The Art of India

Paper Summary:

This short paper explores both the art of India and the mysticism behind this art. The author describes the purposes of Indian art, citing the religious and philosophical meanings intertwined within a work. Several architectural landmarks are presented, including the complex of temples at Khajuraho. Specific styles of painting are also described.

From the Paper:

" The most prominent feature of Indian art is that it does not attempt a representation of the immediate reality as such, nor does it bring merely aesthetic figurations of it, but that its substance is always blended with the religions and philosophies of India, and therefore pervaded with rich symbolism, with a sum of philosophical concepts and many divine characters. This is why artistic objects in India serve usually more than one purpose - the temples, for example, are not, in terms of style, merely architectural forms, but are closer to sculpture. Also the stupas , were originally small burial or reliquary places , but they are also cosmic diagrams by the special elements of their construction such as the harmika symbolizing the heaven of the thirty three gods , and the yasti , as the axis of the universe , rising through the harmika ,and thus uniting the world with the paradise above."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Goetz , Hermann The Art of India , Halle &Co. Verlog , Baden Baden , 1959
• Kleiner , Mamiya Gardner's Art through the Ages
• The Hindu Universe ,available on the Internet at www.hindunet.org/god

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• Comparison Essay # 1125 : "The Evolution of the Buddha Image"
• Essay # 60321 : "Buddhist Art"
• Essay # 84339 : "Indian Buddhism and Chinese Art"

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