Ethics though Art
Recently I was privileged enough to attend a 2 day course on Indian Art History conducted by Benoy K. Behl , the famous art historian. The history of Indian art from the ancient period, including the Indus Valley Civilisation onward spanning the medieval period was very quickly but effectively reviewed in a span of 2 days. Of course 2 days is too short for a subject for which a lifetime is not enough but I enjoyed the exposure to some key concepts that made me feel closer to my India heritage, something that my education in science has left me feeling alien about.
That Mr Behl is a very learned and well respected man is something that came across in first half an hour thorough the insightful incisions he was already making to our fertile minds. It was attended by around 80 inquisitive minds and was held at the Vicarage Lodge at Delhi University North Campus. The skeletal framework of this course was set in around 26 documentaries that were commissioned by Doordarshan pertaining to Indian art history and had come as a weekly program in around 2003 (not sure). More than the actual technical discussion of the painting the focus was expectably on Indian history and some controversies related to it. But refreshingly Mr Behl was also able to redraw what could have been some of the ethical guidelines of Ancient India from very seemingly innocuous traditions that he observed across paintings. As a student of management and life this is what made by 2 days worthwhile. I will try to list them out there for posterity.
The well known (to others at least) concept of Chitrasutra – a kind of bible for painting –of the Vishudharmottarra Purana tells us about an highly developed and formalized knowledge of art in India and an understanding of painting which is comparable to what was the best in the world at that point of time. His viewpoint that “God” , as a powerful entity outside our being is a concept was given to us by the westerners and that we have always had deities rather than god is a very interesting and to me, a very intuitive concept. So what’s the difference? Deities are more of a representation of a quality within you that want to bring out. Here is where he brings in the folly of our understanding of another word/concept. The word puja according to him is more adoration rather than prayer. And when you do puja, we by adoring a representative personification of a combination of virtue (and vice?), are trying to open our inner treasure chest to release these qualities onto the word though our being. And from this new perspective, if we take a closer look at it a lot of our seemingly inane traditions they suddenly start making sense. For example our oft ridiculed pantheon of 33 crore gods (read deities) seem more purposeful as representative of different sets of virtues and vices.
From a technical viewpoint as he traced the evolution of Indian art from ancient to medieval to modern times we moved from a “infinite softness or tenderness” to “dynamism of intellect” finally to a more “materialistic” view point (attributed to colonial styles) and then back to an evolved state of understanding as revived by the Bengal school under Tagore, Nadlal Bose etc.
Again the ethical undertones that he brought about from different paintings were beautiful and I’ll try to illustrate the same by some examples. His perspective that the eternal dance of Shiva is not complete without his loved one Shivkami standing and looking at him dancing gives us a peek into Indian viewpoint on the sacred bond of love and the gratification of completeness that comes with it. The representation of moods and facial expression to everything in the pictures from men, women, and animals tells us about the oneness of the universe that we Indians believed and believe in. The complete absence of name of kings and others who commissioned the work is indicative of the collective civic sense of belonging that people had. We also traced the evolution of buddisum, jainisum etc though art particularly the idea behind the emergence of the bodhisatva as a simplification of the concepts of buddisum as a means to reach the common man thru the jataka tales etc. The common technical heritage across different religions helped pointed toward a culture of guilds of artists that helped create beautiful art and also codify and improve the various techniques by them through the patronage of general society from the kings to housewives to fishermen.
The interpretation of stupas as a representation of different levels of self realization as clearly evidenced by a stupa in Indonesia (since they were wrongly interpreted as burial stones by the colonial historians) was of particular interest to the management student in me due to its close similarly with Maslow’s triangle. I saw traces of other management concepts underlying a lot of the observations and it possibly merits deeper study at some point. On a side note, our faculty Mala Sinha at FMS, Delhi is one of the foremost researchers in this field of understanding linkages between management concepts and Indian mythology and its different undertones. Having got a starting nudge in the same I am now looking forward to the results of such explorations that I can apply in my managerial career.
As the best takeaway to the whole course, to my often dismay at the thought that unless I understand a lot more about art my experience of it will be unfinished, Mr Behl had the perfect panacea. His view point that art (Indian art at least) was a means – and this being its intended purpose than anything else – to at least temporally achieve bhramanadandam – the eternal bliss itself – and that does not require technical knowledge. This makes perfect sense to me as art is art for it speaks without you knowing the language and there is something special that art can give you whatever your proficiency levels in the technical details of it are. To sum it all up, of course too many things were covered for me to list out but the general ethical framework that invisibly was woven into completion by the end of the 12 hours across 2 days left me richer and closer to my Indian heritage and am looking forward to Mr Behl ’s book on the same when it comes out.
Endnote : For people interested in knowing more about Mr Behl’s work, I am, with permission posting some links of articles written by him which traverse the same annals of history
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-01/india-ancient-art/interactive-map.html
Article 1: ”Eternal India” (General and Indus Valley)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2416/stories/20070824507606600.htm
Article 2: ”Birth of Classic Form” (Maurya period + Bharhut)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2417/stories/20070907505406400.htm
Article 3: ”Harmony Set in Stone” (Sanchi)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2418/stories/20070921505506600.htm
Article 4: “Grandeur in caves” (Early Western Indian Caves)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2419/stories/20071005505506600.htm
Article 5: “Of divine forms” (Kushana period)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2420/stories/20071019505206400.htm
Article 6: “Valley of stupas” (Krishna Valley, Andhra Pradesh)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2421/stories/20071102504206400.htm
Article 7: “Mind over Matter” (Gupta period)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2422/stories/20071116504306400.htm
Article 8: “Simply Grand” (Later caves of Western India)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2423/stories/20071207505906600.htm
Article 9: “Early Perfection” (Chalukya period)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2424/stories/20071221505406500.htm
Article 10: “Living rocks” (Mamallapuram)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2425/stories/20080104242506600.htm
Article 11: ” Royal shrines” (Kanchipuram and Kalugumalai)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2501/stories/20080118504906500.htm
Article 12: “Miniature cosmos” (Development of the temple and Central India)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2502/stories/20080201505906500.htm
Article 13: “Soaring spirit” (Ellora)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2503/stories/20080215250306500.htm
Article 14: “Tradition of grace” (Orissa and Shravanabelagola)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2504/stories/20080229503906500.htm
Article 15: “Thought and images” (Pala period, Nalanda and Vikramasila)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2505/stories/20080314250506600.htm
Article 16: “Chola marvels” (Chola temples)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2506/stories/20080328250606500.htm
Article 17: “Tradition in bronze” (Chola bronzes)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2507/stories/20080411250706800.htm
Article 18: “Mountain magic” (Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2508/stories/20080425250806300.htm
Article 19: “Colour of peace” (Ladakh, Kinnaur and Spiti)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2509/stories/20080509250906400.htm
Article 20: “Beauty of devotion” (Khajuraho)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2510/stories/20080523251006400.htm
Article 21: “Glorious blend” (Hoysala temples)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2511/stories/20080606251106600.htm
Article 22: “Tallest of them all” (Sun temple, Konark)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2512/stories/20080620251206600.htm
Article 23: “Images of change” (Hampi)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2513/stories/20080704251306500.htm
Article 24: “Sacred spaces” (Later temples of Tamilnadu)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2514/stories/20080718251406500.htm
Article 25: “ Temples of Peace” (Gujarat and Rajasthan Jaina temples)
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2515/stories/20080801251506600.htm




