Rupam*
THE appearance of this superb quarterly admirable in its artistic get-up and
its fine reproductions of Indian sculpture and painting, admirable in the
accomplished excellence of its matter, - the name of the editor, Mr. O. C. Gangoly, the one man most especially fitted by his knowledge and capacity for
this work, is of itself a sufficient guarantee of excellence, -
is a significant indication of the progress that is being made in the revival
of the aesthetic mind of India. Assailed and corrupted in a time of cultural
decline and arrest of its creative and artistic faculty by an alien aesthesis
and ideals antithetic to its own spirit, it is returning to a right view and
understanding of its past greatness, and though much way has still to be made
before there can be any universal recovery of the artistic eye and taste, the
first steps have been taken with some rapidity and firmness and are all in the
right direction. This new and fine effort of the Indian Society of Oriental Arts
is likely to be of invaluable aid towards this reawakening; its magnificent
illustrations are in themselves a revelation of the old beauty and greatness
and, admirably selected and supported by illuminating articles,
ought to be sufficient to open even the most blinded vision to the meaning
and value of our ancient painting and sculpture.
The subjects of the four articles in this number are all of a considerable
interest and touch points or raise and answer questions which have either a
central importance or a vital though second-plane prominence in Indian art, and
each article is a remarkably just, full, efficient and understanding
interpretation of its subject. The frontispiece is a panel from a Pallava
temple at Mahabalipuram intended to convey at once the essential character
and appeal of Indian sculpture by an example which offers no difficulty of
understanding or appreciation even to a non- Indian mind or to an uninstructed
knowledge, and it is accompanied by a brief but clear and sufficient article.
This example . An illustrated quarterly journal of Oriental Art, chiefly
Indian, edited by O. C. Gangoly.
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from one of the great styles and periods shows, as is justly said, and shows
very perfectly, the Indian principle in the treatment of the human figure, the
suppression of small particulars and trivial details in order to secure an
extreme simplicity of form and contour, - the best condition for accomplishing
the principal. object of the Indian sculptor which was to fill the form with
the utmost power of spiritual force and significance. The figure of this
princely doorkeeper of the temple in its union of calm, grave, sweet and
restful serenity with a latent and restrained heroic energy in
its stillness, noted by the writer as the distinctive power of this creation,
is indeed equal, as he suggests, in its dignity and repose to any Greek statue,
but in it carries in it a more profound and profound meaning: it is a prefect
interpretation of the still and intense Godward feeling, seized in one deep
mood, in one fixed moment of it, which was the soul of the great ages of Indian
religion. There is here a perfection of form with a perfection of significance.
This restraint in power, this contained fullness opening an amplitude of
infinite suggestion, is not rare or exceptional, it is a frequent greatness in
the art of Indian.
The second article on
Garuda in Bengal and Java by Akshaya Kumar Maitreya, besides its interesting
and discerning treatment of its subject, the inception and humanising of the
Garuda figure and the artistic use of the my thus, touches an issue which has not
yet, I think, received sufficient consideration, the place of the art of Gauda
in the development of the spirit of Indian sculpture. The putting side by side
of the two sculptures from Java and Varendra, on one side the heroic force,
majesty, dignity and beauty of the ancient art in one of its finest
developments, on the other the moved nobility, grace and loveliness and the
fervour of spiritual emotion and tenderness of a time when the antique Aryan
spirit was softening into the sweetness of the religions of Bhakti, makes of
itself an illuminating suggestion. This sculpture is eloquent of that
transition and the art of Gauda with its lyrical sweetness of emotion and, at
its best, suggestive depths, begins the curve of the stream of spiritual
feeling which came down through the Vaishnava art and poetry, found its most
gracious and lucid embodiment in the poets of Bengal, has now taken, enriched
by new elements, a large and living development
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in the lyrics of Tagore and the paintings of the Calcutta school and has yet a
vital part to play in the spiritual future of India.
Another article contains a full
and discriminating account, copiously illustrated by numerous figures, of the
history of the Kirtimukha, a standing feature in Indian architecture, and the
development of its use as a constant decorative element and in Java a prominent
structural motive. The right understanding of these details is a necessary
equipment for the complete comprehension of the art of India. The writer
handles his subject with a consummate mastery and includes in a small compass
all that is needed to give us a full idea about this "glory face".
The one thing not included in his
intention is its psychological significance, a question of great interest, for
it is an evolution as the writer indicates from an element common to the
ancient. art of Asia and there were kindred things in Greece and mediaeval
Europe. It is the result, I would suggest, of an imagination or an experience
that has entered into the subtle worlds and found there a side of things
dangerous and distorted and terrible that have yet to be compelled by the
adventure of the self-conquering spirit into an element of divine harmony and
significance.
The remaining article by Mr. E. Vredenburg on the continuity of
pictorial tradition in the art of India treats a question of the most central
importance and brings to it a fine aesthetic instinct even more necessary than
historic and archaeological accuracy of information in such a discussion, for
one may have the latter and yet miss the truth for lack of a more essential
equipment of the art critic. Mr. Vredenburg enters a still much- needed protest
against the constant tendency to attribute a foreign origin to whatever
survives of Indian creation. The instances he gives are indeed evidences of an
extraordinary perversity of judgment, such as the well-known refusal to leave
the credit of the Tajmahal to India, "the numerous attempts that have been
made to ascribe the Ajanta paintings to the Greeks, Persians or Chinese",
and last but not least colossally absurd, "the truly astounding statement
that the Kangra paintings are of European inspiration and that they were
painted for the English market"! Only yesterday while reading Mr.
Jouveau-Dubreuil's able histo-
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rical monograph I found myself brought up short by
the sweepingly positive but hardly judicial and certainly not judicious
statement that "the Deccan like the North was inspired by the Greek and
Roman arts and the marbles of Amaravati can be compared to the sculptures of
Gandhara". The plain fact is that whatever outside influences there mayor
may not have been in India as elsewhere, even the earliest work shows a
characteristic Indian mentality and touch; and as for Gandharan art, it has the
air of an inefficient attempt of the Hellenistic mind to absorb this spirit
rather than an effort of India to imitate Greece. And in any case the great
characteristic work could no more have been the creation of a foreign mind or
of its influence than the sculptures of Phidias can be attributed to an
Assyrian, Egyptian or Chinese origin. A psychological insensibility to the
spiritual significance of Indian work is probably at the root of these errors
and, so long as that subsists, the most erudite knowledge will be no protection
against gross misunderstandings.
Mr. Vredenburg is chiefly
concerned in this article with filling up the gap between the Ajanta frescoes
and the later art .of India. He is able to do this up to the eleventh or
twelfth century: for the beautiful coloured reproductions of exquisite Buddhist
miniatures from an illuminated manuscript of that period which are the most
attractive feature of this number, evidence a complete continuity of the Ajanta
style. Most striking are the two enlargements which show at once and
conclusively that these miniatures are in their whole spirit, method and every
characteristic reductions of the old style of mural painting. He appeals also
to the typically Ajantesque character of the coloured panels of Man Singh's
palace which date from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It will be
interesting to follow the farther
development of this argument in the forthcoming number.
I could wish I had space
for adequate comment on the many points of stimulating interest with which this
number abounds, but I have, I think, indicated enough to show that every lover
of Indian art and culture ought to possess "Rupam". He will find it
one of the luxuries that are necessities.
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