Ethical Fragrance in Indian Art and Literature (An Old and Rare Book)

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Many books on Indian Art are merely devoted to its aesthetic value. They naturally refer to the Gods and to some famous mythological stories, they identify the images with the help of their attributes. Some others simply designate the Indian deities like those of Roman people: God of war, God of Love, etc., without inquiring into the reasons and symbolisms of the figurations.

On the contrary, with Dr. C. Sivaramamurti, we are since long accustomed to receive full explanations on the Art, not only on its nice features but also on the inspiring genius of the Indian thought. That is because Dr. Sivaramamurti is an universal expert both in Art and Sanskrit. For him there is no partition between form, language and thought, there is knowledge and tradition of knowledge. He is a descendant of Appayya Dikshita, one of the foremost scholars of the 16th century, great uncle of the poet Nilakantha Dikshita.

In his previous publications in epigraphy as well as in archaeology, Dr. Sivaramamurti has extended his researches to the entire field of the expansion of the Indian culture beyond the ocean, to Cambodia and Indonesia. With such a complete method of investigation and such a wide horizon, he has mastered the whole range of Indian achievements in art and literature. That is why we have been gratified by him of the most extensive survey of the Indian Art, L' Art dans l'Inde, first published in French, at Paris in 1974, and soon reedited in English, German, Italian and Spanish.

Always, Dr. Sivaramamurti is quoting literary counterparts of the archaeological and iconographical monuments. Recently he published the Sources of History Illumined by Literature. In Ancient India factual history has very rarely been recorded but cultural history is still widely manifested by monuments, inscriptions, coins and literatures. All these must be jointly studied like Dr. Sivaramamurti uses to do.

Now, in the present book, he is unveiling the ethical background of the figurations or inscriptions in the light of the relevant literary productions. Thanks to him, Indian art is pleasure for the eyes and for the heart as well.

At the kind invitation of the University of Poona I delivered the P.D. Gune Memorial Lectures on Ethical Fragrance in Indian Art and Literature at K.T.H.M. College, Nasik. The theme was specially chosen because, as has been clearly pointed out by Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Indian art, with all its aesthetic appeal and grandeur of technique, has mainly been inspired by a devotional and ethical urge rather than by a pure and single-minded effort towards mere aesthetic perfection. Every period of art in India, with all its subtle nuances of change in style, technique, form and colour, has had behind it the ethical and spiritual urge. It was not unlike friar Fra Fillippo Lippi painting not in a mood of self expression or a vanity of excellence in workmanship but mainly because of an intense yearning to give all the best even of the perfected art for a nobler cause. The poet has not been different either. Udayana, writing his great work establishing the existence of God, wonders what there is to be proved about the existence of God. It is just a ruse for contemplation on the Almighty: kim nirūpaniyam. tathāpi, nyayach- archeyam sasya mananavyapadeśabhāk, upasanaiva kriyate śravaņānan- taragată, irotavyo mantavyo nidhidhyāsitavya iti cha iruteh, Nyāyaku- sumanjali 1.1

Dharma, and satya which are inseparable have been glorified in literature and art and have been vividly described and presented. Education in this sphere both through the ear and the eye has been felt more essential than mere literacy, and this in fact has built up the great nation that India has been during the centuries. The sustaining vivacity of both literature and art in India has been the ethical approach.