Background

Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 is the predominant religion in India, it has approximately 867 million followers making up about 13% of the world’s population and as such the culture that ensues it is full of different aspects of life that are effected by art. There are 64 traditional arts that are followed that start with the classics of music and range all the way to the application and adornment of jewellery. Since religion and culture are inseparable with Hinduism recurring symbols such as the gods and their reincarnations, the lotus flower, extra limbs, and even the traditional arts make their appearances in many sculptures, paintings, music, and dance.

64 Traditional Arts

• Singing
• Instrumental music
  • Learning music in Hindu culture was a difficult task before the 20th century because of a necessary birth into a gharana
    Gharana
    In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organization linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. A gharana also indicates a comprehensive musicological ideology. This ideology sometimes changes substantially from one...
    
    . After the early 1920s integration of anyone wanting to learn classical Hindustani music could. An average ensemble normally includes a harmonium (which was brought to India by westerners), flute, veena
    Veena
    Veena may refer to one of several Indian plucked instruments:With frets*Rudra veena, plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music*Saraswati veena, plucked string instrument used in Carnatic musicFretless...
    
    , sitar
    Sitar
    The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
    
    , swaramandala, and a tabla. Many of the songs have strong themes that are related to theology such as a god’s favorite pastimes, praise of any god whether they be in their original form from “the trinity” or the god’s reincarnation, even stories of the creation of earth. Since instrumental music is a performance art it must follow strict guidelines that come from the treatise Natya Shastra.
• Dancing
• Painting
• Forehead adornments
• Making decorative floral and grain designs on the floor
• Home and temple flower arranging
• Personal grooming
• Mosaic tiling
• Bedroom arrangements
• Creating music with water
• Splashing and squirting with water
• Secret mantras
• Making flower garlands
• Head adornments
• Dressing
  • Drapery- The art of drapery has progressed over time. At one point both men and women wore dhotis but around the 14th century that changed and women’s fashion became more intricate thus creating the sari. The drapery involved distinguishes the wearer’s taste, occupation, and social status. The fabrics chosen range from cotton and synthetic fabrics all the way to silk. The fabric chosen depends on what occasion the wearer is going to use the item of clothing for. The draping of the sari comes in four different families: Marvari, Dravidian
    Dravidian peoples
    Dravidian peoples is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers of around 220 million are found mostly in Southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka,...
    
    , Tribal, and Nivi. The family that the wearer chooses depends on the wearer’s personal taste. The way an item of clothing is draped tells a lot about the wearer such as expression of creativity, progression of fashion, and where the user comes from.
• Costume decorations
• Perfumery
• Jewelry making
• Magic and illusions
• Ointments for charm and virility
• Manual dexterity
• Skills of cooking, eating and drinking
• Beverage and dessert preparation
• Sewing (making and mending garments)
• Embroidery
• Playing Vina and drum
• Riddles and rhymes
• Poetry games
• Tongue twisters and difficult recitation
• Literary recitation
• Drama and story telling
  • Drama in its early essence was performed mainly by male troupes and was often integrated with many of the other traditional art forms such as poetry, music, and story telling. Since drama is a performance art it also follows the Natya Shastra
    Natya Shastra
    The Natya Shastra is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music. It was written during the period between 200 BC and 200 AD in classical India and is traditionally attributed to the Sage Bharata.The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope...
    
     guidelines.
• Verse composition game
• Furniture caning
• Erotic devices and knowledge of sexual arts
• Crafting wooden furniture
• Architecture and house construction
• Distinguishing between ordinary and precious stones and metals
• Metal-working
• Gems and mining
• Gardening and horticulture
• Games of wager involving animals
• Training parrots and mynas to speak
• Hairdressing
• Coding messages
• Speaking in code
• Knowledge of foreign languages and dialects
• Making flower carriages
• Spells, charms and omens
• Making simple mechanical devices
• Memory training
• Game of reciting verses from hearing
• Decoding messages
• The meanings of words
• Dictionary studies
• Prosody and rhetoric
• Impersonation
• Artful dressing
• Games of dice
• The game of akarsha (a dice game played on a board)
• Making dolls and toys for children
• Personal etiquette and animal training
• Knowledge of dharmic warfare and victory
• Physical culture

The names and there meanings for all the arts
(1) gita — art of singing.

(2) vadya — art of playing on musical instruments.

(3) nritya — art of dancing.

(4) natya — art of theatricals.

(5) alekhya — art of painting.

(6) viseshakacchedya — art of painting the face and body with colored unguents and cosmetics.

(7) tandula-kusuma-bali-vikara — art of preparing offerings from rice and flowers.

(8) pushpastarana — art of making a covering of flowers for a bed.

(9) dasana-vasananga-raga — art of applying preparations for cleansing the teeth, cloths and painting the body.

(10) mani-bhumika-karma — art of making the jewel garlands.

(11) sayya-racana — art of covering the bed.

(12) udaka-vadya — art of playing on music in water.

(13) udaka-ghata — art of splashing water on ground.

(14) citra-yoga — art of practically applying an admixture of colors.

(15) malya-grathana-vikalpa — art of designing a preparation of wreaths or garlands.

(16) sekharapida-yojana — art of practically setting the coronet on the head.

(17) nepathya-yoga — art of practically dressing

(18) karnapatra-bhanga — art of decorating the tragus of the ear.

(19) sugandha-yukti — art of practical application of aromatics.

(20) bhushana-yojana — art of applying or setting ornaments.

(21) aindra-jala — art of jugglery.

(22) kaucumara — a kind of art.

(23) hasta-laghava — art of sleight of hand.

(24) citra-sakapupa-bhakshya-vikara-kriya — art of preparing varieties of foods - curries, soups, sweetmeats

(25) panaka-rasa-ragasava-yojana — art of preparing palatable drinks and fruit juices

(26) suci-vaya-karma — art of needleworks and weaving.

(27) sutra-krida — art of playing with thread.

(28) vina-damuraka-vadya — art of playing on lute and small x-shaped drum.

(29) prahelika — art of making and solving riddles.
(29-a) pratimala — art of caping or reciting verse for verse as a trial for memory or skill.

(30) durvacaka-yoga — art of practicing language difficult to be answered by others.

(31) pustaka-vacana — art of reciting books.

(32) natikakhyayika-darsana — art of enacting short plays and anecdotes.

(33) kavya-samasya-purana — art of solving enigmatic verses.

(34) pattika-vetra-bana-vikalpa — art of designing preparation of shield, cane and arrows.

(35) tarku-karma — art of spinning by spindle.

(36) takshana — art of carpentry.

(37) vastu-vidya — art of engineering.

(38) raupya-ratna-pariksha — art of testing silver and jewels.

(39) dhatu-vada — art of metallurgy.

(40) mani-raga jnana — art of judging jewels.

(41) akara jnana — art of mineralogy.

(42) vrikshayur-veda-yoga — art of practicing medicine or medical treatment, by herbs.

(43) mesha-kukkuta-lavaka-yuddha-vidhi — art of knowing the mode of fighting of lambs, cocks and birds.

(44) suka-sarika-prapalana (pralapana)? — art of maintaining or knowing conversation between male and female cockatoos.

(45) utsadana — art of healing or cleaning a person with perfumes.

(46) kesa-marjana-kausala — art of combing hair.

(47) akshara-mushtika-kathana — art of talking with fingers.

(48) mlecchita-kutarka-vikalpa — art of fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry.

(49) desa-bhasha-jnana — art of knowing provincial dialects.

(50) pushpa-sakatika-nirmiti-jnana — art of knowing prediction by heavenly voice or knowing preparation of toy carts by flowers.

(51) yantra-matrika — art of mechanics.

(52) dharana-matrika — art of the use of amulets.

(53) samvacya — art of conversation.

(54) manasi kavya-kriya — art of composing verse mentally.

(55) kriya-vikalpa — art of designing a literary work or a medical remedy.

(56) chalitaka-yoga — art of practicing as a builder of shrines

(57) abhidhana-kosha-cchando-jnana — art of the use of lexicography and meters.

(58) vastra-gopana — art of concealment of cloths.

(59) dyuta-visesha — art of knowing specific gambling.

(60) akarsha-krida — art of playing with dice or magnet.

(61) balaka-kridanaka — art of using children’s toys.

(62) vainayiki vidya — art of enforcing discipline.

(63) vaijayiki vidya — art of gaining victory.

(64) vaitaliki vidya — art of awakening master with music at dawn

Historic Texts on Art Practices

• Natya Shastra
  • The Natya Shastra is the leading guide to the Hindu performing arts. It is based on the Natya Veda, which no longer exists, and is roughly 37 chapters long with 6,000 slokas.

Cities Dedicated to the Production of Art

• Raghurpajpur
  • This city is solely dedicated to the production of artwork that is driven by the divine forces of Hinduism and these artworks are produced in a traditional fashion. The city is located in northern India and at one point this city was at risk of being completely destroyed due to British rule. During this time religion and the power of the kings were being overthrown and as such there was no reason for a city to exist whose main purpose is to supply traditional art. After this crisis occurred the city began to exclusively base itself on agriculture until a man named Jacnnath Mopatra led a training center for chitrakars. This revolution began production of the traditional art works once again in the 1950s and since the work being produced is known internationally.

Common Symbols

• Extra Limbs-Extra limbs are seen on many of the Hindu deities in paintings and sculptures. The extra limbs show how much power the god is capable of because of their ability to perform many tasks at once. Such as the goddess Sarasvati always has a minimum of four arms. Two of the arms will be playing a vina, representing the tuning of her knowledge, prayer beads in another hand and a scripture in another, both of these items are used to represent her devotion to her spirituality. Since she is the goddess of learning and art we see that she is very capable and very powerful in her area of expertise.

• Lotus Flower-The lotus flower is another common item seen constantly throughout the arts. The lotus flower represents purity, beauty, prosperity, fertility, and transcendence. The reason the flower shows these attributes is due to the process in which the lotus flower goes through in order to blossom. The flower grows out of mud and rests atop the water in which it grows showing the hardship it must endure in order to achieve maximum beauty. Many deities have their name based on the Sanskrit word for lotus such as Lakshimi.

See also

• Alpana
  Alpana
  Alpana refers to colourful motifs, sacred art or painting done on a horizontal surface on auspicious occasions in Bengal like Puja, wedding or community events . The art typically has some religious significance. This type of art is found on the Indian subcontinent...
  
  
• Art of Champa
  Art of Champa
  Champa was an Indic civilization that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand year period between 500 AD and 1500 AD. The original Chams were probably colonists from the Indonesian islands, who adopted as their principal vocations those of...
  
  
• Jnana Vigraham
  Jnana Vigraham
  Jñāna Vigraham is a distinctively styled statue of the revered saint Sree Nārāyana Guru. In Sanskrit, the word Jñāna means knowledge, and Vigraham is the common term for statue . The name Jñāna Vigraham signifies embodiment of knowledge...
  
  
• Madhubani art
• Rangoli
  Rangoli
  Rangoli is a traditional decorative folk art from India. These are decorative designs made on floors of living rooms and courtyards during Hindu festivals and are meant as sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols have been passed on through the ages, from each generation to...
  
  
• Tanjore painting
  Tanjore painting
  Tanjore painting is an important form of classical South Indian painting native to the town of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, India. The art form dates back to about 1600 AD, a period when the Nayakas of Tanjavur encouraged art—chiefly, classical dance and music—as well as literature, both in Telugu...