A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s5.11

c15.s5.11

Before proceeding to describe and reproduce a few select typical examples, an attempt must be made to give some notion of the strange manner in which Hindu thought associates music with painting. Even with the help of such exposition as I am able to offer, on the authority of Sir William Jones, who had some practical knowledge of both arts, it is not easy for the European mind to discover any real bond of union between a given picture and the sounds which it is supposed to symbolize. Personally, I am wholly unable to trace the connexion, and can discuss the paintings simply with reference to their aesthetic value as expressions of Hindu sentiment, imagination, and observation of nature. I do not know anybody who could explain why a particular design was appropriated to certain music. The association of the various musical modes with the seasons—a subject sufficiently obscure in itself—does not help me much to realize the ideas underlying the pictorial symbolism, and I cannot judge how far any selected work is to be commended for its significance as a suggestion to the eye of certain musical combinations of sounds. To some extent the general nature of the subject appropriate to the illustration of each ‘musical mode’ was fixed by rule or tradition, but the treatment allowed free scope to the exercise of each individual artist’s fancy and skill. The *Rāgmālā* illustrations are of special interest because of their freedom from the fetters of immutable rules, bondage to which has been the chief support of the common belief that India possesses no fine art.