Part 3
Art was born to meet the latent starves of beauty. The flower always attracts bees, who jump over it to grab the honey. Similarly, art decidedly attracts the human mind, and we enjoy artistry. In our beautiful world, starving to take the flavor of this short lifespan creatively is more pleasurable. We are not creating anything new; instead, we reform the beauty that already exists in this world created by the all-time greatest artist, God. Creativity is born by sensation. Our surrounding nature is the primary laboratory for the experiment of artistry. From the primitive era, we have been taking advantage of this most excellent laboratory produced by nature. It teaches us everything about form, proportion, luminance, emotional expression, and color concepts; moreover, it inspires us to create something with the elements sprayed over nature.
Ancient Indian sages noticed that there was no presence of a straight line in nature. All have been created with various rhythmic lines that perfectly balance our universe harmoniously. This rhythmic consistency inspires our creative spirit to be involved deeply. We are motivated to make something that flows in various streams, such as painting, music, literature, acting, song, etc. Actually, what are we doing? We are just saluting this magnificent creation of God in several manners. Therefore, to become a creative person, you must maintain the purity of your soul and honesty since you are about to dedicate yourself to God within your creativity.
Following the above ancient concept, I will discuss the next step of my previous chapter on Indian sculpture.
The importance of body language is known to all. The manifestation of several emotions within our body is the substitute for words. We can notice it significantly in each one. In Indian sculpture, artists just consumed the same experience in their sculpture that we use to express several attitudes. The author suggested some significant gestures of the human body to represent the attitudes specifically.
Here, I will describe a few of those essential gestures step by step that will help you understand Indian sculpture.
The scripture of Indian sculpture includes gestures or poses of the standing (upright position or something similar) human.
First – “SamaBhanga”. Meaning – equal curvature. It is a gesture of an upright standing position that bears the sense of gravity or seriousness; however, you will feel the peacefulness and a touch of joy in your inner heart by sitting under such a statue of the Lord. Such a position is compared with the metaphor of an open blue sky. Somewhere, I found a statue of Jesus standing upright in the clouds with scattered hands on both sides, which made me tear up with joy and love. In India, most of the statues of Lord Narayana are made with this pose, showing the feeling of peacefulness. It accordingly helps you to calm down your diverted soul.
Second - Avanga. Meaning – One curvature of the leg. A gesture of standing position by controlling the body weight on one leg,
leaving another for relaxation. It is bearing a sense of compassion for the devotee of God. Here, Lord, ready to make you clean in all aspects, will open the door to enter his imperium. It looks like the blessing of God dropping with a thousand flows for the devotee. Therefore, that scripture describes it with the metaphor of the waterfall. It's a delightful mood of a statue that sprinkles over every human heart. Look at the sculpture of Lord Narayana and Laxmi standing in the said position, inserted on the right side.
Third—Treethum. Meaning—A standing position with three curvatures of the body. The head of the statue bends to a side, and the waist bends on the opposite side of the head. The weight of the whole body is placed in one straight leg, and another bent leg takes place on just the opposite side of the waist. It bears a gracefulness, silliness, and fun attitude. However, most female figures are made with this curvature since it looks very appropriate and pretty for female figures. We see this position mainly in the statue of Lord Krishna, and it is a ubiquitous gesture of his. It is described with the metaphor of creepers. See the example of such a statue of Lord Krishna.
Aside from the three I mentioned above, there was another concept of body curvature; however, it was less popular since curvature was only used to express brutality. It was just the extended form of "treethum" acknowledged as the name—Ativanga.
We can see such gesticulation in several sculptures of God in the furious moment. In the Hindu scripture, 'Chandi,' we can experience Goddess Devi Durga appearing as a savior of us with her ten-armed hands when the demon Mahishasura was trying to establish his rule over the world, including heaven. Consuming her full power tremendously to kill the monster, Devi Durga represented herself as Chandi with her ten hands, which she produced only to fulfill her commitment. Such a figure is always made with the said measurement. Here is an example of a sculpture of Goddess Durga made by following the manner. See the photo on the right side.
Deep within our minds resides a world of endless possibilities where creativity and imagination flow freely. It is a place where art, poetry, song, literature, and music are born and breathed into existence by those who possess the unique ability to capture and express these fleeting moments. These individuals are actual creators, and their creations inspire us all to explore the depths of our minds and embrace our creativity.
In our fleeting existence, we seek to absorb all that life offers. Through this journey, we experience the full range of emotions that make us feel truly alive. There is no conflict between good and evil in it. The creation of art is a means to quench our thirst for beauty and self-expression. Nature does not create form; it only creates shapes that encourage us to explore and make our unique forms through deep introspection within those shapes. So, form is born by the influence of shapes. Like listening to music, it creates an imaginary sensation in our absent mind that makes us feel it deeply. We can then delve into the essence of the music and decipher its intended message. The ancient Indian sages pioneered the substantiation of musical tunes, drawing inspiration from the sounds of nature. You will be amazed that they got the scale of tune 'SA' from the peacock's cry. 'RE' they found from the lowing of the bull. 'GA' they defined from the bleating of a goat and so on. Their achievement was groundbreaking, setting a standard for the world of music. Notably, all came from surrounding nature, just like the metaphorical concept in painting and sculpture. From an undefined era, nature had been the primary laboratory or inspiration of the creative spirit. Besides that, It is also astonishing how perfect those concepts were!
The motive of the Indian sculpture was to rev up the wisdom of Indian theology, which would help to create a quality society. Indian ancient sages noticed that humans express their emotions in several ways, such as dancing, singing, and expressive body language. In nature, we also can see the same when the first rain clouds of the season cover the sky; peacocks start dancing by spreading their beautiful tail. In essence, we can see several similar expressions in wildlife. All have a rhythmic consistency that inspires artists to create. It also motivates artists to find a similar form of an object in nature. This poetic metaphor can express emotion.
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