IndianArt

HinduismBuddhism

VISUAL ARTS

THEATER ARTS

DANCEMUSIC

LITERATURE

HinduismTwo Principal Doctrines:

Samsara (transmigration of souls)

Karma (the law that the actions of man in one life will determine his future rebirths)

Hinduism

The Hindu Trinity:

Brahma (Creator) Vishnu (Preserver) Shiva (Destroyer)

HinduismReligious Aim: To attain nirvana

Objectives of Human Life:

Dharma (righteousness) Artha (livelihood, wealth) Kama (sensual pleasure) Moksa (liberation; freedom

from samsara)

BuddhismTeachings of Buddha:

That life is sorrow That the cause of sorrow is

desire That escape from samsara

to nirvana is through the destruction of desire

That the destruction of desire is to be achieved by the Eight-Fold Path

BuddhismThe Eight-Fold Path:

Right belief Right resolve Right speech Right behavior Right occupation Right effort Right contemplation Right concentration

Characteristics of Indian Art

• Exemplifies social, political, philosophical, and religious influences

• Features spirals and curvaceous lines, vines and tendrils, round-figured goddesses, circular amulets, colored gemstones, arches and domes, crescent moons, and the globe of the sun

• Anonymity

"European art has, as it were its wings

clipped: it knows only the beauty of

earthly things. Indian art, soaring

into the highest empyrean, is ever

trying to bring down to earth something

of the beauty of the things above.”

Visual Arts

Ajanta Cave2nd century B.C.; 30 caves

Cave painting, Ajanta

Kailasanatha Temple, Ellora760 – 800 A.D.

Shakuntala Looking Back to Glimpse DushyantaRaja Ravi Varma (1848 – 1906)

Bharat Mata (Mother India)Abanindranath Tagore* (1905)

*father of India’s modern art

Self-Portrait as TahitianAmrita Sher-Gil* (1934)

*first modernist painter of India; also known as India’s Frida Kahlo

Literature

Indian Epics

1. Mahabharata - older; embraces the entire cosmology of Hinduism; relates the wars between the two branches of the Bharata family (the Pandavas and the Kuravas); contains the long poem Bhagavad Gita (a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna before an important battle in which the latter, who assumes his divine personality, urges the former not to shirk from action)

2. Ramayana- takes its story from an episode of the older epic: the hero, Rama, is one of the reincarnations of the god Vishnu; Sita is the model of the faithful wife

Indian Epics

Shakuntala- the flowering of Sanskrit literature after the eclipse of Buddhism by Hinduism; Indian drama is romantic and escapist, no fighting or violence takes place on stage, and neither do deaths, marriages, nor other rituals

Poetry & Drama

Kama Sutra- Kama – sensual or sexual pleasure- Sutra – rule or formula- a treatise on love; also makes a reference to the art of painting

Erotic Literature

Music

Carnatic Music- South Indian Classical Music- emphasis on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung; monophonic- usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, consisting of a principal performer (vocalist), a melodic accompaniment (violin), a rhythm accompaniment (mridangam or drum), and a tambura (droning lute)

<insert Carnatic Music video clip>

Styles of Classical Music

Hindustani Music- North Indian Classical Music- originated from Vedic ritual chants- monophonic

<insert The Tradition of Vedic Chanting video clip> <insert Ravi and Anoushka Shankar sitar video clip*>

Styles of Classical Music

Dance

“The Indian art of dance is the expression of inner beauty and the divine in man. It is a deliberate art, nothing is left to chance, each gesture seeks to communicate the ideas, each

facial expression the emotions.”

Indian Art of Dance

<insert Kathakali dance video clip>

Theater Arts

Sanskrit theater; one of India’s oldest living theatrical traditions (2,000 years ago)

Stylized and codified theatrical language (eye expressions, the language of gestures)

Kutiyattam

<insert Kutiyattam Sanskrit Theater video clip>

Vannessa E. San JuanArt Studies 4

Philippine High School for the Arts, SY 2011 - 2012

the end.