Whether it is ancient temple architecture or two thousand years old paintings at Ajanta, There is knowledge behind the excellence of the art. Many ancient temples in India are more than two thousand years old. There are references of temples which were 4000 years old in India. It means art traditions e there in India since many thousand years.
Note: For the purpose of clarity, time periods are defined in two ways – Modern times and Ancient times. Here Ancient times mean many thousand years and modern times mean recent time.
Now a days, Art is considered as a way of bringing happiness and it is used to please five senses. For example, Watching beautiful painting or enjoying dance performance. But in ancient times in India, the view was much more larger regarding art. The land of Bharat is where Gods come and bless people. So People used to involve in spiritual activities to please gods. Indian scriptures like Vishnudharmottara Purana mentions, that whatever success is achieved by an individual is with the help of gods. It was not by his own efforts only. Many times, a person puts efforts and hurdles appear which keeps him away from his goals. Life of a person becomes auspicious after worship of gods. Then all the wealth and desires are fulfilled and hurdles are removed by gods. Hence worship of gods was given extra importance in Bharat.
Art was considered as a way to connect with god. Just like a priest in temple will chant stotra (praising god) same way an artist can create a painting of god as mentioned in Shastra ( guidelines given by Sages regarding image of God). Artist by creating painting of god is doing service to the society, by facilitating the worship of god. Artist can thereby strengthen his spritual practice and also help others to follow path of sprituality by doing painting or sculpture. That was the view regarding art in ancient times in Bharat. Even today in classican indian dance, such representation of connecting with gods can be seen. Classical Dance performances depicting scenes from life of God Krishna is one such great example. So art was not separate from spirituality since ancient times in India. Art was not just limited to expression of artist’s thoughts and feelings. It was dedicated to show grandness of divine powers of the universe. Hence artists used to spend their lives creating paintings, sculptures and sing ragas.
Theory and practice
Modern artists take training in collage and then practice art. In ancient times, there were schools in India for artist, There were called Chitrashala. There is reference that mentions, Chitrashala in Ujjain in ancient times was major attraction of the city in those times. There used to be art galleries which people can visit at these chitrashalas. So like any school, there used to be libraries with books about art.
Today we find many sanskrit textbooks written in ancient times, that explains guidelines for creating art. Here art means all types of art such as Dance, Drama, Music, painting and sculpture. In fact in Vishnudharmottara Purana, It is mentioned that, All the arts are linked with each other. One can create one art without knowing other forms of art. For example, At ajanta, some of the paintings depict scenes from lives of Buddha. In those paintings, artist has skillfully element of acting to create drama in the scene. In one painting, queen is shown doing dance. So in this case, artist knew right poses for the dance.
Sanskrit texts about art
At Nalanda university in Ancient times, there were three buildings which were libraries. The collection of books couldnt be kept in just one building. They needed three buildings to keep great books available at that time. Then as attack from invaders happened at Nalanda all three buildings were burnt. All the knowledge was vanished. This is just one example. Like Nalanda, there were attacks of invaders on universities all over India. It means large number of books about art were gone. There is probability that, we only have 1 percent of ancient knowledge about art is available. Yet that is so outstanding, because we can see application of that knowledge in the form of ancient temple. What is written in Vishnudharomottara purana can be cross checked at Ajanta and also at ancient temple. Likewise sculptures at the ancient temple were made as per theory mentioned in ancient Sanskrit books like puranas. In Sanatan dharma, we have concept of 14 vidya (Skills) and 64 kala (art). In Bharat, Kings in ancient times were knowing all 64 arts. Many kings did documentation by writing books about art. Such books were having guidelines for decorating palaces and temple architecture.
Here is the list of Sanskrit books written in Ancient times in India
1.Brhatsamhita
2.Sukraniti
3. Vishnu dharmottarapuranam
4.Matsyapuranam
5. Agnipuranam
6. Samaraganasutradhara –
7. Manasara –
8. Mānasollāsa – The Mānasollāsa is Sanskrit text composed by the Chalukya king Someshvara III
These are some of the Sanskrit texts about art. Each Sanskrit text mentioned in this list is very ancient. These books are not guidebooks about artist. These are guidebooks for living life successfully. Hence there are chapters in these books dedicated to make life auspicious. Art was mentioned as form of worship to the god. It is also mentioned to decorate palaces and temples by paintings. So in order to do that, guildelines of creating art were given in these books. This list doesnt end here, there are countless ancient books about art in museums and research center in India. These books are not yet studied properly and knowledge from these books are hidden from public. If researchers come forward and write books on these sacred books, then it will be a great service to the society. They will find treasure of knowledge on various topics such as art, architecture, science and life. All the best!
