Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s2.200

v2.c74.s2.200

Iconography is both a science and an art. An art must express life in all its manifestations. Images and sculptures, the finest productions of art, naturally therefore, must express life. An ideal art like iconography must not only express life, but should also ennoble life by means of its appeal, not only to the senses, but also to the spirit. Early Indian art being religious in character has always adhered to this spiritual side of artistic appeal. The very aim of Indian Iconography being the fulfilment of the want of worship of the gods and goddesses; and worship is nothing but a homage to the loftiest of virtues and highest of thoughts and noblest of acts that are understood to be possessed of, by these divinities; therefore they needed, in the anthopomorphic representations of gods and goddesses, to be expressed through some medium of art. How to do it? It was through the symbolism of Mudrās that the artists of India have done it and have done it creditably. The symbolism of Indian art is its chief characteristic which gives to it a unique distinction in the artistic history of the world.