Window to the World of India's Art
THE TIMES OF INDIA
By Shanta Serbjeet Singh
INDIA - If there is a single window into the mysterious world of Indic art and aesthetics, it is our holistic and cosmocentric vision of the world. It explains the relationship of the parts to the whole, of the multiple to the one, and of the finite to the infinite. The Chitrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara Purana, arguably the world's oldest treatise on art, not only provides a detailed account of the various schools, techniques and ideals of Indian painting, but specifies the aim of painting as one of communicating an emotion and causing particular spiritual states of mind. It says: "Painting cleanses the mind and curbs anxiety, augments future good, causes the greatest delight, kills the evils of bad dreams and pleases the household deity." Further, it says, "Painting is the best of all arts and is conducive to dharma or right conduct and moksha or emancipation". [link]
By Shanta Serbjeet Singh
INDIA - If there is a single window into the mysterious world of Indic art and aesthetics, it is our holistic and cosmocentric vision of the world. It explains the relationship of the parts to the whole, of the multiple to the one, and of the finite to the infinite. The Chitrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara Purana, arguably the world's oldest treatise on art, not only provides a detailed account of the various schools, techniques and ideals of Indian painting, but specifies the aim of painting as one of communicating an emotion and causing particular spiritual states of mind. It says: "Painting cleanses the mind and curbs anxiety, augments future good, causes the greatest delight, kills the evils of bad dreams and pleases the household deity." Further, it says, "Painting is the best of all arts and is conducive to dharma or right conduct and moksha or emancipation". [link]
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