Aesthetics in Indian Art An inquiry into the hows, whats and whys of artistic tradition

Lakshmi and Vishnu, Lakshmana Temple outer wall, Khajuraho [Image source: travelpod.com]

Urmi Chanda-Vaz Masters Program in Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology Semester II, Paper: Art & Architecture St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, 2014-15 #031

1 INTRODUCTION

Because history is not always entirely truthful, art becomes the best kind of mirror in any given society. In art is condensed the essence of a civilization. Its philosophy, religion, culture, social mores, its loftiest ideals and even its lowest vices are reflected in art. Whether tangible or performing, man's higher nature finds expression in artistic work. It, therefore, becomes imperative for a student of humanities to study life through the prism of art. Within the strokes of a canvas, the curves of a sculpture, the folds of a costume or the lines of a poem are found veritable truths about the nature and life of man across cultures. India is no different.

India's long and vast artistic heritage stands testimony to its vibrant civilization. Although criticized for her lack of proper historical record, Rajput painting. [Image source: dollsofindia.com] India's art has silently documented all stages of her growth. From Bhimbetka paintings to Chola temples, from Harappan craft to the poetry of Kalidāsa, from Bharatanāṭyam to the Mughal miniatures, there are many faces of Indian art. They are the milestones of the flowering on Indian culture, the reflections of its deep-rooted philosophy.

But how was this art made? What were its guidelines? What was its purpose? These answers emerge from the study of Indian philosophy at large and Indian aesthetics in particular. This paper aims to present an overview of aesthetics in the tradition of Indian art, as it has been understood right from the Vedic to this day. With a basis of art theories from ancient treatises this paper hopes to present a brief view of what is considered the best and beautiful in art.

2 VEDIC AND OTHER ANCIENT PRECEPTS

The corpus of Vedic literature forms the basis of 'Aryan' thought and culture. Indian aesthetics too derives its fundamentals from the Vedas. Two concept triads form the very foundation of Indian art. The first triad is that of Satyam, Ṣivam, Sundaram, which correspond to truth, purity/goodness and beauty1. These ideals used to describe the Absolute are also used to describe artistic manifestations. An extension of this set is the next triad of Satyam (truth), Ritam (rightness), Brihat (vastness)2 or in some cases, Vāmam (beauty), Satyam (truth) and Bhadram (goodness)3. The four branches of knowledge viz. Dharma, Darṣana, Ṣāstra, and Kalā grew around these ideals.

In his book, The Philosophy of India Art, Kireet Joshi says, “... the range of cultural activities of India centered on the quest of spiritual truth but it also promoted quest through science, philosophy, art and several other means. Intense spirituality, robust scientific and philosophical intellectuality and powerful literature, poetry, art and inexhaustible vitality have marked the essential characteristics of Indian Culture.” The quest for truth and union with the divine, then, became the definitive motivations of Indian art.

What man saw, he depicted or imitated and these produced works of art. Identification with and imitation of nature were the first obvious steps in this direction. The yakṣi sculptures found in later periods was nothing but nature or nature spirits personified. Kalidāsa's poetry too is an example of the near divine status the Indian artist granted to nature.

The earliest cave paintings and artifacts were images of animals and people, but a great many of them seem to have ritual significance. It can thus be deduced that art has had a chiefly religious purpose in Hindu art from the very beginning. With the growth of spiritual thought, the aim of art shifted from mere replication to contemplation. Art became not just a creative exercise but a

1 Amita Valmiki, Philosophy, Religion And Art In The Cultural Context Of India In Comparison To Hegelian Aesthetics, (paper presented at The Summer Colloquium At The Department Of Philosophy, Bonn University, Bonn, Germany, 2013), p 1, retrieved in March 2015 from www.science-of-deduction.com 2 Ibid., p 2 3 M Sivakumara Swamy, Saundaryam Alankarah, (from Indian Aesthetics and Poetics, edited by V N Jah, published by Sri Satguru Publications, 2003), p 8

3 meditative, mystical one. Internalisation and visualisation of perfect spiritual ideals became artistic protocols. That serves to explain the lack of realism – as the West understands it – in Indian art.

Another important ancient concept that has determined the nature of Indian art was that of Yoga. Yoga in the sense of mental concentration has long been associated with the creative process. This mental concentration or dhyāna would enable an artist to realise the true nature of his subject, to transcend the difference between subject and self, and finally become the subject in perfect consciousness. Coomaraswamy4 elaborates upon Ṣukrāchārya's treatise where it is said that, 'the practice of visualisation... is identical in worship and in art'. Coomaraswamy further elaborates upon some meditational rituals developed around dhyāna.

Further the idea of Yogakshema5 is associated with art. The term is usually understood to be 'well- being' but its components offer a deeper insight into its meaning. Yoga means to enjoin (and thereby create), and kshema means to preserve. Creation and preservation, therefore, characterize life and art in the Hindu view. Conservation of tradition through rigorous learning and then creativity through non-conformism and improvisation was the path decreed for the Indian artist.

Creativity, according ancient aestheticians like Rajashekhara, Anandavardhan, Abhinavagupta, depended on the following factors6: 1. Rasa – Aesthetic sentiment 2. Alamkara – Figures of speech 3. Riti – Style 4. Dhvani – Suggestion 5. Vakrokti – Oblique expression 6. Aucitya – Propriety

While these factors applied mostly to poetics, it is well applicable to arts of all kinds.

4 Ananda Coomaraswamy, The Dance of Shiva, (Rupa Publications, 2013), pp 20-21 5 V Raghavan, India: Tradition and Non-Conformism in Creative Arts, (Dr. V Raghavan Centre for Performing Arts, 2002), p 340 6 Valmiki, Op cit., pp 11-12

4 The importance of traditional knowledge is emphasized in one of the Ṣilpa Shāstras7: “The Ṣilpan should understand the Atharva Veda, the thirty-two Ṣilpa Ṣāstras, and the Vedic mantras by which the deities are invoked. He should be one who wears a sacred thread, a necklace of holy beads, and a ring of kuṣa grass on his finger; delighting in the worship of God, faithful to his wife, avoiding strange women, piously acquiring knowledge of various sciences, such a one is indeed a craftsman.”

Within the larger context of aesthetics, some of the Hindu views of beauty were also derived from ancient Indian texts. For example, the Samudrikā Ṣāstra gave us the ideals of physical beauty when it spoke about Mahāpuruṣa (the great man) and Mandasmitā (the ideal woman)8. With a background rooted in Vedic scriptures, the idea of aesthetics in India found its grand culmination in Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra.

RASA, THE ESSENCE OF ART

If there is one text that defined the course of Indian art history, that has to be the Nāṭyaśāstra. Composed by Bharata Muni, around the 3rd century CE9, the treatise is a supposed compilation of the work of masters before him. It deals comprehensively with all aspects of music, dance and drama as also poetics and metre. But as the great art critic, Ananda Coomaraswamy said, the Nāṭyaśāstra is 'immediately applicable to art of all kinds.' The greatest contribution of the text is the concept of rasa. While some scholars have argued that rasa is related only to poetry, most Indian art continues to be viewed in the light of rasa. Rasa is an intangible concept, which hundreds of scholars have tried to define. In recent times, Goswami offers a definition of rasa on three levels. He says:

“In its most obvious sense... rasa means the sap or extract of plants. In this sense the word means the same thing to nearly everyone. In its secondary sense, however, rasa signifies the non-material essence of a thing, 'the best or finest part of it', like perfume, which comes from matter but is not so easy to describe or comprehend. In its tertiary sense, rasa denotes taste, flavour; the relish of

7 Coomaraswamy, Op cit. p 24 8 V Raghavan, Op cit. Pp 377-380 9 M A Mehendale, The History and Culture of the India People: The Age of Imperial Unity, (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 7th ed. 2001), p 270

5 pleasure related to consuming or handling either the physical object or taking in its non-physical properties.”

The Navarasas or Nine Rasas depicted in a Kerala style mural [Image source: andhraportal.org]

Bharatamuni described eight kinds of primary rasas, to which list Abhinavagupta added a ninth. These can be briefly described as follows:

1. Ṣringāra rasa: The rasa dealing with love, attraction and acts pertaining to them. The presiding deity of this rasa is Viṣnū, while the colour attributed to it is green. 2. Hāsya rasa: Laughter, humour and mirth are included in the Hāsya rasa. It is associated with the colour white and the deity Pramatā. 3. Raudra rasa: Anger and fury are encapsulated in the Raudra rasa. Naturally, it is associated with the Lord Rudra and its colour is red. 4. Karuṇa rasa: Compassion, tragedy and pathos fall under the purview of Karuṇa rasa. With grey as its colour, the rasa's deity is Yama. 5. Bibhatsa rasa: The emotions of repulsion and horror comprise the Bibhatsa rasa. Śiva is its presiding deity, while its colour is blue.

6 6. Bhayānaka rasa: The deity Kāla reigns over this rasa, which is about fear, horror and terror. The colour given to it is understandably black. 7. Veera rasa: The king of gods, Indra, represents this rasa of heroism, courage and valour. The colour of veerya is a shade of yellow. 8. Adbhuta rasa: Presided over by Brahmā, the Adbhuta rasa brings within its fold the emotions of wonder and amazement. Its colour is yellow. 9. Śānta rasa: This rasa was formulated by Abhinavagupta in his treatise, Abhinavabhārati in 10th century CE. Its scope were the emotions of tranquility and peace, its deity, Viṣnū, and its colour, blue.

With the rise of the Bhakti Movement in medieval India, two more rasas played a very important role in the art of the time. These two added in the later periods10 included:

10. Bhakti rasa: Closely associated with Śānta rasa was Bhakti rasa or the rasa of devotion, spiritual love, service and surrender. 11. Vātsalya rasa: Parental love, as exemplified by Yaṣodā's love for Krṣna, is what makes for vātsalya rasa.

Coomaraswamy11 paraphrases Bharatamuni's theory of how rasa is invoked in the audience. “Aesthetic emotion – rasa – is said to result in the spectator though it is not effectively caused, through the operation of determinants or the aesthetic problem (vibhāva), consequents or deliberate manifestations of feeling, (anubhāva), moods (bhāva), and involuntary emotions (sattvabhāva).'

In order to fully understand the concept of rasa, a few other related terms must also be understood. Rasānubhūti: The term can literally be translated into 'the experience of rasa', and thereby understood to be the aesthetic experience. In his authoritative text, Sāhitya Darpan, Vishwanatha describes the pure aesthetic experience. He says: “Pure aesthetic experience is theirs in whom the knowledge of ideal beauty in innate; it is known intuitively in intellectual ecstasy without

10 Valmiki, Op cit., p 7 11 Coomaraswamy, Op cit. p 29

7 accompaniment of ideation, at the highest level of conscious being; born of one mother with the vision of God, its life is as it were a flash of blinding light of transmundane origin, impossible to analyse, and yet in the image of our very being12.”

Kathakali dancer [Image source: Wikimedia Commons]

The terms Kalānubhuti and Rasa Nivrtti are similar to Rasānubhūti13. Sa-hṛdaya, rasika and bhāva are some more important terms that ought to be elucidated in the context of Indian aesthetics.

Sa-hṛdaya: Indian art is not a one-way process. The creation does not stop at the creator. Without the understanding of a discerning audience, the work is incomplete. Misra14 defines Sa-hṛdaya as 'the person who has his heart attuned with the heart of the creator. … He has lived the entire tradition of poetry, painting, of sculpture, of music, of dance, and of drama.'

12 B N Goswami, The Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works 1100-1900, (Penguin Random House Publications, 2014), p 23 13 Tapasvi Nandi, 'The Secret of Rasānubhūti or Art Experience', from Indian Aesthetics and Poetics, edited by V N Jha,(Sri Satguru Publications, 2003), p 37 14 Vidya Niwas Misra, Foundations of Indian Aesthetics, (Surbhi Publications, 2008), p 97

8 The terms rasika and rasavanta are very similar to the concept of Sa-hṛdaya and refer to people who have rasa or the finer sensibilities to fully appreciate an art form.

Bhāva: If rasa is that which flows from a work of art, bhāva is that which flows from the viewer. Goswami15 says, 'Bhāva – mood or emotional state – has several components: those that determine it, those that follow it, others that give rise to complementary emotional states... Physical stimulants or surroundings, gestures, movements, all come into play for bringing a dominant state into being … and a 'churning of the heart' takes place.'

Rasa, then, becomes the foundational concept on which Indian art was built post Bharatamuni. For example, the Mahabharata was based on the Śanta rasa, the Ramayana on the Karuṇa rasa, while works of Kalidāsa exude Ṣringāra rasa. Abhinavaguptā, Danḍin, Sankuka and others elevated the idea to sublime heights. Rasa was called pleasure, bliss or repose and even deemed to be a way to break free from samsāra – even if temporarily16. This indelibly set the paradigm of religiosity in Indian art that was manifest in every form and style. In fact, in his book The Transformation of Nature in Art, Coomaraswamy goes as far as to say, “Art is religion, religion is art, not related but the same.”

Apart from the goals of supplementing the four Puruśārthas, and spiritual aims, art was also created for the sake of pleasure, as Bharata muni himself states in the Nāṭyaśāstra. Secular arts were also created, but it was religion that primarily coloured Indian art.

PERFECTION AND IMPERFECTION It was this high religio-spiritual status accorded to it that made for a high level of tolerance for flaws in art, when the subject was religious. It has been suggested17 that the viewer is tolerant for two reasons. Either he is so swayed by the sympathetic that he is uncritical or he is creative enough to bridge the

15 Goswami, Op cit. p 21 16 Mario Busagli, 5000 Years of The Art of India, (Harry H Abrams – Tulsi Shah Enterprises), p 30 17 Coomaraswamy, Op Cit., p 31

9 gaps between idea and execution. Here, the bhāva of the rasika plays an important role and it is he who takes on the onus of 'success' of a certain piece of art. But that's not to say that were are no prescribed standards of beauty or prohibitions in Indian art. Treatises on each genre of art have enlisted a number of dos and dont's for artists and practitioners. The Kāvya Prakasa and Sāhitya Darpan, for example, define the degrees of excellence in poetry, Alamkāraśāstra dealt with literary criticism, while works like the Chitrasutra and Ṣilparatna spoke of proper technique and material in the realms of painting and sculpture.

For example, parameters in painting include rūpa Padmapani painting from Ajanta [Image source: Wikimedia commons] bheda (form), pramāṇa (proportion), bhāva (expression), lāvaṇya yojanā (aesthetic scheme), sadrasya (similitude) and varṇika bhanga (colour scheme)18. In the context of classical poetry, overindulgence in eroticism, repetitions, loose contemplations, over-description and over ornamentation are considered undesirable, according to Mishra19.

OTHER TENETS OF INDIAN AESTHETICS

Apart from the Rasa theory, Indian aesthetics is based on the relation between three primary art forms, says Townsend20. These three art forms are pictorial representation, dramatic representation and poetic representation. In pictorial representation, the three major categories include the Dhammakaya, Rupakaya and Adhyatmakaya forms. The first refers to the depiction of divine beings in

18 Prakash Veereshwar, Aesthetics, (Krishna Prakashan Media (p) Ltd., 2011), pp 48-49 19 Arjun Ranjan Mishra, Indian Aesthetics and Poetics – edited by V N Jha, (Sri Satguru Publications, 2003), pp 86-93 20 Dabney Townsend, Historical Dictionary of Aesthetics, (Scarecrow Press, 2006), p 163

10 a symbolic manner, the second refers to depiction of human-like form, and the third to exaggerated, larger-than-life spiritual projections. Symbolism, which is so important in Indian art, comes alive, especially in Dhammakaya depictions.

Whatever the art form, whether music, dance, poetry, painting or sculpture, the aim is to distinguish between the real and the illusory. All art forms are in a way, illusory, but they also represent reality in their own way. The interplay between creativity, communication and interpretation helps in such discernment and knowledge. Pictorial representation is iconic or symbolic with a certain central character, dramatic representation isn't iconic but draws inspiration from real events, while poetry manifests only through the reader or the poet, if he is reciting it.

Thus Indian aesthetics is marked by dichotomies, where the difference between the real annd illusory, maker and object, viewer and subject, and artist and audience must at once be acknowledged and transcended.

CONCLUSION Defined as 'the science and philosophy of fine arts21', the subject of aesthetics in Indian art is as vast as it is complex. With a myriad art and craft forms, which further have variations and versions, India's artistic canvas encompasses innumerable hues. The aesthetic problems and components of each genre are therefore different. Without studying an art form and its accompanying literature carefully, it is impossible to comment on its aesthetic and artistic merit. The yardstick for poetics, for example, cannot be used for painting.

However, some ground rules unified all schools and genres of art, which can be called a universal set of Indian aesthetics. When rasa rained, the tree of Indian art flowered. Beauty and divinity bloomed on this enormous tree. Indian aesthetics merged the ideas of artistic human creation and divine contemplation, of tradition and innovation, about finding God and oneself. The study of Indian aesthetics is therefore the study of the highest truth.

21 Valmiki, Op cit., p 11

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