Hindu's Art

kirhmuru

Hinduism is the predominant religion in India, it has approximately 867 million followers making up about 13% of the world’s population and as such the culture that ensues it is full of different aspects of life that are effected by art. There are 64 traditional arts that are followed that start with the classics of music and range all the way to the application and adornment of jewelry. Since religion and culture are inseparable with Hinduism recurring symbols such as the gods and their reincarnations, the lotus flower, extra limbs, and even the traditional arts make their appearances in many sculptures, paintings, music, and dance.

64 Traditional Arts

• Singing

Instrumental music

• • Learning music in Hindu culture was a difficult task before the 20th century because of a necessary birth into a gharana. After the early 1920’s integration of anyone wanting to learn classical Hindustani music could. An average ensemble normally includes a harmonium (which was brought to India by westerners), flute, veena, sitar, swaramandala, and a tabla. Many of the songs have strong themes that are related to theology such as a god’s favorite pastimes, praise of any god whether they be in their original form from “the trinity” or the god’s reincarnation, even stories of the creation of earth. Since instrumental music is a performance art it must follow strict guidelines that come from the treatise Natya Shastra.
• Dancing
• Painting
• Forehead adornments
• Making decorative floral and grain designs on the floor
• Home and temple flower arranging
• Personal grooming
• Mosaic tiling
• Bedroom arrangements
• Creating music with water
• Splashing and squirting with water
• Secret mantras
• Making flower garlands
• Head adornments
• Dressing
  • Drapery- The art of drapery has progressed over time. At one point both men and women wore dhotis but around the 14th century that changed and women’s fashion became more intricate thus creating the sari. The drapery involved distinguishes the wearer’s taste, occupation, and social status. The fabrics chosen range from cotton and synthetic fabrics all the way to silk. The fabric chosen depends on what occasion the wearer is going to use the item of clothing for. The draping of the sari comes in four different families: Marvari, Dravidian, Tribal, and Nivi. The family that the wearer chooses depends on the wearer’s personal taste. The way an item of clothing is draped tells a lot about the wearer such as expression of creativity, progression of fashion, and where the user comes from.
• Costume decorations
• Perfumery
• Jewelry making
• Magic and illusions
• Ointments for charm and virility
• Manual dexterity
• Skills of cooking, eating and drinking
• Beverage and dessert preparation
• Sewing (making and mending garments)
• Embroidery
• Playing Vina and drum
• Riddles and rhymes
• Poetry games
• Tongue twisters and difficult recitation
• Literary recitation
• Drama and story telling
  • Drama in it’s early essence was performed mainly by male troupes and was often integrated with many of the other traditional art forms such as poetry, music, and story telling. Since drama is a performance art it also follows the Natya Shastra guidelines.
• Verse composition game
• Furniture caning
• Erotic devices and knowledge of sexual arts
• Crafting wooden furniture
• Architecture and house construction
• Distinguishing between ordinary and precious stones and metals
• Metal-working
• Gems and mining
• Gardening and horticulture
• Games of wager involving animals
• Training parrots and mynas to speak
• Hairdressing
• Coding messages
• Speaking in code
• Knowledge of foreign languages and dialects
• Making flower carriages
• Spells, charms and omens
• Making simple mechanical devices
• Memory training
• Game of reciting verses from hearing
• Decoding messages
• The meanings of words
• Dictionary studies
• Prosody and rhetoric
• Impersonation
• Artful dressing
• Games of dice
• The game of akarsha (a dice game played on a board)
• Making dolls and toys for children
• Personal etiquette and animal training
• Knowledge of dharmic warfare and victory
• Physical culture

Historic Texts on Art Practices

• Natya Shastra
  • The Natya Shastra is the leading guide to the Hindu performing arts. It is based on the Natya Veda, which no longer exists, and is roughly 37 chapters long with 6,000 slokas.Cities Dedicated to the Production of Art
• Raghurpajpur
  • This city is solely dedicated to the production of artwork that is driven by the divine forces of Hinduism and these artworks are produced in a traditional fashion. The city is located in northern India and at one point this city was at risk of being completely destroyed due to British rule. During this time religion and the power of the kings were being overthrown and as such there was no reason for a city to exist whose main purpose is to supply traditional art. After this crisis occurred the city began to exclusively base itself off of agriculture until a man named Jacnnath Mopatra led a training center for chitrakars. This revolution began production of the traditional art works once again in the 1950s and since the work being produced is known internationally.

Common Symbols

• Extra Limbs-Extra limbs are seen on many of the Hindu deities in paintings and sculptures. The extra limbs show how much power the god is capable of because of their ability to perform many tasks at once. Such as the goddess Sarasvati always has a minimum of four arms. Two of the arms will be playing a vina, representing the tuning of her knowledge, prayer beads in another hand and a scripture in another, both of these items are used to represent her devotion to her spirituality. Since she is the goddess of learning and art we see that she is very capable and very powerful in her area of expertise.Lotus Flower-The lotus flower is another common item seen constantly throughout the arts. The lotus flower represents purity, beauty, prosperity, fertility, and transcendence.The reason the flower shows these attributes is due to the process in which the lotus flower goes through in order to blossom. The flower grows out of mud and rests atop the water in which it grows showing the hardship it must endure in order to achieve maximum beauty. Many deities have their name based on the Sanskrit word for lotus such as Lakshimi.

from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_art