Studies in Indian Art c7.s1.13

c7.s1.13

Indian art does not seek to create men and women true to life, but types true to the mind. They are like alphabets to convey ideas which can be handled as distinctly as ordinary letters. The Yakshas and Yakshīs, the Nāgas and Nāgīs, and a host of other Water and Tree Spirits representing the symbols of fertility, have been handled by the Indian artists with amazing mastery and clarity as vehicles of cult ideas, which no human language could possibly have conveyed with such effectiveness and charm. Their language is elevated to the rank of a universal code which becomes intelligible with least possible effort. Thus Indian art with its extensive repertoire of decorative and iconographic motifs constitutes a virtual dictionary of India's religious thought in its varied systems conceived with extraordinary richness and beauty. The Indian soul rejoices at the sight of symbols in art, and clings to them also in religion and poetry. The pleasure of looking at a purely factual subject is limited and of short duration, where as the symbols grow in meaning according to the capacity of the mind and heart of the devoted on-looker.