THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

VIII. 2. The Revival of Indian Art419often deliberately changed and suppressed in order to get theirdesired effect. If they had been asked to deny themselves thisartistic gain for the sake of satisfying the memory in the physicaleye, they would have held the objector to be the bondslaveof an unmeaning superstition.We of today have been overpowered by the European traditionas interpreted by the English, the least artistic of civilisednations. We have therefore come to make on a picture the samedemand as on a photograph, — the reproduction of the thing asthe eye sees it, not even as the retrospective mind or the imaginationsees it, exact resemblance to the beings or objects weknow, or, if anything more, then a refinement on Nature in thedirection of greater picturesqueness and prettiness and the satisfactionof the lower and more external sense of beauty. Theconception that Art exists not to copy, but for the sake of a deepertruth and vision, and we must seek in it not the object but Godin the object, not things but the soul of things, seems to havevanished for a while from the Indian consciousness.Another obstacle to the appreciation of great art, to whicheven those Indians who are not dominated by European ideasare liable, is the exaggerated respect for the symbols and traditionswhich our art or literature has used at a certain stage ofdevelopment. I am accustomed for instance to a particular wayof representing Shiva or Kali and I refuse to have any other.But the artist has nothing to do with my prejudices. He has torepresent the essential truth of Shiva or Kali, that which makestheir Shivahood or Kalihood, and he is under no obligation tocopy the vision of others. If he has seen another vision of Shivaor Kali, it is that vision to which he must be faithful. The curiousdiscussion which arose recently as to the propriety or otherwiseof representing the Gods without beard or moustache, isan instance of this literalism which is a survival of the enslavementto form and rule characteristic of the eighteenth century.The literalist cannot see that it is not the moustache or beard orthe symbol which makes the godhead, but the divine greatness,immortal strength, beauty, youth, purity or peace within. It isthat godhead which the artist must draw and paint, and in theforms he chooses he is bound only by the vision in dhyÀna.