coomaraswamy had, particularly in the understanding of Indian art and culture.
The writer does not attempt to question Coomaraswamy’s contributions but seeks to offer an alternative approach to the study of Indian art.
The new approach aims to be more objective, humanistic, and grounded in real life rather than purely scholarly.
The task requires years of detailed study and investigation.
Max Mueller’s assertion that Indians were a “nation of philosophers” shaped much of the early 20th-century understanding of India.
Scholars like Jones, Burnouf, Roth, Lassen, Max Mueller introduced Sanskrit and related literature to the world but often overlooked the concrete aspects of Indian life.
Vedic texts (e.g., Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads) combined spiritual ideas with physical and intellectual discipline.
Darśana (seeing) is more about a physical and intellectual operation than purely mystical or esoteric spirituality.
Kālidāsa’s romantic lyrics and the sculptures of Sarnath, along with Ajanta paintings, could not have existed without a flourishing urban civilization.
Such civilization relied on trade, commerce, and interactions among diverse cultures and peoples.
Dharmasutras, Nitiśāstras, Kāmasūtras, and Arthaśāstras were just as important as Vedic texts for understanding Indian life and thought.
The dominant image of India in the 19th and early 20th centuries was mystical, spiritual, and idealistic, reflected in its art, architecture, and sculpture.
Indian sculpture and architecture were often admired or dismissed based on their mystical meaning rather than their artistic form and human significance.
These artistic achievements were the result of centuries of advancements in mathematics, engineering, architecture, and art practice.
Early Indian thought included both idealistic (e.g., Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita) and materialistic systems (e.g., Lokayatas, Barhashpatyas, Charvärins).
These materialist and idealist systems constantly interacted, leading to compromises that made neither position fully pure or uncompromising.
The earlier view of uncompromising idealism before Sańkarāchārya (8th century A.D.) is questionable upon closer examination.
The traditional portrayal of Indian life as a negation of the mundane and withdrawal from worldly life is an unreal and distorted perspective.
Speculative and idealistic philosophies like those in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, early Buddhism, and Jainismoriginated within society and were grounded in life, not detached from it.
These philosophies were directed at individuals striving for the highest levels of wisdom and experience, such as yatis, munis, jñānins, and sannyasins.
For these individuals, art played little to no role and was sometimes considered a hindrance to spiritual pursuits.
By the 9th or 10th centuries, philosophy and religion had become formalized into dogmas, with logic-chopping and rituals dominating intellectual and spiritual activities.
Despite these scholastic tendencies, earlier Indian thought integrated philosophy, religion, art, literature, and social life into a cohesive framework.
Contrary to the usual belief, systems like Mahayana Buddhism, Tantric schools, and medieval mystical traditionsdid not entirely deny or disparage concrete living.
These traditions emphasized ananda (joy), karunā (compassion), and mahasukha (great happiness), often grounded in the senses and emotions.
Medieval Vaishnava and Śākta lyrics expressed spiritual exaltation through the day-to-day human experience of passions, feelings, and emotions.
Early schools like Theravada Buddhism, Jainism, and certain interpretations of Vedanta seemed to negate the world, but their cultural contributions, including art, music, and literature, affirmed life.
The rich artistic heritage of India demonstrates that art affirmed life and helped in understanding the higher realitiesembedded in life.
Indian life and thought have often been misunderstood, especially the role of art and concrete living in the overall scheme of existence.
Texts like Natyaśāstra, Arthaśāstra, Kāmasūtra, Vishnudharmottaram, Ayurveda Samhitās, and others reveal a comprehensive engagement with arts and sciences, including politics, economics, architecture, music, and medicine.
Epics, Jatakas, and Avadānas were later studied from a more humanistic and social perspective.
Systematic archaeological exploration in the 20th century further enriched the understanding of India’s engagement with worldly life and practical concerns.
Over time, the recognition emerged that ancient and medieval India synthesized spiritual yearning with acceptance of sensory and emotional life.
This synthesis is evident in philosophical texts, poetry, social structures, and art forms, demonstrating a holistic approach to life.
Indian art, when initially studied seriously, was viewed predominantly as an illustration of religious and philosophical ideas, focusing on literary content, iconography, and mystical implications.
The recognition of art as an autonomous human activity tied to sense-perception and thought was long delayed.
The form and evolution of Indian art, including the concepts of śarīra (body) and ātmā (soul), were overlooked in favor of Western notions.
Indian art was rarely approached from the perspective of concrete Indian life or traditional Indian understanding of art, though recent years have seen an awakening to these aspects.
Alongside secular texts, scholars also discovered a growing body of iconometric, mystical, Yogic, Agamic, and Tantrik texts.
These texts are invaluable for understanding early and medieval Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jain religions, ideologies, and cult icons.
The importance of symbols like bhangas, mudras, yantras, poses, gestures, and attributes is significant in Indian visual arts, as they underline the meaning of objects in their inter-relationships.
These symbols derive their meaning through balance, proportion, harmony, rhythm, poise, and grace, all of which are human sensory experiences.
Esoterism and mysticism play a crucial role in Indian art and thought but do not define art.
Art requires the concretization of ideas or visions into form, which is as important as the vision or imagination itself.
If an icon is seen purely as a yantra or religious medium without concern for its beauty, it ceases to be art and becomes merely a cult symbol.
The diverse forms of early and medieval Indian art show that artists aimed to provide concrete expressions of ideas, not just mnemonic symbols for devotees.
Iconographic prescriptions, esoteric symbology, and mystical ideas have their role but only as aids to realizing a vision or experience in form.
Early and medieval Indian art, including Rājasthānī painting, was largely religious, shaped by cult patronage that influenced art forms.
The artist was typically an ordinary member of society, often from a lower socio-economic order, not a priest or sādhaka with mystical experiences.
Artists worked within flowing traditions, relying on inherited skills, keen observation, integration of life around them, and expertise in their tools and materials.
The process of concretizing mystical or esoteric ideas presupposes a perceptual understanding of the vision, referred to as dhyāna or contemplation.
Contemplation or meditation involves minute and engrossed observation, not necessarily with mystical significance, but through senses and mind.
Many iconic artworks, like Buddha and Bodhisattva images of Sarnath, rock sculptures of Deccan, and Ajanta paintings, demonstrate minute observation and a clear grasp of ideas and experiences.
The artists’ ability to realize subtle and elusive ideas in form proves their ability to visualize concretely through intense observation.
Words like dhyāna and yoga in connection with art may signify focused observation and skill rather than esoteric meanings.
In the Bhagavad Gita, yoga is described as karmasu kauśalam (efficiency in work), achievable through concentrated observation and application.
The Mahābhārata legend of Droņāchārya illustrates the importance of intense observation and concentrated attention through the archery test of the Pandava and Kaurava princes.
Arjuna demonstrated focused perception, seeing only the right eye of the bird, unlike others who observed the bird, tree, or surroundings, leading to his success.
This focus exemplifies dhyana or yoga, comparable to “intrinsic perception” in Western aesthetics and art-criticism.
Artists’ perceptual understanding is supported by tradition, ideational atmosphere, observation of life, and personal imagination, all integrated in a complex process.
Vision and experience are mediated through the senses, emotions, mind, and understanding, as recognized by Upanishadic schools and Buddha (via Buddhaghosha).
Visions and experiences are expressed using similes, metaphors, analogies, and images drawn from daily life, making them relatable and concrete.
Even the joy of bliss (ānandam), as described in the Upanishads, is a perceptual experience, not an intellectual concept, and is lived through human life.
The Brahman realization brings ānandam, which later Indian literary aesthetics compare to the rasa (essence or flavor) of art.
In Vajrayāna and Sahajayāna Buddhism and other medieval ideologies, the ultimate spiritual realization is described in terms of human experiences, suggesting its non-transcendental, humanistic nature.
This humanistic approach helps explain the creativity of Indian art, beyond iconography, iconometry, or esoteric texts.
Indian art, though religiously inspired, is generally naturalistic, in harmony with nature, and reflects natural dynamism rather than accidental or tension-based dynamism.
Art involves observation, perceptual understanding, and concretized vision of human experiences.
Themes and ideas mattered as objects to be translated into art and observed by the artist, later reinterpreted in forms like line, color, pattern, symbol, and more.
Bhangas, mudras, sthānas, and āsanas are both symbolically significant and artistically meaningful, blending rhythm, balance, harmony, and linear composition.
Creative art in Indian tradition involves sensations from the world of objects, ideas, and emotions, and their emotional and intellectual responses, communicated to others through the senses, materials, tools, and techniques.