Ritual

ART
The art which has evolved out of tantrism reveals an abundant
variety of forms, varied inflections of tone and colours, graphic
patterns, powerful symbols with personal and universal
significance. It is specially intended to convey a knowledge
evoking a higher level of perception, and taps dormant sources of
our awareness. This form of expression is not pursued like
detached speculation to achieve aesthetic delight, but has a deeper
meaning. Apart from aesthetic value, its real significance lies in its
content, the meaning it conveys, the philosophy of life it unravels,
the world-view it represents. In this sense tantra art is visual
metaphysics.
Unity
The foundations of tantra art are based on the spiritual values
which surround Indian art in general. Though it projects visual
imagery in its own special manner, tantra art shares a common
heritage. According to age-old tradition, the beautiful and the
spiritual form an inseparable whole. Beauty is a symbol of the
divine. A striking enunciation of this principle can be found in
Samyutta Nikaya (V.2): Ananda, the beloved disciple of the
Buddha said to the Master, 'Half of the holy life, O Lord, is
friendship with the beautiful, association with the beautiful,
communion with the beautiful.' 'It is not so, Ananda, it is not so,'
said the Master; 'It is not half of the holy life; it is the whole of the
holy life.' If beauty reflects divinity, conversely and by implication
reality must be made visible in terms no less than the highest ideals
of beauty conceived by man whatever the nature of the semblance
- by means of a symbol, a pattern, or an anthropomorphic form.
Admittedly, this approach aspires to a transcendent vision, arising
principally from untutored vision of 'closed-eye perception'. An
act of creation becomes, as it were, a contemplative process, an
orchestral symphony in which both the seer and the seen become
Om, the Primal Sound as the
monosyllabic mantra, is the basis of
cosmic evolution. On the left the
tantric Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu
and Siva, with the Sakti on the
right. Manuscript page, Rajasthan,
18th century. Gouache on paper.
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