Art is a disciplined activity which has it’s base on skill and creative imagination in visual and performance contexts like writing, musical, literature, painting. etc. Usually art is divided into fine arts and decorative arts (crafts). The history of Indian art begins with the Indus Valley Civilization and it can be seen from the excavations of the Indus Valley towns of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. The statues, figurines of men and women in terra-cotta, stones, metals and other bronze figures which were unearthed are of high artistic excellence. Indians had a tremendous amount of love and passion for art and architechture. There are many worthy works and monuments proving these words.
As known to everybody, India was a home of God and Gold. India is known for it’s rich cultural heritage. There are people speaking different languages, following different cultures and India has declared only18 national languages but there are many minor dialects and languages.
As far as the architechture of India is concerned ,India has one of the finest and the most pleasant and beautiful architechture in the world.One of it’s monuments take the form of hemispherical mounds called stupa and one of it is called Sanchi Stupa located near Bhopal in Central India.It shows Buddhist architechture. A Stupa is usually built over some relics of Buddha such as hair, bone, teeth ,etc kept in a casket.This is a traditional reverance towards ancestors.
India is known for it’s ‘Mixed Culture’. India has undergone a number of invasions of various people of different culture. In retrospect, Aryans who brought one of the most complex language, Sanskrit is fascinating. Also due to the spread of christianity all around the world, the altars and the pulpits with their magnificent crafts on them in churches became very popular. All those became one among Indian architechture.But basically when Mexicans built stone buildings and Africans used muds, Indians used gold and other semi precious metals and stones in their works .This is a great evidence for Indian affluence in architechture.
In the ancient age, the Gupta period had great sculptures (3D activity) for Buddha as well as other Hindu Gods [2nd to 6th centuries].There are two statues for Buddha in Mathura which are masterpieces of Gupta age.The Ardhanariswara form of Shiva was also created by a Gupta artist.Other credits are the Ajantha and the Ellora fresco paintings. These give an account of the life of Buddha as described in the Jataka tales which gives aesthetic, emotional, intellectual,or a combined sense of these qualities. Buddhism and Jainism introduced the art of rock-cut caves.
During the medieval period, two important styles of art and architechture developed -Indo Aryan or North Indian and Dravidian or South Indian. The difference lies in the shape of sikara ,a tower-like structure over the shrine containing the deity. The North Indian sikara bulges in the middle and ends as a point like in the Lingaraja temple, Bhubaneshwar. The South Indian sikara looks like a pyramid with many successive storeys. There is a precious and sacred inner space for the deity.
The Rajput rulers built the Fort of Jodhpur and Hawa Mahal Palace at Chitor.Dilvara Jain temple at Mt.Abu in Rajasthan is made of white marbles.The world famous Kailasnath temple at Ellora built by Krishna I in the 8th century is a specimen of the Dravidian style. Aihole is called the ‘cradle of Indian temple architechture’ as it has 70 temples built by Chalukyas alone. Hoysalas, the rulers of Dwarasamudra, had their own style in building temples which were not square but polygonal or star-shaped. The Kesavaswamy temple at Belur and the Hoysaleswara temple at Halebid are examples.
About the Dravidian art: the monolithic temples known as Pancha Pandava Rathas at Mamallapuram built by Narasimhavarman I are the finest specimens of rock-cut temples.The Shore temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasnath temple at Kanchipuram are structural temples. There is also a stone carving in relief described as Arjuna’s penance or the Descent of Ganga. The cave temple at Sittanavasal near Pudukkottai contain fine paintings. The Siva temple at Thanjavur was built by Raja Raja I and the place was called Gangai Konda Cholapuram and it belong to the later Chola art.The Pandyan art can be seen in Madurai and Tiruelveli. On account of the Vijayanagar period, Gopuras(entrance towers) can be seen in Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram, Srirangam, Tiruchi and Madurai.
The medieval art of Sultanate which are Islamic structures are spacious, airy and open.Domes are convex covering over circular or octagonal roofs.Qutb minar, the architechtural masterpiece of sultanate was built of red sandstone. Jamma Masjid of Gulbarga, Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, Tomb of Ghiaz-ud-din Tughlaq are other examples of Indo Islamic architechture.Indian
art was destroyed by various invaders.The revival of art in India was due to Mr.E.B.Havell, Principal of Government school of art in Calcutta and A.K. Coomaraswamy preached about the “majesty and glory of Indian art”.
In India,literature is expressed in architechture like in the Deogarh temple(Jhansi District)we find the scenes from the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha which was written 2500 years ago. India was no less rich in decorative arts like pottery, metalworks, furniture , tapestry(embroidery)and enamel(glassy decorative or protective covering called glaze).
Vedas are the sacred texts of Hindus.Upanishads is India’s oldest philosophical treatise and Bhagavat gita is of great value. Indian literature is influenzed by Persian literature.Prakrit and Pali are the language of the masses. The famous literary pieces of India are Kautilya’s Arthasastra during Mauryan period ,Kalidasa’s Sakuntala during Gupta period ,Bana’s Harsha Charita during Harsha’s period. Gupta period was called as the ‘golden age of Sanskrit literature’.Akbar’s period was called as the ‘golden age of Hindi literature’.Sangam period was called the ‘golden age of Tamil literature’.Great literary pieces are available in Malayalam, Telungu and other languages and have been translated to other languages in different periods All these show that India had a very great fiesta of art and craft. At last as the U.S psychotherapist Paul Goodman had said,“It is by losing himself in the objective, in inquiry, creation, and craft, that a man becomes something”,let us also stand together in admiring and praising the resplendent and superb works of our ancestors.
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