Studies in Indian Art c7.s1.11

Language: English

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The supreme problem of Indian art, which in all stages was linked with religion, therefore relates to the right interpretation of symbols. The myths could not be represented except through symbols e.g. the cosmic Aśvattha, or World-Tree, the Ash Tree of Existence, the Yggdrasil of Nordic mythology, whose root is up in heaven and whose branches are spread down below, which lives through past, present and future; or the Kalpa-Vṛiksha and the Kalpalatā, the Wish-fulfilling Tree and Wish-fulfilling Creeper, which are but the symbols of the mind, under which each individual takes his seat and rushes through life; or the Pūrṇa Ghaṭa, the Full Vase, which is verily the human body which contains everything and which overflows with plenty so long as there are waters of life in it; or the Kāmadhenu, the Wish-fulfilling Cow of plenty symbolising word or Speech; or Samudra, the Milky Ocean of human aspirations, the deep Sea of all potentialities, which the Devas and the Asuras tried with combined effort to churn and produce the Fourteen Jewels of idealised possessions that human beings desire, most coveted of them all being Amṛita, the Immortal Drink, which bestows eternal life and youth on mortal beings; or Svastika, a dynamic pattern whose four arms rotate round a focal point and generate the life-force; or Chakra, the Wheel which represents Time, the one-wheeled chariot of the sun, and also all the attributes of things, the various Dharmas that distinguish all created things;

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or the Aṣṭa-maṅgalika-chihna, the Eight Auspicious Signs; or the Chaturdaśa Svapna, the Fourteen Lucky Dreams, each constituting an imago of thought to symbolise some phenomenon either of the cosmos or of the individual's life. These with many more constitute alphabet of Indian symbolism representing religious ideas through art. With the march of civilisation when the contents of both life and mind become more elaborate in succeeding generations, the symbols also multiplied and sometimes changed their form. New themes were attempted by the side of old ones; e.g. the number of Mother Goddesses together with their forms and names was an ever evolving conception. The sports of Rādhā and Kṛiṣhṇa were perfected as the arche-type of love symbolism in all its nuances, imbued with hot passion and the fire of the Indian wind and the Indian sky, but always true to its spiritual background and being vitalised by it. Rādhā as the human soul passes through all experiences in her quest for union with the Divine Puruṣha symbolised by Kṛiṣhṇa. As Dr. Coōmaraswamy interprets it: "In the Vaiṣhṇava devotional approach and its poetry human love is conceived as the means and symbol of all union. Lovers represented are always Rādhā and Kṛiṣhṇa, typifying the eternal motif of Man and Woman and revealing in every day events their heavenly image.

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The whole land of Rādhā and Kṛiṣhṇa is the land of our own experience where Beauty and Love are sublimated and transformed into the purest divine experience of the heart of the human soul". (Rajput Painting). In the words of Grierson: "The young Kṛiṣhṇa represented to the Vaiṣhṇavas the Supreme Deity, the Creator, from whom all Creation was but a sportive emanation, and full of love, passing the love of a father, to his devotees. Rādhā on the other hand was the human soul, led by religion to offer not of her own, but her own, whole-self to God. That religion taught just as our Christian doctors teach, the necessity of our entire self-surrender to God which it adorned, and so, too, imaged that devotion by human love. But the Christians chose filial love as the model of the soul's devotion, and parental love as that of the Creator's for his creatures. India took a different interpretation. The soul's devotion to the deity is pictured by Rādhā's self-abandonment to her beloved Kṛiṣhṇa and all the hot blood of oriental passion is encouraged to pour forth one mighty flood of praise and prayer to the Infinite Creator, who waits with loving outstretched arms to receive the worshipper into his bosom and to convey him safely to an eternal rest across the seemingly shoreless Ocean of Existence. This passion is that of a child of nature.... I am persuaded that no indecent thought entered their minds when they wrote these burning words." (Introduction to the Satsaiya of Bihari, 1896, p.

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8). As language of symbolism Rādhā and Kṛiṣhṇa almost occupy the entire field of the medieval Indian religious poetry and the pictorial arts of the Rajasthani and Pahari schools. Art, religion and symbolism are all inter-related. The one serves the needs of the other, justifying its own purpose by imparting richness to life and fostering creative activity in different fields. A true history of Indian art is rooted in a sympathetic approach to the language of its symbolism. Indian art was conceived not to serve an intellectual purpose but to fulfil a spiritual urge and to meet the religious needs of the people in a very real sense.