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Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s7.t2: Painting

Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra c8.s7.t2

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Painting

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The Pictorial art, ālekhyam, was one of the foremost of the sixty-four kalās cultivated during this period. Every cultured man had in his house a drawing board, citraphalaka, and a vessel (samudgaka) for holding brushes and other requisites of painting.² Pictures, citrakarma, appear to have been drawn, as the commentator of Vātsyāyana explains, both on the walls (*bhitti*) as well as on panels or boards (*phalaka*); Vātsyāyana advises a lover who wants to attract the attention of the lady whose charms have captivated him, to put in places frequented by her, paintings (probably representing himself) done on panels¹; in another place we read of a kiss imprinted on a picture (*citrakarma*),² most probably on a wall. For *citrakarma* or painting, the surface of the wall appears to have been most ordinarily used in ancient India, as appears from a passage in the *Mudrā-rākṣasa* where the futility of the earnest efforts of a statesman is compared to "the composition of a picture (*citrakarma*) without the wall."³ The same idea is found in the *Lalitavistara* where the daughters of Māra declare that it was easier to paint pictures on the sky than to tempt Bodhisattva.⁴ Bharata clearly refers to fresco-painting by the phrase *citrakarma*; he says that the walls of the theatre-hall were to be decorated with *citrakarma* after they had been carefully plastered, coated with lime and nicely polished, the paintings consisting of the representation of male and female figures, of creeper-patterns and a record of great deeds.⁵ It is fortunate that in our country where we have so few pictorial records of the past, the caves at Ajanta have preserved a few frescoes, the solitary survivals of this age of prolific artistic production.

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² Ibid, p. 32 and p. 44 (sūtra 10).

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¹ यत संपातोऽस्यास्य चित्रकर्मणः...निधानम्।—Ibid, p. 292 (*sūtra* 20).

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² Ibid, p. 111 (*sūtra* 31).

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³ सैवैः मम चित्रकर्मरचना भित्तिं विना वर्तते।—*Mudrārākṣasa*, Act ii.

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⁴ शक्य तात अन्तरिक्षे लेख्यचित्र चित्रितुं, न बोधिसत्त्व शक्य तात बोधिमण्ड चालितुम्।—*Lalitavistara*, xxi, 312.

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⁵ भित्तिष्व विलिप्तासु परिष्कृतासु सर्वतः। समासु जातशोभासु चित्रकर्म प्रयोजयेत्॥ चित्रकर्मणि चालिप्याः पुरुषाः स्त्रीजनस्तथा। लताबन्धाय कर्तव्यं रतिं चाभोगजम्॥ *Bhāratīya Nāṭyaśāstram* (Nirṇaya-sāgara Press), Chap. ii, verses 72-74.

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Vātsyāyana speaks also of the *ākhyānaka paṭa*¹ which is evidently a roll of canvas containing the representation of a short story in several scenes like the *yamapaṭa* which was spread by a spy of Cāṇakya before the people in Candanadāsa's house and was exhibited by him with songs;² we may add that the direct descendant of this *yamapaṭa* may still be seen in the villages of Bengal. Balls with various designs painted on them in a variety of colours, as also water jugs of various elegant shapes with many paintings, are mentioned by Vātsyāyana as welcome presents to a maiden whose favours one is courting.³ The *Lalitavistara* mentions a similar plaything for children, viz., jugs beautifully painted on the outside but containing valueless things within.⁴

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¹ *Kāmasūtra*, p. 269 (*sūtra* 2).

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² तहिं भमपडं पसारिअ पउत्तंण गोदाअं जादम् ।—*Mudrārākṣasa*, Act i.

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³ कन्दुकमनेकभक्तिचित्रं संद्रयेत् ।—*Kāmasūtra*, p. 202 (*sūtra* 13). विविधकृतिसंयुक्तानां जलभाजनानाञ्च दानं ।—*Ibid*, p. 203 (*sūtra* 14).

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⁴ ग्रह ते बाला रञ्जन्ति चित्रघटिकाभिर्यदपिपूर्णविभासः ।—*Lalitavistara*, xv, 207.

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According to Vātsyāyana a welcome object of presentation to maidens was a colour-box (*puṭolikā*) containing the following colours:—*alaktaka* (the red dye obtained from lac), *manaḥśilā* (red arsenic), *haritāla* (yellow orpiment), *hiṅgula* (vermillion) and *śyāmavarṇaka*; the last named appears to be a vegetable dye, black, blue or green because the word *śyāma* is used to signify all these colours. The commentator says that it means a powder used in painting, of *rājāvarta*, a mineral substance.⁵ A painter surrounded by many cups (*mallakas*) of wet colours is referred to in Bhāsa's *Cārudatta*.⁶ Jayamaṅgalā quotes a beautiful verse apparently from a *śilpaśāstra* about the six great requisites of painting, viz., "knowledge of appearances, correct perception, measure and structure of forms, action of feelings on forms, infusion of grace or artistic representation, similitude and artistic manner of using the brush and colours."¹ Bharata speaks of the pictorial representation of the feelings or rather sentiments, the *rasas*, by different colours, the erotic or amatory sentiment is represented by the *śyāma* or dark colour spoken of above, the sentiment of mirth by white; the piteous sentiment is grey (*kapota*) and the choleric is red, the heroic is yellowish white (*gaura*) and the terrible, black; the repulsive is blue and the amazing, yellow.²

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⁵ पटोलिकानामलक्तकमनःशिलाहरितालहिङ्गुलानामवर्णकानां दानं । *Kāmasūtra*, p. 203

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⁶ चित्रपटो विश्व बहुमत्रपरि परिबुद्धौ ।—Bhāsa, *Cārudatta* (Trivandrum Sanskrit Series), Act ix, p. 7.

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¹ रूपभेदाः प्रमाणानि भावलावण्ययोजनम् । साहश्यं वर्णिकाभङ्ग इति चित्रं षडङ्गकम्ति ॥ *Kāmasūtra* p. 33. The translation is by Mr. Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the modern Bengal school of painting, who has discussed this verse in the *Modern Review*, xv, (1914), pp. 581-2.

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² श्यामो भवति शृङ्गारः सितो हास्यः प्रकीर्तितः । कपोतः करुणश्चैव रक्तो रौद्रः प्रकीर्तितः ॥ गौरी वीरस्तु विज्ञेयः कृष्णश्चैव भयानकः । नीलवर्णस्तु बीभत्सः पीतश्चैव स्मृतः ॥ *Nātyaśāstra*, ch. vi, 42-43 (p. 63).

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