Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c4.6

c4.6

In Chapter I, Introductory, I have stated my point of view about the discovery of meaning and treating divine images and auspicious motifs as symbols of religious thought and philosophy. The supreme value of art consists in the fact that it is a bridge between the two worlds of mind and matter both invested with beauty. Art is an idea in visual form. This is the mystery of art to be decoded by the cultural tradition of the people. Indian aesthetic theory looks upon art as the descent of heaven on earth (deva-sānnidhya). The external form, howsoever good, fulfils only one half of artist's efforts, the other half is found to be eloquent with meaning. Even the decorative motifs like foliated scrolls (Patra-rachanā) of Gupta art were considered to be the visible form of Viṣṇu's heaven and blank surface was regarded as ugly or meeting place of the demons. This basic point of view about symbolical themes of Indian art as Buddha, Śiva, Devas, etc. should be thought as the real eye of art in India, where the meaning of the outer form has been preserved in an unbroken tradition as nowhere else in the world.