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Art
in India has been synonymous with life, enmeshed into
the daily existence of every individual born into this
culturally rich and diverse land, long before written
history became fashionable. The people born into this
land developed alternative means of expressing
themselves not only to record their stories, important
events and their collective past, but also to embellish
and enhance the simple objects of daily life. The range
of material used to create art in India traverses the
gamut from mud to metal; each medium handled in a
unique, locality specific technique that evolved to best
express the talents and needs of the people of that
area. With royal patronage over millennia, artistic
growth blossomed in a dynamic and competitive
environment, with the highest standards of knowledge set
for the King. The King, as patron was expected to know
and critique the sixty-four mainstreams of the Arts and
often was an artist himself.
No
other country has a diversity of technique and
expression as India and her people. While the techniques
of traditional “craft” handed down generations by
the master craftsmen continues to date, the art,
expression through these channels, continue to evolve
and adapt to changing times. With a tenacity of
endurance, such “folk art” has found its way into
the voice and expressions of contemporary artists who
paint and sculpt following the traditions of the West.
India
is a modern civilization of nuclear capability that
continues to nurture its roots that go back to a time
before the written record of history. In the words of
Linda Johnson, “if you had been around in the third
millennium B.C.E, India is where you would have wanted
to be. The quality of life was higher there than
practically anywhere else in the world. In fact, the
towns of North India in 2600 B.C.E. were more
comfortable and technologically advanced than most
European cities till nearly the time of the Renaissance!”
India’s
knowledge, springing from pre Vedic times, followed an
oral tradition of documentation and research. Many of
these streams of research were documented in the Vedas.
The search for information was nurtured through
observational research and guarded fiercely. Vedic
scholar Jean Le Mee aptly stated, “Precious or durable
materials – gold silver marble onyx or granite- have
been used by most ancient peoples in an attempt to
immortalize their achievements. Not so, however, with
the ancient Aryans. They turned what may seem as the
most volatile and insubstantial material of all- the
spoken word- an out of this bubble of air fashioned a
monument which more than thirty, perhaps forty centuries
later stands untouched by time or the elements.
For
the pyramids have been eroded by the desert wind, the
marble broken by earthquakes, and the gold stolen by
robbers, while the Veda remains recited daily by an
unbroken chain of generations, traveling like a great
wave through the living substance of the mind.”
One
asks, what is this Great knowledge that these Indian
Scholars sought, guarded and prioritized as their
ancestral heritage. It is the concept of Zero, Geometry,
the concept now known to the world by the translator for
the Western world, the Pythagoras theorem, astronomy
with details such as the color of Mars and the influence
of the celestial bodies on our lives, the concept of
time, the Age and Evolution of the Universe and the
Cosmos, the dissolution of the Universe and the Cosmos,
Agriculture, some of the earliest concepts of watershed
management and environmental conservation, the art of
Politics, warfare and peace, Medicine, physical
Education and the body mind spirit connection, self
control, the integration of the self with the Universe,
philosophy, theology and the concept of God, Magic,
genetic breeding and how to avoid inbreeding, the
science of Art and the paths to the Ultimate Truth
These
have been documented in the various “scriptures”;
the Vedas, The Shastras like the Yoga Shastra, Shilpa
Shastra, Artha Shastra and applied Vedas like Ayur Veda,
the medical science of Longevity, The Upanishads and the
Bhagavat Gita. While these traditions continue to
inspire and teach people beyond her boundaries, Modern
India forges the way to make space technology cheaper
and more accessible to the developing world.
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