1. Painting: The Concept

Painting is a medium of expression of ideas and emotions which spontaneously comes out of the painter’s mind and the artist expresses the thought through lines, shapes, colours with the help of different tools. The origin of Painting can be traced back to the pre-historic period. During the early dawn of civilization, the primitive men seem to practise this art when they were living in the caves. The reformation of numerous cave Paintings, done by those nomadic people bears the proof of interest on Painting at that time. In India, when there was the rule of British Government, the Britishers started the quest of Prehistoric Painting. Among those Britishers Johan Cockburn and Archibald Carlleyle were regarded as the foremost discoverers of cave Painting. In 1880, they discovered the cave Paintings of Camoor hill in Vindhya ranges near Mirzapur for the first time.^[1] Moreover, the cave Paintings of Bhimbetka rock shelters are regarded as the oldest painting found in the caves.^[2] It is evident from the pieces discovered that the subject matter of cave Paintings was mostly the hunting scenes as during that time people were solely dependent on prey for their food. In the evolution of Indian Painting, the history of Painting of Indus Valley Civilization bears an important role.

The Indus Valley Civilization is regarded as one of the most developed civilizations of the world. As recorded in the Saptahik Hindustan, for the first time, Nani Gopal Majumdar went to excavate the cave of Mahenjo-Daro as an Indian archeological surveyor in 1922.^[3] Moreover, in 1875, Sir Alexander Cunningham discovered a number of seals of Harappa in Montgomery district.^[4] The Montgomery district, now known as Sahiwal District is situated in the Punjab province of Pakistan now. In the age of Indus Valley Civilization, people used the utensils of terra cotta which were decorated with some figures like the picture of human beings, birds and animal. Moreover, some geometric patterns were also painted to decorate those utensils.^[5] The Gandhara School of art represented the Painting of Buddhist Period. Kaniṣka-the great patron of the Gandhara School of art started the tradition of making the image of Buddha for the first time. The impact of Greek art is also seen in those statues of Buddha and that is why this style of art is known as Indo Greek Buddhist art. Lokesh Chandra Sarma gives his view point in the same spirit in his work A Brief History of Indian Painting.^[6] The Paintings of the caves of Ajanta also represent the Paintings of Buddhist period. These Paintings represent the past lives and the rebirth of Buddha, symbolic tales from Āryacūra’s Jātakamālā and rock sculptures of the Buddhist deities.^[7]

Apart from it, if the discussion of evolution of Painting in India is done through the lens of the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit literature, a vast range of development can be seen till the date of the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa.

In the Ṛgveda, the reference of rūpanirmāṇa i.e., making of different forms or appearances is found. In the Vedas the carpenters are known as tvaṣṭā.^[8] In the Ṛgveda it is said that Brahmaṇaspati gives the forms to all deities.^[9] Moreover, the description of the beauty of goddess Uṣā as found in the Uṣāsūkta of the Ṛgveda^[10] gives the idea of making beautiful portrait of woman to the painters. So, it can be said that the base of Indian Painting was generated in the Vedic texts many years ago.

After that the development of this art form had been continuing through the ages of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata. In the Sundarakāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, the description of the decoration of puṣpakavimāna with different kinds of metals like pearl, silver, coral, gold etc. is found which bears the proof of having the knowledge of the beauty of art during that time.^[11] In the Mahābhārata, it is said that the people became senseless on the ground after seeing the destruction in the war of Mahābhārata, and the whole scene looked like a distressed Painting, painted on a canvas- kathā nyastā paṭe yathā.^[12] The texts of classical Sanskrit literature bear numerous examples of the practice of this great art form. Poets like Bhāsa, Kālidāsa, Bhavabhuti etc. decorated their literary pieces with many beautiful descriptions which sometimes appear as beautiful pictures in front of the readers. Thus the concept of Citrakāvya appeared in this way.

In the Kāvyaprakāśa of Mammaṭa, the Citrakāvya is regarded as a kind of avarakāvya i.e., lower type of poetry as the suggestive sense is not present here.

It is of two kinds viz.,

1. śabdacitra and
2. vācyacitra.^[13]

In this context the term citra refers to an assumed form made out of either śabda i.e., word or artha i.e., meaning. Apart from this, many Sanskrit poets have used direct references of Painting in their works.

In the Svapnavāsavadatta of Bhāsa, a portrait of Udayana and Vāsavadattā is sent by the parents of Vāsavadattā which is painted on a picture board.^[14] Again, in the Meghadūta of Kālidāsa, the Yakṣa was seen to draw the picture of his wife on a slab of stone with mineral dyes.^[15] In the Abhijñānaśakuntala, Śakuntalā is referred to as being enlivened after she was drawn in a picture initially.^[16] The Uttararāmacarita of Bhavabhuti shows a whole scene of citradarśana where Rāma, Sītā and Lakṣamaṇa reminisce the incidents of their past life by seeing the pictures of the art gallery.^[17] In Bānabhatta’s Kādambarī also, the reference of having picture galleries in the houses of the city of Ujjayinī is uttered.^[18] Thus the concept of Painting has remained a source of depiction throughout the ages. A systematic discussion in this regard, deserves to be noted here.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Lokesh Chandra Sarma, A Brief History of Indian Painting, p.7

[2]:

Yashodhar Mathpal, Prihistoric Painting of Bhimbetka, p.220

[3]:

Iswar Sing Bains, Saptahik Hindustan, 20^th to 26^th April, 1980

[4]:

Lokesh Chandra Sarma, A Brief History of Indian Painting, p.16

[5]:

Ibid., p.17

[6]:

Ibid., p.30

[7]:

Richard Cohen, Encyclopedia of Monasticism, William M. Johnston (Ed.), pp. 18-20

[8]:

…..tvaṣṭā rūpāṇi piṃśatu/ Ṛgveda, 10.184.1

[9]:

brahmaṇaspatiretā saṃ kamāraivādhamat/ devānāṃ pūrvye yuge’sataḥ sadajāyata// Ibid.,10.72.2

[10]:

…..prabodhayantyaruṇebhiraśvairoṣā yāti suyujā rathena// Ibid., 1.113.14

[11]:

jālavātāyanairyuktaṃ kāñcanaiḥ sphaṭikairapi/ indranīlamahānīlamaṇipravaravrdikam/……… ……vimānaṃ puṣpakaṃ divyamāruroha mahākapiḥ/ Rāmāyaṇa, 5.9.16-19

[12]:

niḥsaṃjñaṃ patitaṃ bhūmau tadāsīdrājamaṇḍalam/ pralāpayuktā mahatī kathā nyastā paṭe yathā// Mahābhārata, 9.1.40

[13]:

[...] Kāvyaprakāśa, 1.5

[14]:

atha cāvābhyāṃ tava ca vāsavadattāyāśca pratikṛtiṃ citraphalakāyāmālikhya…../ ā Svapnav savadatta, 6.p.122

[15]:

……tvāmālikhya praṇayakupitāṃ dhāturāgaiḥ śilāyā…./ Meghadūta, 2.45

[16]:

citre niveśyaparikalpitasattvayogā …../ Abhijñānaśakuntala, 2.9

[17]:

Lakṣmaṇa: …..ārya tena citrakāreṇāsmadupadiṣṭamāryasya caritamasyāṃ vīthikāyāmabhilikhitam/ tatpaśyatvāryaḥ/ Uttararāmacarita, p.15

[18]:

…….darśitaviśvarūpeva citrabhittibhiḥ…./ Kādambarī, 1. p.88