Hindu shrines as arts heritage

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Hindu shrines as arts heritage

By N. Kunju

 

Art and freedom go hand in hand. Also art has an inalienable

relationship with religion—Religion could promote or suppress art.

 

Hinduism is a faith with utmost freedom. It gives freedom to its

followers to choose from a variety of deities, rituals and

lifestyles. Unlike monotheistic religions, Hinduism has no single

prophet or no single scripture that every follower is bound to revere

and obey. A Hindu cannot be excommunicated because Hinduism

encompasses all philosophies from mysticism to rationalism. Words

like blasphemy and apostate have no place in the Hindu lexicon.

 

It is no wonder that in this benevolent environment of a blend of

faith and freedom, arts prospered under temple patronage. From time

immemorial, temples have been the centre of Indian art. A Hindu

shrine embodied architecture, sculpture and painting in their

excellence. The temple provided the platform for performing arts.

Music, both vocal and instrumental flourished in the temple

precincts.

 

For a Hindu, the temple is not merely a prayer hall to have communion

with God, but also a cultural centre where he can imbibe the glorious

heritage of his ancient civilisation. His scriptures are not a single

holy book, but a series of works of philosophy and mythology—the

Vedas and the Puranas. All these are literary treasures of

intellectual outpourings and imaginative history. Hindu art is not

static; it evolved through millenniums, from the primitive instinct

of man to adore nature as idolatry of a piece of abstract stone, to

the most exquisite sculpture of human and animal anatomy. Musical

instruments ranged from rhythmic drums to melodious string

instruments. Performing arts formed an integral part of Hindu

cultural life catering to the most erudite and the very common.

 

Paintings too began in prehistoric days depicting jungle life in cave

dwellings in crude form and attained high sophistication in the

medieval times. The enchanting wall paintings in the caves of Ajanta

and Ellora are world-class wonders executed by unknown artists in

post Buddhist era and survived the ravages of time and clime. The

walls of temples were left free for the artists to give form to their

unrestricted imagination with no bindings of theistic restrictions or

even sexual inhibitions.

 

The sculptures in the temples of Khajuraho are monuments of artistic

liberty that no other religion except Hinduism would have tolerated.

Freedom for the artist was an integral part of Hindu culture, and the

painter got unrestrained freedom to use his brush in the holiest of

holy places.

 

Ajanta is an example of not only the development of Indian art

centuries ago, but also the technological ingenuity of the ancient

artists in inventing the implements and ingredients for their

painting.

 

In fact, the most orthodox of religions became tolerant when they

came to India and thrived in the Hindu environment. Islam insisted

that whatever was not allowed by the holy book was prohibited. But it

could not resist the lure of the "prohibited fruits" of painting and

music when the religion took roots in India. The Mughal emperors

commissioned the best of artists to have their images painted and

Mughal miniatures became part of Indian art heritage. Muslim Sufis

adopted the Hindu Bhakti cult and realised God through devotional

songs and dance.

 

Christianity too adopted Hindu customs and rituals when it reached

the west coast of India in the first century AD, long before Rome

became the centre of the Christian empire in Europe. In some of the

old churches of Kerala, mural paintings, the traditional temple art

form, are still seen.

 

Kerala was the centre of the confluences of cultures from different

lands. Crossing the Western Ghats, Indian heartland cultures flowed

into the narrow strip of green in the west coast. And sailing on the

high seas came a variety of civilisations from Arab and European

countries, which all left an indelible mark on the composite culture

of Kerala.

 

Kerala temples have a long history of fostering culture. In fact, the

cultural life of the people centred on the local temple. They went

there to listen to music, see plays, watch artistic works and attain

peace sitting under the banyan tree with its leaves rustling in the

breeze murmuring the mantra of shanti.

 

Medieval artists in different parts of India were engaged in painting

and the medium at that time was the walls of temples, palaces and

monuments. The subject for the wall painting used to be scenes from

epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata and of course stories from

the life of Buddha.

 

Ajanta is an example of not only the development of Indian art

centuries ago, but also the technological ingenuity of the ancient

artists in inventing the implements and ingredients for their

painting. Like sculpting and architecture, painting too was mostly

religion-based and used to depict gods and goddesses of whom there is

no dearth in Hindu scriptures and epics. But modernity whitewashed

much of this rich heritage. And there were not many artists left to

follow the vocation of mural painting that was a very intricate and

patience-testing job, but brought paltry remuneration.

 

Photography and pictures on paper with garish colours displaced the

soft tones and stylized lines of the murals.

 

In Kerala, only a few of the wall paintings in temples survived as a

reminder of the existence of the exquisite art form. Prominent places

where murals exist are Padmanabha-swamy shrine in Thiruvanantha-

puram, temples of Ettumanoor, Panayanarkavu and Guruvayur. Also

murals adorn old palaces such as Padmanabhapuram, Krishnapuram and

Mattancherry.

 

Kerala has a distinct temple culture. The rituals of Kerala temples

are unique, so are their architecture and sculpture. The ceremonies

too differ from those of temples in other parts of the country,

performed with the accompaniment of special percussion instruments

like chenda. The performing arts of temples like Kathakali,

Ottamthullal, etc. have no parallel. So also, the wall paintings in

Kerala temples have a distinct identity.

 

Sharp lines form the skeletal support for the body of Kerala murals

and this unique feature makes it distinguished and rich. Subjects for

the murals are varied, gods, goddesses, saints, kings, birds,

animals, plants, trees, creepers, flowers, all in their natural

splendour.

 

The murals are done in a meticulously prepared white surface. The

colours are made from substances of natural mineral or vegetable

origin. For example, red, brown, yellow, etc. are made from soft

stone powdered and refined, green from leaves of herbs, blue derived

from the indigo plant, etc. Black is made from the carbon deposited

while burning a wick dipped in vegetable oil. Even the brush is

handmade from shoots of arrow grass deftly tied to a bamboo stick. In

short, nothing is bought from a shop catering for professional

artists.

 

Though we make tall claims of the great tradition of our ancient arts

and science and take pride in them, very little is done to revive and

promote them. Of course, there are government-funded academies and

institutions that are officially patronising artists and artisans.

But the whole process is tied up in bureaucratic red-tape,

favouritism, corruption and mutual back-patting or back-stabbing (as

the case may be). The fact is, those who work silently with single-

minded devotion are left out in the rat race for elite exposure and

fame.

 

The art of Kerala school of murals was on the brink of extinction. In

1970, there was a big fire in the Guruvayur temple in which most of

the invaluable murals were destroyed. The temple authorities wanted

to reconstruct the murals. A devoted artist of the old generation,

Mammiyoor Krishnan Kutty Nair, undertook the job. The fire proved to

be a blessing in disguise because the Guruvayoor Temple Trust

established the Institute of Mural Painting in 1989, with Krishnan

Kutty Nair as its principal . A few veteran mural painters who were

determined to keep the ancient art alive, volunteered to teach a new

generation of young men with aesthetic sensitivity. The Institute

functioned in the best tradition of Guru-Shishya Parampara and

conducted a five-year diploma course with 10 students in each term.

 

Two young artists from the first batch of students of the Institute,

Venugopal and Jayachandran, have established their studio, Tatvamasi,

in Delhi. Their work has made a mark in the Capital's art world.

Several institutions have commissioned them to paint murals with a

special accent on their professional functioning. The Uttara

Guruvayoorappan temple in East Delhi displays some of their

paintings.

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