Significance of Art

Below snippet is taken from Prof. Sukhvir Sanghal's book - "Bhartiya Chitrakala Paddhati",  

    If all handicraft work is the outcome of the senses, science and other logical subjects is operated by intellect, then fine art is the rare creation of the mind, brain and the soul.  Fine art is the only way to express suppressed emotions and feelings. If the deep-rooted feelings or emotions are not expressed through a medium, from psychological point of view there is a fear and it could lead to a state of mental turbulence. Some people who are ignorant of the deep value of life may say that without creation of art so many people are alive and are living their lives well then what is the point of bearing the load of art. But they are not able to understand that without art, man’s body and senses can appear to keep working fine, but his personality may not shine and he remains unaware of the deep value of life and hence he is not able to live his life well.

       It is very clearly said in this Sanskrit verse – “Sahityasangeetakalaviheenah sakshatpashuh poochvishaanhinah” This means without literature, music and art man is really an animal without horn and a tail. Another Sanskrit verse which says – “Dhig jeevitam Shastrakalojhitasya” which means the life of a person devoid of literature and art is not worth living. A person who is devoid of art, despite of generations after generations, during their life are not recognized and also at the end of their life they are not remembered as during their life they have not created any art which would make them immortal so their memory will remain forever. Anyone who tries to suppress their own or someone else’s lively emotions, who would want them to live? All great poets, musicians, artists, sculptors and architects who have served the society and did their duty in their respective fields, their memory have lasted always and will last forever. An Artist who has truly brought awareness in human life, of course lives a glorious life well but after his death also his art keeps him alive in the form of his memory. Hence, he becomes immortal. A Yogi does a lot of penance to attain the fruit of immortality, an artist achieves the same immortality through his immortal work and he remains in the memories forever.

     Since the very origin man has been eager and has always tried to live rather than die. Knowing the fact that he is a mortal, he has seen so many people dying, still he has been in a continuous search of immortality. And in search of immortality, he has tried his best to search for various ways and means. The Knowledge and belief that soul is immortal has led man to search for immortality, the thirst for which can be quenched by expressing his immortal emotions while he is alive. The witness for this is prehistoric art also. Thus, the significance of art is not restrained to attain the goal of expressing beauty, emotions and joy but it also extends to the idea of attaining immortality. An artist in search of immortality, in his art imbibes the virtues of ‘satya’ (truth), ‘shiva’ (shiva), ‘sundar’ (beauty), such that there are no shortcomings in his work and he and art remains immortal forever. The true examples of these are the epics written by Valmiki, Kalidas and Tulsidas. In the music world examples would be compositions of Haridas, Tansena and Baiju bawra. The artistic examples are seen in Ajanta, Bagh and Ellora caves and marvelous work of architecture as seen in Taj Mahal. All these works seem to be looking at man and smiling at him that in spite of being man’s own creations that he is not able to understand the deep intrinsic values as a result of which the philosophy and technical work of the art is not evaluated well and artist and the art lover are not able to enjoy the art well.