________________
KARMAYOCIN.
3 n tion of th: persistent within the
have always regarded the reality on a picture the same demand m Cenk of the domination of the Europeans as an appear on a photograph--the reproduction of matter by spirit, the subor
ance; to us the true reality is of the thing as the eye sees it, Dot dination of the insistent appearanon that which is hidden; otherwise, even as the retrospective inind' or
Prakriti to the inner reality there would be no need of the the imagination sees it, exact reswhich in A thousand ways, the prophet, the philosopher, the poet emblance to the beingo or objects
prophet. the philosopher th Mighty Mother veils even while she
and the artist. It is they who we know, or, if anything more, muggusts. The European Artist,
1.sce with the sukshmi drishti, then a refinemnt on Nature in the cabined within the narrow confines the inner vision, and not like the direction of greater picturesquenean of the external, is dominated in
ordinary man with the eye only. and prettiness and the satisfaction imagination by the body of things Beauty for beauty's sake, tho of the lower and more external sense and the claims of the phenomenon. other great note of European Art of beanty. The conception that Western painting starts from tho is recognised by us, but not in Art exists not to copy, but for the
se or the imagination; its master the higher work of the artist. sake of a deeper truth and vision, word is either beauty or reality, and, Just in the first ideal, the And we must seek in it not the According as he is the slave of his tyranny of the eye is ncknow. object but God in the object, not pve or the playfellow of his imagina- ledged, 50 in the second the things but the soul of things, seems tion, the painter produccs a photo
tynanny of the nesthetic imagina- to have vanished for a while from graph ur poen. But, in painting, the
tion. The Indian Rocks freedom, the Indian consciousness. Europen imagination suldom travels beyondan imaginative interpretation and the condition of freedom is | Another obstacle to the appreciaor variation of what the physical eye
the search for ultimate Truth. tion of great art, to which even has seen. Imitation is the key. But in this search the imagina
those Indians who are not doininated word of creation, according to Aris
by European idents are liable, is the totle; Shakespeare advises the tion is an unsafe and capricious exiggerntod respuot for the synartist to hold up the mirror to guide; it misinterprets As often bols and traditions which our art Nature, and the Greek scientist as it interprets. The clairn of
or literature bus used at & certain and the English poet reflect ac
stage of development. I am accuscurately the mind of Europe. the eye to separato satisfaction
tuned for instance to a particular But the Indian artist has been
can only be answered by the res- way of representing Shiva or Kali
ponse of decorntive taught by his philosophy and the
boauty; the
And I refuse to have any other. claim of the imagination to sepa
But the artist has nothing to do spiritual discipline of his forefathers
with my prejudices. He has to rethat the imagination is only a
rate satisfaction can only receive preeent the essential truth of Siva channel and an instrument of somo
the response of fancy playing with or Kali, that which takes their Siva source of knowledge and inspiration scone and legend, form and colour,
hood or Kalihood, and he is under
no obligation to copy the vision of that is greater and higher; by idea and dream, for pure nosthetic
others. If he has seen another vision wurditation or by Yoga he secks
delight; but in the interpretation of Siva or Kali, it is that vision to of things the eyo and the imagina
which he must be faithful. within himself that ultimate centre
Tbe
curious discussion which of knowledge where there is direct tion can assert no right to com
arose re
cently as to the propriety or other. and utter vision of the thing that mand, they are only subordinate wise of representing the gods withlius hidden in the forms of man,
instruments and must keep out board or moustache, is an
their place. alumal, tree, river, mountain. It
Whenever, there
instance of this literalism which
is a survival of tho enslaveinent is this sumyag jnan, this sakshad fore, the Indian Artist
to form and rule characteristic of darshan, the utter, revealing and
put away from him his high spiri. the eighteenth century. The liter*pocalyptic vision, that he seeks,
tual aim, it was to seek decorative list cannot see that it is not the and when he has found it, whether beauty informed by the play of the
moustache or beard or the symbol
which makes the godhead, but the by patient receptivity or sudden imagination. Hore he held deoo- divine greatness, immortal strength. in prition, his whole aim is to
rative boauty to be his paramount beauty, youth, purity or peace withexpross it utterly and revealingly in
10. It is that godhorul which the line and colour. Form is only a moans aim and doclined to be bound by the of exprossing the spirit, and the one seen and the familiar. If by other
artist must diaw and paint, and in
the forme he chuonos he is bound thought of the artist should be how
lines than the natural, by subtler only by the vision in dhyana. Whe best to render the spiritual vision. He is not bound by the forms that
or richor methods than those of ther his interpretation will gain an compose the world of gross mattor, outward Nature, our old masters
abiding place in the thought and though he takos them as a starting:
imagination of the mee, depends on could gain in decorative suggestion its power to awake i he deej er vision point for his formal expression of the vision within him; if by modi
and beauty, they hold themselves in the mce. All that we can demand fying thom or departing from thein free to follow their inspirntion.
is that it shall be a real God, 4 rent
Shiva, a real Kali, and not freak; ho can reveal that vision inore Here, too, they often deliberately
of his imaginatiou or an outcome cotnpletely, his freedom and his duty changed and suppressed in order to
some p ingsanskarn of his educat Man artist emancipate him from the obligation of the mere recorder
get their desired effuct. If they tion or artistic upbringing. Hu ant copyist. The ar cient Asiatic had been asked to dony themselves inust go to the fountainhead of artists were not incapable of repro- this artistic gain for the sake of
Jenowledge within hiinself or les ducing outward Nature with us
claim to froedom satisfying the momory in the physiperfuct and vigorous an accuracy
does not stand
It has alrendy boen said that the as the Europeans; but it was their
cal eye, they would have held the condition of freedom is the search ordinary mothed deliberately to sup- objector to bo the bondslave of au for truth, and the artint musta prou all that might hamper the unmoaning superstition.
allow his imagination to take the exprossion of their spiritual vision. We of today have been over
place of the higher quality. Reality for its own sake, one of the powered by the European tradition most dominant notes of Art as interpretod by the English, the Indian Art demands of the olt! 10 Europe, Indian artistic thoory least artistic of civilised nations, the power of communion with would not have recognised; for we We have therefore come to make the soul of things, the sun it
