Shakuntala: As Authored by Kalidas and Painted by Raja Ravi Varma

Mythology has always been an appealing area which has been engrossing readers and listeners since ages. Mythology plays distinctive roles and employs its sacred narratives, art and rituals to keep the values and morals of the society intact. This system of writing texts on mythology was common to the entire subcontinent and produced its own literature written in Sanskrit. One such magnum opus is Abhijnanashakuntalam authored by the great Sanskrit maestro, Kalidas. It is also important to note that mythology in the form of texts was accessible to a very limited class of people which included the elites, literates, scholars etc, and consequently a large section of the society remained unaware of these episodes and virtues. It is where, Raja Ravi Varma, ‘Father of Modern Indian Art’ is credited to bring these episodes in the form of both painting and printing to the commoners. This not only attracted a huge number of people towards mythology, Hindu culture and tradition but also urged to preserve values. The present paper is an attempt to study the contributions of the two maestros, Kalidas- as the author of Abhijnanashakuntalam and Raja Ravi Varma-as the painter of the Shakuntala Series, comparative studies of how both the maestros perceived the character of Shakuntala, portrayal of ‘beauty’, and how the play, painting and printing was appreciated, responses gathered and inspirations shared. Keywords: Kalidas, Raja Ravi Varma, Shakuntala, Mythology and Painting, Oleographs

The Punjab Exhibition of 1881 and Politics of the British Raj

In 1849, Punjab was annexed by the English East India Company. This paper deals with the Punjab Exhibition of 1881, where along with textiles, arts and other local handicrafts of India were put on display. Claiming to revive the indigenous Indian arts, crafts and textiles, the exhibition represents the politics of selected exhibits that catered to the taste1 and choice of the British. The exhibition helps in understanding the objective and importance of conducting imperial exhibitions, as exhibitions were also redefining the European homes. A detailed analysis of the exhibition foregrounds how colonial rule redefined the idea and representation of indigenous handicrafts and art. The indigenous handicraft was also immensely being guided by the European market. Thus, the paper focuses on the aspects and strategy adopted by the British at promoting and preserving Indian art and textile. Moreover, efforts at preservation of the arts got institutionalised in the form of art schools. These were set up for the purpose of promoting and building taste for Indian traditional art in the British markets. The paper attempts to understand how the British shaped the notion of heritage and cultural difference between the coloniser and colonised and the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ through the exhibition. By analyzing the Punjab Exhibition 1881, the paper aims to deal with some pertinent issues such as strategic organisation and representation of the exhibits, as well as the legacy of the exhibition during colonial rule. The paper argues that though the British took to organising exhibitions to promote and preserve Indian art and textile, but in reality, it was a disguise aimed at establishing imperial supremacy over the colonised and maintain a hierarchical relationship of aesthetic and traditional culture between the ruler and the ruled.

Saraga: Open Datasets for Research on Indian Art Music

We introduce two large open data collections of Indian Art Music, both its Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, comprising audio from vocal concerts, editorial metadata, and time-aligned melody, rhythm, and structure annotations. Shared under Creative Commons licenses, they currently form the largest annotated data collections available for computational analysis of Indian Art Music. The collections are intended to provide audio and ground truth for several music information research tasks and large-scale data-driven analysis in musicological studies. A part of the Saraga Carnatic collection also has multitrack recordings, making it a valuable collection for research on melody extraction, source separation, automatic mixing, and performance analysis. We describe the tenets and the process of collection, annotation, and organization of the data. We provide easy access to the audio, metadata, and the annotations in the collections through an API, along with a companion website that has example scripts to facilitate access and use of the data. To sustain and grow the collections, we provide a mechanism for both the research and music community to contribute additional data and annotations to the collections. We also present applications with the collections for music education, understanding, exploration, and discovery.

HUMANITY'S TRYST IN DECIPHERING MARRIAGES FROM MYTHOLOGY: BRAIDING LITERATURE AND ART

Studying Anthropology of Art has been a matter of long-term qualitative research studied under Cultural Anthropology. Understanding Anthropology of Art is therefore something which involves transcending over the regimented boundaries of culture and art. Entering this complex process of interpreting anthropological aspects, we delved deep into the context and examination of Indian art and iconography. Our heritage has evidently focused very strongly on the meaningfulness of art to society, interpreting human cognition into a concrete order. The depiction of the divine union of Shiva-Parvati, is thematically represented extensively in Indian sculpture art. Regrettably, this very fascinating matter did not receive a very comprehensive consideration so far. Our purpose for undertaking this analysis is to reckon wisdom of the extant of incorporating mythological culture and rituals into present human society, diverse expressions of art, associated with different age and time period, all with a single awe-inspiring theme- The Marriage of Shiva and Parvati. Thereafter, keeping in mind the textual references available, we have kept ourselves restricted to the study, strictly coinciding with the theme depicted in Indian sculpture. Indian art has an immense affinity towards mythology and depiction of the events in a cosmic scale. Indian temple sculpture is a celebration of the divine ceremonies. Doing this, we find relevant textual interpretations and references from Kalidas’ Kumarasambhava, an epic recounting the events leading to the ‘Kalyanasundara’- the iconographical depiction of the wedding rites of Shiva and Parvati and the birth of Kartika, making the art study an extension of literary apotheosis. KEYWORDS: Anthropology of Art, Cultural Anthropology, Indian Art and Sculpture, Kumarsambhava

PENGARUH KESENIAN PĀLA TERHADAP GAYA SENI ARCA CANDI MENDUT

Indian culture presents a massive influence in the Early Classic Period in Java. One of the traces found in arts. However, which part of Indian art influenced is rarely mentioned. Some scholars said it was Gupta Art’s influence enormously in the Early Classic Period. Is it just Gupta Art? or another else? This paper aims to add knowledge about another Indian art, namely Pāla Art, which also presents in the Early Classic Period. The style of Pāla Art affects the depiction of Candi Mendut’s sculptures. The data collection using observation techniques and description as well. The data analysis using a qualitative approach by descriptive analysis methods. And finally, the data interpretation using the results of comparative studies. The conclusion reveals the similarities between both data. However, Candi Mendut’s sculptures did not entirely absorb the foreign influences, but they show authentic attributes known as a character of classical Javanese Art. Kebudayaan India memberikan pengaruh yang besar terhadap periode Klasik Tua di Jawa. Jejak kebudayaan India, salah satunya nampak pada bentuk-bentuk kesenian. Meskipun demikian, selama ini jarang disebutkan secara terperinci kesenian India mana saja yang memengaruhi kesenian Jawa klasik. Beberapa ahli berpendapat bahwa kesenian Gupta yang memberikan pengaruh besar terhadap bentuk kesenian Jawa pada periode Klasik Tua. Namun, benarkah hanya kesenian Gupta semata? Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menambahkan pengetahuan mengenai gaya seni India lainnya, yakni kesenian Pāla, yang juga ditemui pada periode Klasik Tua. Pengaruh kesenian itu terlihat pada penggambaran arca-arca candi Mendut. Telaah dihasilkan melalui tahapan kerja yang bertingkat-tingkat, dimulai dari pengumpulan data dengan cara mengamati dan mendeskripsikan data; pengolahan data melalui pendekatan kualitatif dengan menggunakan metode analisis deskriptif; serta penafsiran data berdasarkan hasil studi komparasi. Simpulannya memperlihatkan persamaan gaya seni yang membuktikan bahwa kesenian Pāla memberikan pengaruhnya terhadap gaya seni arca Candi Mendut. Meskipun demikian, pengaruh kesenian Pāla tidak serta merta diserap secara utuh, melainkan terdapat ciri khas yang ditemui pada arca Candi Mendut yang menjadikannya sebagai karakter kesenian Jawa klasik.

THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC IN THE BUDDHIST PERIOD

English - Indian art and culture, in any case are a joint creation of the dravadian and Aryan genius a welding together of symbolic and representative, abstract explicit language and thought. Already at Bharhut and Sanchi, 'The Aryan symbal is yielding to its environment and passing into decoration kushan art with the fact of imagery and its roots in bhakti is essentially Darvidian'. Already, however, the Indian shanti Figure at Bodhgaya shows Aryan affecting Dravidian models of expression, anticipating the essential of all latar 'Sativik Images'. Hindi - बुद्ध काल में मठों में संकीर्तन की तरह संगीत का प्रचलन प्रारम्भ हुआ। भगवान बुद्ध स्वयं एक उत्तम संगीतज्ञ थे। महात्मा बुद्ध ने ईश्वर प्राप्ति और मोक्ष अथवा निर्वाण हेतु बौद्ध धर्म के सरल तथा सुगम मार्ग का प्रवर्तन किया। उन्होंने प्राचीन मंत्रो, आध्यात्मिक गीतों तथा नृत्य आदि को नीरांजन (आरती) के लिए उपयुक्त मानते हुए संस्कृतनिष्ठ प्रार्थनाओं के स्थान पर देशी भाषाओं में रचित प्रार्थनाओं के प्रयोग पर बल दिया। उन्होने कृष्ण की प्रतिमाओं के प्रति विशेष श्रद्धा प्रकट की। बौद्ध युग की कला एवं संस्कृति तथा कलाकृतियों में आर्य तथा द्रविड़ जातियों से ग्रहण की गई आध्यात्मिक परम्पराओं तथा इष्ट देवों की पूजा-विधियों के ही पुनर्दर्शन होते हैं। इस संदर्भ में डाॅ. स्वरूप कुमार स्वामी का यह कथन दृष्टव्य है।

DOCUMENTATION OF CHITRAKATHI PAINTINGS OF MAHARASHTRA AND ITS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The Indian art and design of unimaginable antiquity have over the millennia and up till present day, evinced a continuity that has survived every historical, socio-economical, and political development to produce an art that is specically Indian. Chitrakathi is an ancient tradition of Thakar tribe of Maharashtra In the time of urbanization and industrialization, Chitrakathi is ghting for its survival. The study was undertaken to understand in detail about origin and history, tools, process, motifs, colors, and present status of the painting. The researcher has made an attempt to create awareness and popularize the Chitrakathi paintings by the product development.

Book review: Saloni Mathur, A Fragile Inheritance. Radical Stakes in Contemporary Indian Art

Saloni Mathur, A Fragile Inheritance. Radical Stakes in Contemporary Indian Art (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2019), 235 pp.