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Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s9: A. Iconographical Aestheticism

Vāstu-śāstra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s9

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English

A. Iconographical Aestheticism

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Iconography is both a science and an art. For an artistic perfection of an image. it has to be accomplished in such a way as to arouse in us the aesthetic experience akin to one as we get from poetry and music. According to the Indian aestheticians, the main purpose of a poetical composition is to arouse pleasure, the ‘Āsvāda’ what is called ‘Rasāsvāda’, in the readers. And this rasāsvāda is extolled as ‘Brahmānandasahodara’. It is from this fundamental standpoint of Indian aestheticism that we do not have tragedies in our dramatic literature. The Indian view or more appropriately the Hindu view of life is one of the unbounded faith in the eternity, a profound sense of optimism and a sublime outlook of life, coloured by the numinal existence and heavenly bliss, both the Svarga and the Apavarga. Naturally therefore, all arts, be it poety or music, painting or dance, are to be viewed from this lofty idealism of aestheticism.

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In nearly all the phases of Indian art the Rasa (or impassioned feeling) has played a very prominent role. The Indian belief is that the supreme being is Rasa-svarupa (cf. the Indian theory of Rasa-Brahma-Vāda रसो वै स:). Again image-worship, for which icons used to be made of the manifold materials with manifold symbols, to be worthy of desired end, has to be done in a manner of an accomplished art, *viz.* dance and drama where there is an identification of the spectator with the Naṭa, the actor. A similar identification is essential between the worshipper and the worshipped. This is possible only through the arousing of rasas, the aestheticism, in art. The sculptural monuments in our possession do corroborate this dictum and there we find a number of different ‘Rasas’ which the artists endeavoured to dwell upon in their dry stones and metals. Brindavana’s observations (vide I. I. p. xv), in this connection are worth quoting: ‘The images were so wrought by the Indian artist as to manifest one or more of these Rasas by their pose and appearance. The artists believed that when the mind, feeling and temperament of a devotee would come in an identical line with those of the worshipped, the realization of one’s prayer could only then be expected. Thus they furnished various images expressing not one but a variety of Rasas just according to the needs of the worshipper. Nor should we carelessly err in assuming that an image conveys one single feeling in its pose. As in a man, so in an image may be discernable a mixed feeling, the result of an interaction of multiple feelings, either of similar type or even of opposing types. As an illustration the expression of love and sublimity is regularly to be noticed in the images of Hara-Gaurī or Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, more particularly in the Anantaśayyā group. The feeling of laugther but without repugnance or sarcasm may easily be excited in us as we look at the pot-bellied image of Gaṇeśa, dancing with his elephant nose or of Kubera, the god of wealth.....The mood of anger together with the sympathetic protection (varabhaya) has been emphatically expressed in most of the Tāntrika images which as a rule, represent the energetic principles of the universe. In them more vividly than in others, may be witnessed a mingled feeling of fear, wrath, repugnance, wonder and sportiveness. Indeed, it ought to be plainly said that without a trained eye in this directon, it is as impossible to appreciate the remarkable success attained by the Indian artists in the composition of those images as it may be to estimate rightly all the standing monuments of Ancient Indian Culture’.

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Thus aestheticism in art becomes instrumental in producing the भावव्यक्तिः and this भावव्यक्ति is dependent on the resas or rasadṛṣṭis cf. the following lines of the Samarāṅgaṇa :

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रसानामथ वक्ष्यामो दृष्टीनामिहं लक्षणम् ।
तदायत्ता यतश्चित्रे भावव्यक्तिः प्रजायते ॥

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Here citra can stand both for the pictorial images as well as the sculptural ones. Hence according to the S. S. it is the supreme achievement of the image-maker or the sculptor to see to this side of aestheticism in art—the ‘bhāva-vyakti’. This aestheticism is really one of the major contributions of Indian canons of Art as propounded in the texts like Viṣṇudharmottara and the Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra, to give a distinct and unique character. The oft-quoted aphorism ब्रह्मानन्दसहोदरः रसः is not without significance and high meaning. It aims at ennobling life. Even birds and beasts, the so called brutes, when characterized with the different sentiments in accordance with the different situations, if go higher up, men and women, when imbubed with it they simply become divine. Further more this aesthetic element in Indian art pre-supposes the ideal of ‘Beautiful’ in its real perspective. The beautiful is not only to be viewed in anatomical perspective, but also in the inner manifestation, the sole criterion of the beautiful, the ‘Sundara’ from the Hindu view of life. Beautiful internally, in its turn, presupposes the truthful,—the ‘Satya’ both internally and externally and the art which is both Satya and Sundara, that alone becomes the benficient the ‘Śiva’--the Supreme Ideal of life. It is this ‘Good’ of the humanity at large that the Indian seers have always aimed at. Any creation unless it is condusive to the well being of life, unless inspiring to ennoble it and unless high enough for creative urge, it is not worth the ideal. It is from this fundamental angle that aestheticism in iconographical art is to be viewed and purviewed. With this introduction to this subject, it may be wounded up here to be resumed in its more appropriate place—the canons of pictorial art—the subject matter of the 3rd part of this work—Pt. III.

Cites (2)