Studies in Indian Art c7.s3.8

c7.s3.8

Indian art primarily emphasises and insists on the intellectual act. Higher art is a sublime way of the mind. What is now taken to be the sensible aspect, i.e. 'grasped by the senses', is the aesthetic form with all its inherent principles of beauty. It is only a limited portion of that infinite world which appertains to the realm of mind of a creative artist. He is to be compared with Viśvakarmā on the human level of reference. The concrete is the lower form (avara rūpa) and the mental the higher (para rūpa). The wise man is he who discriminates the higher form; the lower or material image gives him no real pleasure (rūpa na ramate).