Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c5.25

c5.25

UNITY OF FORM AND MEANING—A study of Indian art is thus possible at several levels—fixing of the archeaological context, technique of production, style, chronology, culture, and above all, its meaning. As in Plato, so in Indian æsthetics, idea or meaning (*Artha*) is of sublime value; the form (*Rūpa*) no less important from the æsthetic point of view is the vehical of ideas. Form is the body and meaning is the soul of art. Kālidāsa has paid the loftiest homage to both by comparing them with the Cosmic Creator and the Divine Mother, the Universal Parents, who preside over creation, and also inspire human art, both being inseparable: