Studio: international art (82.1921)

HINDU ART AND ITS IDEALS

WHITE JADE LOTUS-SHAPED
CUP, PUNJAB, SEVEN-
TEENTH CENTURY

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

a stag (in his slender waist), and the
gentleness of a woman (in his rounded
limbs). In one of the best known figures
of the Nataraja, or dancing Shiva, the
god wears a woman's ear-ring in one ear
and a masculine ornament in the other
to symbolize that he is the embodiment
of both male and female qualities. Another
example of symbolism is a bas-relief at
Mamallapuram of Vishnu representing
the sun. The god himself dominates the
centre of the group : four sages are at
his feet—the four quarters of the earth—
and small figures of Shiva and Brahma in
the upper corners typify the rising and
setting of the sun. An even more beautiful
conception of Vishnu is the blackstone
relief illustrated on page 206. Here the god
is four-armed, the upper left hand holding
the disk, the lower the conch-shell, the
upper right the mace, and the lower right
gives the gesture of invitation, a lotus in
the palm. On his right is his consort
Lakshmi with a fly-whisk, and on his
left the goddess Saraswati playing the
vina. Gaudharas carrying floral tributes,
heavenly musicians, animal and personified
attributes are woven into a cloud-like
nimbus of design. Very little in Western
art can exceed the exquisite workmanship
of this relief, wherein the luxury of detail
is as it were an emanation from the Being
in whom the universe is embodied. 0

Hindu painting in the few pre-Mogul
specimens extant bears witness to the
idea of One expressed by the Many.
Hence we see one episode of a tale enacted
in the foreground of the picture and the
continuation or result in a courtyard or
alcove above. Further details of a city

208

not extraneous to the tale may be there
to emphasise that the perfect concept
includes all the works of man's hand.
Colour and size, both essences of spirit,
are used symbolically. Trees, flowers and
animals, throughout all Hindu sculpture,
painting, and design, have a poetic rather
than a pictorial value. We Westerns have
always been a little doubtful about animals
having souls, hence our art has paid
them little more than a picturesque
notice. But, apart from their poetic
conception in sculpture and painting the
fauna and flora of India have a natural
beauty in design per se. Of all branches
of art, Eastern or Western, none has borne
such fruit as this. Unlike any other, the
Hindu craftsman has understood the
essence of applied design. For him it
is the balanced and harmonious blending
of related objects, as when the snake and
the lotus, both spirals in nature, are
associated in decoration. He also applies
the horse, the boar, and the elephant so
that their natural characteristics are
heightened. Our reproduction of a per-
forated sandalwood box (p. 209) illus-
trates this application and a careful study
of it should convince anyone that the
Hindu designer was a master-craftsman. 0
Perhaps the few illustrations given here
may suffice to increase interest in Hindu
art ideals, which should appeal to us,
awakening as we are from an age of
materiality. One day we shall realise, as
the Hindu artist did nearly 2,000 years
ago, that art is of the Mind, not of the
eye. Victoria Drummond.

(Radha Rani.)

WHITE JADE THREE-
HANDLED CUP, PUNJAB
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

(Victoria and Albert Museum)