Indian Art and Its Transitions

What are the major shifts in perspectives and approaches to the study of Indian visual arts from the British colonial times to the present? Situate these developments in relation to the Panofskian framework of the historical interpretation of 'meaning' in the visual arts.

India occupied an exalted position in the realm of art. Here we will discuss about connexion of realm of visual art and historical interpretation in transition. Essentially we look at architecture, sculpture and painting and issues around interpreting meaning in the visual art for historical interpretation, interaction and situating them in theoretical understanding in history. The amalgamation of visual art along with other sources - normative literary history oral history etc. led to a comprehensive understanding of the past.

Visual art carries within them notion of past and though can't be read like a text with script and language but had its own idiom. These issues were addressed in academic theoretic framework by Panofsky in 1939.He questioned and argued for different level of meaning in understanding different archive. He stated that we interpret different visual phenomena which get transformed into visual art, we analyse and interpret it and hence there is no one level of meaning as it can have various interpretations of the past.

In Studies in Iconology, Panofsky details his idea of three levels of art-historical understanding. Primary or formal level was the most basic level of understanding; this stratum consists of perception of the work's pure and factual form. Practical experience would lend one to interpret it. This first level is the most basic understanding of a work, devoid of any added cultural knowledge. There was no requirement of specified cultural knowledge unlike secondary level of meaning which require more knowledge of certain customs, cultural context, themes and motifs specific to group of people, society, nation and class of people etc. to comprehend meaning in visual phenomenon which get transformed to certain themes and motifs. Certain cultural conditioning and degree of awareness leads to iconographic level of meaning and knowledge of art.

Beyond these direct and connotative meaning of cultural context, a larger sense of meaning could be made too subsuming direct and secondary. It goes beyond, calls it essential and intrinsic, beyond the demeanour, beyond specific meaning, time period, beyond literal and metaphorical themes. It dealt with what was termed as "symbolical" values instead of with images, stories and allegories. It made iconographic interpretation in a deeper sense through synthetic intuition conditioned by personal psychology and "weltanschauung"1

But he stated that the neatly differentiated categories which indicated three independent spheres of meaning merged with each other into one organic and indivisible process refer in reality to aspects of one phenomenon, the work of art as a whole. 2

On this basis we analyse here the transition in approaches in Indian visual art from the colonial rule till today. According to Mitter, with the coming of British power in India itinerant for Europeans became much easier in the second part of C18th. These travellers had with different outlook than their predecessors in tastes and interests, they came in search of "sublime" and "picturesque" elements in Indian visual art and chose to visit and define ancient monuments mainly for their graphic and aesthetic qualities, expressing an imperative alteration in European state viewpoint. Aesthetic movements in C18th shaped romantic sensibilities; reduced classical formalism and art critics broadened their taste to accommodate criteria other than beauty, though it was not a C18th invention but it led to change in their perspectives. 3

Another aesthetic movement was that of picturesque which according to Hussy was C19th's 'mode of vision'.4 The picturesque was contrary to classical notions of beauty as it encouraged "disorder" and irregularity" in landscape in both art and nature and proposed that even artificial rudeness was favoured to order and neatness.5 Attempt was not so much on scientific direct thematic representation but objective was to create interaction between monument and landscape to which it belong.

Because of change in taste, fresh look was given at the beauties of Elephanta, Ellora and other cave temples. Many travellers recognized the Indian dexterity in ornamented buildings and revered some of the Hindu relief sculptures for their "beauty in execution"6 and for their chiselled cuts unlike earlier times when they were seen as barbarism of art and monstrous decorations.7 Thomas and William Daniels, the two English travellers, did extensive work on Indian architecture and produced best work on representing Indian architecture in west and influenced its popularity. Very interestingly, Mitter stated how English middle class literate women began to be influenced by picturesque movement in India and began travelling widely to India in C19th for personal enlightenment.

When we talk about archaeology two things became important: prehistoric archaeology. A legacy of C19th, which dealt with cultural evolution and worked closely with anthropology; and historic archaeology with its roots in classical archaeology devoted to the study of monumental remains of antiquity mainly architecture of the past. 8

Valuable insight by British in India in intensive probes of Indian antiquities from middle of C18th onwards laid the foundations of modern Indian historical and art historical scholarship. There were always shifts in study from iconography to design and form. In fact while studying the evolution in Indian art there were views that India art followed a path of downward "progress" from an assumed "golden age." The notion was invigorated by the distinction made by scholars between the ancient, immaculate and philosophical form of Hinduism and its modern, vulgar corruption, which included monstrous cults. There was an implicit assumption that Indian art deteriorated from a superior position rather than making progress but later some historians stated it as an "evolutionary" principle of development from the simple to the complex.

By the 1780s, the essential function of the society of antiquaries in disseminating the knowledge of Indian antiquities in Europe was made redundant.9 The first phase of British archaeological activities in India provided the essential foundations for the interpretations of Indian art and architecture in the C19th. According to Mitter, the first professional approach to archaeology in India involving careful explorations of Indian visual antiquities came only after establishment of British power, for it provided Europeans unhindered