Studies in Indian Art c7.s3.14

c7.s3.14

Viśvakarmā is *sādhu-karmā*, one whose works are perfect specimens (*Ṛig., X. 81.6*). His creation is an ever expanding process in time and space (*havishā vāvṛidhānā, Ṛig., X. 81.6*). His highest and lowest natures (*parama, avama dhāma*) exist side by side with a connecting intermediate link (*madhyama dhāma*). These three correspond to the triple forms of art referred to above. The visual symbolism is the lowermost nature (*avama, kshara, mūrta*). The mental or the verbal symbol of scripture is the mid-most form, a station on the way to the highest reality. It is the light-image (*bhā-rūpa*) or reflection (*ābhāsa*), an intellectual act which is the ‘art in the artist’, as Coomarswamy has put it. The highest form (*parama dhāma*) of Viśvakarmā is that which is formless (*arūpa*), i.e., in which only the highest Unitary Principle (*tattva*) transcends all particulars (*viśeṣa*) and definitions and in which all forms are to be seen in identity with every other. In a true realisation of art these three distinctive natures, which are at the same time linked by a unifying thread, should be borne in mind.