1. India
Artn

2. VISUAL
ARTS
THEATER
LITERATURE
Hinduism ARTS
Buddhism
MUSIC DANCE

3. Hinduism
Two Principal Doctrines:
 Samsara
(transmigration of souls)
 Karma
(the law that the actions of man
in one life will determine his
future rebirths)

4. Hinduism
The Hindu Trinity:
 Brahma (Creator)
 Vishnu (Preserver)
 Shiva (Destroyer)

5. Hinduism
Religious Aim:
To attain nirvana
Objectives of Human Life:
 Dharma (righteousness)
 Artha (livelihood, wealth)
 Kama (sensual pleasure)
 Moksa (liberation; freedom
from samsara)

6. Buddhism
Teachings of Buddha:
 That life is sorrow
 That the cause of sorrow is
desire
 That escape from samsara
to nirvana is through the
destruction of desire
 That the destruction of
desire is to be achieved by
the Eight-Fold Path

7. Buddhism
The Eight-Fold Path:
 Right belief
 Right resolve
 Right speech
 Right behavior
 Right occupation
 Right effort
 Right contemplation
 Right concentration

8. Characteristics
of Indian Art
• Exemplifies social,
political, philosophical,
and religious influences
• Features spirals and
curvaceous lines, vines
and tendrils, round-
figured goddesses,
circular amulets, colored
gemstones, arches and
domes, crescent moons,
and the globe of the sun
• Anonymity

9. "European art has, as it
were its wings clipped:
it knows only the beauty
of earthly things. Indian
art, soaring into the
highest empyrean, is
ever trying to bring
down to earth
something of the beauty
of the things above.”

10. Visual Arts

11. Ajanta Cave
2nd century B.C.; 30 caves

12. Cave painting, Ajanta

15. Kailasanatha Temple, Ellora
760 – 800 A.D.

20. Shakuntala Looking Back to
Glimpse Dushyanta
Raja Ravi Varma (1848 – 1906)

21. Bharat Mata (Mother India)
Abanindranath Tagore* (1905)
*father of India’s modern art

22. Self-Portrait as Tahitian
Amrita Sher-Gil* (1934)
*first modernist painter of India; also known
as India’s Frida Kahlo

23. Literature

24. Indian
Epics
1. Mahabharata
- older; embraces the entire cosmology of Hinduism;
relates the wars between the two branches of the
Bharata family (the Pandavas and the Kuravas);
contains the long poem Bhagavad Gita (a dialogue
between Arjuna and Krishna before an important
battle in which the latter, who assumes his divine
personality, urges the former not to shirk from action)

25. Indian
Epics
2. Ramayana
- takes its story from an episode of the older epic: the
hero, Rama, is one of the reincarnations of the god
Vishnu; Sita is the model of the faithful wife

26. Poetry &
Drama
Shakuntala
- the flowering of Sanskrit literature after the eclipse of
Buddhism by Hinduism; Indian drama is romantic and
escapist, no fighting or violence takes place on stage,
and neither do deaths, marriages, nor other rituals

27. Erotic
Literature
Kama Sutra
- Kama – sensual or sexual pleasure
- Sutra – rule or formula
- a treatise on love; also makes a reference to the art of
painting

28. Music

29. Styles of Classical
Music
Carnatic Music
- South Indian Classical Music
- emphasis on vocal music; most compositions are
written to be sung; monophonic
- usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians,
consisting of a principal performer (vocalist), a melodic
accompaniment (violin), a rhythm accompaniment
(mridangam or drum), and a tambura (droning lute)
<insert Carnatic Music video clip>

30. Styles of Classical
Music
Hindustani Music
- North Indian Classical Music
- originated from Vedic ritual chants
- monophonic
<insert The Tradition of Vedic Chanting video clip>
<insert Ravi and Anoushka Shankar sitar video clip*>

31. Dance

32. Indian Art of
Dance
“The Indian art of dance is the expression of inner
beauty and the divine in man. It is a
deliberate art, nothing is left to chance,
each gesture seeks to communicate the ideas, each
facial expression the emotions.”
<insert Kathakali dance video clip>

33. Theater

34. Kutiyatta
m
 Sanskrit theater; one of India’s oldest living
theatrical traditions (2,000 years ago)
 Stylized and codified theatrical language (eye
expressions, the language of gestures)
<insert Kutiyattam Sanskrit Theater video clip>

35. the end.
Vannessa E. San Juan
Art Studies 4
Philippine High School for the Arts, SY 2011 - 2012