IV. THE INDIAN EXAMPLE

India has the third largest concentration of Rock Art, after Australia and Africa. Of the over one million motifs, animals are the most frequent, humans come next, and symbols and designs third in their order of occurence. Various pigments are used, such as haematite and other oxides of iron to provide colour in red, yellow, orange or brown. There are also a few instances of black and deep purple, obtained from oxides of magnesium (Twenty-one colours for instance were counted from Bhimbetka; namely, from white, ashy white, creamy white, yellow, yellow ochre, raw sienna, raw umber, orange, dark orange, vermilion, scarlet, light red, dark red, burnt sienna, burnt umber, crimson, dark crimson, purple, chocolate, emerald green and black). Most of these compounds are available in surface deposits, found at a close distance from the paintings. Unlike in some parts of the world, there is little in India by way of living tradition of painting on rock surfaces. But the fundamental art tradition persists by way of contemporary ‘folk’ and ‘tribal’ in oral ways, such as amongst the Warlis, Santhal, the Gonds and so on. In short, Rock Art may be seen as a part of living traditions, in terms of local histories and in the understanding of the psychology and history of humankind. It is the universality of the medium and the message within this global creative urge that holistic thinking and alternate methodologies may emerge.

By way of illustration, in a generalised manner, the alternative may be in this manner – a psychological – metaphysical one where symbols and signs are decoded as Jungian archetypes, the designs as mandalasand so on, arising out of common universal collective consciousness. The importance is given to symbolic imagery, of inner feelings and sympathy, outward similarity being incidental. The single line drawings are representation of sophistication, and the paintings in their simplicity are not arising out of untrained ‘naturalism’. This simplicity reflects a freshness of a child-like – not childish – vision, unencumbered by many associations and interests. In this expression of the movement of dynamism, the observer selects what is essential. Similar drawings are made and compared in terms of pre-and-post meditational states that create same patterns, archetypes and mandals, (Kandinsky; 1977, Malik; 1994).

At a deeper level art is the mother of all our emotions, and every work of Art is the child of its age. It unites all our senses – sound, sight, touch, smell are interwoven into each other. Painting – Art – represents not a visual harmony but colours are expressions of music and sound harmony. Colours, as is well known, trigger off a spirit of sound, say red, blue, green and so on. These colours have psychic effects, and even of religious and spiritual vibrations, viz. red is anger, fear, green is jealousy, blue is peaceful and so on different combinations.

Paintings are thus symphonies of not only colours, but sound, taste, smell, feelings of warm, cold, lightness, darkness. These works also have the dimensions of horizontality, verticality, and so on. In other words, there is a grammar of painting which may be deciphered, say, in terms of:

  1. musical movement;

  2. pictorial movement in terms of melodic principles;

  3. physical movement;

  4. spiritual movement of triangle, circles, etc.; and

  5. mysterious and secret manifestations of the unknown.

Traditional Art, as opposed to modern Art which is extensive and informal, generally has certain qualities, such as it is;

  1. formal, intensive labourious formality;

  2. repetition and concentration;

  3. element of faith and obedience; and,

  4. there is respect and reverence.

Painting thus may be seen as a combination of a composition like music which is:

  1. melodic and simple

  2. symphonic and complex, and so on.

The ideas conveyed here have been elaborated by many others. These are areas which the arts, archaeology and anthropology, and so on may try to interpret Art – "tribal" – and explore the possibilities of seeing all Art in the light of the Universal Creative Act.

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