Author: Francois Gautier
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: August 14, 2000
Like A.L. Basham,
the author of The Wonder That Was India (which unfortunately is still considered
a classic), most Europeans have seen at best in India an exalted civilisation
of religious and artistic achievements. But India's greatness encompassed
all aspects of life, from the highest to the most material, from the most
mundane to the supremely spiritualised. As Aurobindo emphasises:
"The tendency of the West is to live from below upward and from out inward...
The inner existence is thus formed and governed by external powers.
India's constant aim has been on the contrary, to find a basis of living
in the higher spiritual truth and to live from the inner spirit outwards".
The old Vedic seers had
said the same thing in a different form: "Theirdivine foundation was above,
even while they stood below. Let its rays besettled deep within us."
In art also, ancient India applied this wisdom: the highest business of
Indian art has always been to describe something of the self, of the soul,
contrary to Western art, which either harps at the superficially beautiful
or dwells at the vital-unconscious level", wrote Aurobindo. This
is indeed the great difference between Indian art and other art forms.
For the Indian artist first visualised in his inner being the truth of
the element he wanted to express and created it in his intuitive mind,
before externalising it.
Stories of how Indian
sculptors of ancient times used to meditate for one year before starting
on their particular work, are common. Not for them the idea of the
intellect or mental imagination, but the essence, the emotion, the spirit.
Thus, for the Indian artist, material forms, colour, line, design, were
only physical means of expression, not his first preoccupation. So
he would not attempt, as in Western art, which in its heyday continuously
recreated scenes of Christ's life or that of saints, to reconstitute some
scene of Buddha's life, but instead, he endeavored to reveal the calm of
Nirvana. And every accessory was an aid, a means to do so.
"For here, writes Aurobindo, "spirit carried the form, while in Western
art form carries whatever they think is spirit".
In effect, Indian art,
its architecture for instance, demands an inner eyeto be appreciated, otherwise
its truth will not reveal itself. Great temples in India are an architectural
expression of an ancient spiritual culture. Its many varied forms
express the manifestation of the infinitemultiplicity which fills the oneness
of India. And indeed, whatever Muslims today might say, even Mughal
architecture was taken up by India's creative genius and transformed into
something completely Indian.
Indian sculpture also
springs from spiritual insight and it is unique byits total absence of
ego. Very few of India's sculpture masterpieces aresigned for instance;
they are rather the work of a collective genius whosesignature could be
`India'. "Most ancient sculptures of India embody invisible form
what the Upanishads threw out into inspired thought and theMahabharata
and the Ramayana portrayed by the word in life", observesAurobindo.
The gods of Indian sculpture are cosmic beings, embodiments ofsome great
spiritual power. And every movement, hands, eyes, posture,conveys
an inner meaning, as in the Nataraja, for example.
Indian painting has,
unfortunately, been largely erased by time, as in the case of the Ajanta
caves. It even went through an eclipse and was revived by the Mughal
influence. But what remains of Indian paintings show the immensity
of the work and the genius of it. The paintings that have mostly
survived from ancient times are those of the Buddhist artists; but painting
in India was certainly pre-Buddhist. Indeed in ancient India, there
were six `limbs', six essential elements `sadanga' to a great painting:
The first is `rupabheda', distinction of forms; the second is `pramana',
arrangement of lines; the third is `bhava', emotion of aesthetic feelings;
the fourth is `lavanya', seeking for beauty; the fifth is `sadrsya', truth
of the form; and the sixth is `varnikashanga', harmony of colours.
Western art always flouts
the first principle `rupabheda', the universal law of the right distinction
of forms, for it constantly strays into intellectual or fantasy extravagances
which belong to the intermediate world of sheer fantasia. On the
other hand, Aurobindo remarks about ancient Indian paintings that "the
Indian artist sets out from the other end of the scale of values of experience
which connect life and the spirit. The whole creative force here
comes from a spiritual and psychic vision, the emphasis of the physical
is secondary and always deliberately limited so as to give an overwhelmingly
spiritual and psychic impression and everything is suppressed which does
not serve this purpose". It is unfortunate that today most Indian
painting imitates Western modern art. It is hoped that Indian painters
will soon come back to the essential, which is the vision of the inner
eye, the transcription, not of the religious, but of the spiritual.
