SAGAM

At the Confluence of the

Philosophy of Aesthetics
Sanjay Doctor

Sagam:
At the Confluence of the Philosophies of Aesthetics
by Sanjay Doctor

First Edition:
Second Edition:
Digital Edition:

March 2015
June 2015
December 2015

Published by:
Sanjay Doctor
Dera Kabira Research Unit
131 Silver Beach, Suryavanshi Hall, Off Savarkar Marg
Mumbai 400028. INDIA
Email: sanjay_doctor@hotmail.com

Typeset and page design in Pages 5.1 on Macbook Pro

Sanjay Doctor is a philosopher, presently living in Mumbai,

India and is pursuing his inquiry about Man, God and the
World. His interests have taken him far to examining human
thought across Mans evolution and close to the light in
Anthroposophy of Dr Rudolf Steiner, Integral Yoga of Sri
Aurobindo and and the Ksmir aivism of Abhinavagupta.
Sanjay is also a visual storyteller and works out of his home
studio producing stories based on his research and
collaborations.
He is now morphing to becoming a nomad, setting up his der
(camp) at places of vibrant energy. He carries seeds as gifts
and receives back others to hold as a seed-keeper.

SAGAM
At the Confluence of the Philosophy of Aesthetics

Sanjay Doctor

DECEMBER 2015

Foreword | Authors Note

This project book marks the completion of a year long academic study of Indian Aesthetics and Philosophy in the certificate
course in Indian Philosophy and Aesthetics conducted by the Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai. Given the
prescribed scope and method required by the department, I experience a sense of containment to a more open and creative
exploration of the subject and at the same time it has channelised me into creating a formal presentation that can be a
springboard to a more intuitive and creative exploration in philosophical research.
The project work is intended to demonstrate the comprehension and application of the broad spectrum of knowledge and
inquiry that falls within the gamut of the course syllabus. It also allows for the student to showcase and decide a future area of
interest and study within this area.
Therefore, keeping these dual requirements in mind, I have conformed and complied with the assignment structure, and yet to
be true to my purpose of study and remain motivated, I have put together a narrative that mirrors the scholastic journey that I
took in the past year.
I want to experiment also with a formal classical structuring (syllogism) to this essay that is 6 fold. It is modified to suit the
essay.

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Prayojana :
Adhkar:
Abhideya:
Sambandha :
Udhaharana:
Nigamana :

the purpose of the composition

the competence to embark on this inquiry
the subject matter to be interpreted as hetu or the logical reasoning to build the argument
internal relationships of the components
examples
conclusion

My research led me through a study of western european aesthetics, kamr avism, and central asian islamic art. I spent time 2
weeks at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts library, New Delhi and attended public lectures there. I attended 2
immersion study weeks on kamr avism at New Delhi and Varanasi respectively. I also attended another immersion week on
Svitri at Auroville to understand the vision of Sri Aurobindo.
My primary research was an archeological and art study of various monuments in New Delhi and at the Delhi and Mumbai
Museums. Add to all this were the weekly lectures held at the university that introduced us to the philosophical questions. I
have thus been able to access all three sources of knowledge : (a) astra (b) guru (c) sattarka.
Along the journey, a guru directed me towards anusandhan, synthesis - that lies between the two paths of san yojna conjoining
and viyojna, separation. I adopt this path of synthesis in my essay, building on various ideas across time and space. Also I follow
a heuristic method to make sense of these ideas to our times, building from my own perception and understanding.
I am filled with a rasa of wonderment of the emerging world-view of aesthetics and its relation to human life. On one hand is
the beauty of its art forms, the sahdya of a human crystallisation in both the prajpati and the rasika. On the other, is the deeper
philosophical meaning and relation of aesthetics to Divinity itself.
Holi, 2015.
Mumbai

Sanjay Doctor

Digital Edition | Authors Note

Upon the counsel of a well-wisher, I am releasing this version of my research as a Kindle book so that it may reach a wider
audience who might find it of interest. As I read through the book, I find that it does not require any editing at this stage of my
work. Further explorations will be published as other titles in the series, if it is to be.
Christmas 2015, Mumbai

Acknowledgements
I must first acknowledge the Department of Philosophy, Mumbai University for creating the container for my learning and to the
faculty members who lectured on the diverse units covered in the syllabus. Dr. Kamini Gogri, course coordinator, led the
program with encouragement and gave us freedom to engage with the program in diverse ways. The HOD, Dr. Kanchana
Mahadevan, has set an invigorating scholastic standard. My fellow students have also been most cooperative, providing me
their class notes during my study tour.
I am indebted to Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and the Library staff for the cooperation extended and the liberal use of
library resources. It was a joy to attend many of the public events that developed my area of study and research. I must also
thank Majeed Ahmadi, Centre for Iranian Culture, New Delhi for spending considerable time with me and allowing me to use the
library resources.
My pranm to all the teachers and to the trustees of Ishwar ashram Trust, New Delhi for organising and funding the kmr
avism course. My pranm to Mark Dyczkowski, for accepting me as his iya at Varanasi. And to Shraddhavan, at Savitri Bhavan,
Auroville who provided a conducive learning immersion in Svitri.
I am humbled by the course of events that brought about synchronicity and therefore a namaskar to Kla, Time and to the 3
aktis icch, jn na and kry for their blessings. And to the Bhairav, that manifests this wonderful world, both within and
without - I say, Om nama iva.

magalaloka

yasmin sarva yata sarva

ya sarva sarvataca ya
yaca sarvamayo nitya
tasmai sarvtmane nama

In whom everything is, from whom everything comes,

Who is everything and everywhere,
Which is immanent in all things, eternal,
Him, in the self of all, do I adore.

Abhinava Gupta
translated by Bettina Bumer

 Sagam: At the Confluence of the Philosophies of Aesthetics

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Introduction

Section I

: 18 Century German Aesthetics

Section II

: Indian Aesthetics World view

11

Section III

: Central Asian influences

20

Section IV

: Synthesis

29

Introduction

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INTRODUCTION
The student who embarks on a
journey of discovery and
revelation is faced with a
dichotomy. Our university level academics are inherited
from a colonial past based in
orientalism. Modern day
professional challenges faced by
scholars and academicians to
publish in internationally
refereed journals has cast a
western logical paradigm to
research and thesis. So areas of
s t u d y s u c h a s h i s t o r y,
philosophy and languages has
been split into a western logical
and scientific school and the
indian mystic and mythical
philosophy school.

In the study of art and

aesthetics, western aesthetics
covers the classical greek
schools, moves to the
enlightenment periods and
culminates with the present day
post modernist schools. Each
interprets aesthetics anchored
in their respective world views.
Even though the Indian
philosophy and their schools
pre-date and are more matured
in their insight to the subject, it
would be unthinkable to give
credence to this essay without
examining western aesthetics
theories.

Therefore the challenge before

the author is to look at western
aesthetics for a unifying human
thought that resonates with the
concept of aesthetics that is
endogenous to the culture it is
being examined in. It is also
seen that there is no real
continuous western aesthetic
theory as the last hundred years
sees a shift in the cultural
canvas of the western world
towards the euro-centric leftof-the-centre theories that
challenge the classical
traditions and demonstrate
iconoclastic artistic expression
as the colours of our time.

Introduction

To investigate the essence of

various ideas and then meet at
the sagam, the confluence, we
begin our exploration with the
18th century German Aesthetics
philosophy. In the prevalent
cartesian mindset, Western
european philosophers were
challenged to link the new
paradigm of reason with the
classical ability of perception.
The backwaters of the emergent
philosophical sciences was in
semantic esoteric theology.
Progressive inquiries were held
into the nature and meaning of
aesthetics - art and relate it to
deeper universal truths.
Crystallising this school, will
allow us to then look at more
classical eastern thought and
seek answers to the questions
posed by the German Aesthetics
school. The depth of intellectual
maturity in the eastern classical
schools is not demonstrated by
the German philosophers but
the study is important to find
the esoteric world views held by
them.

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After this first section that

relates closer for a modern day
reader, we must look at the
answers to the issues in the
works of Indian philosophy as
expounded by Abhinavagupta
and the ksmir aivism school,
(~10 CE). The reason to examine
this school is that by this time,
all the main orthodox and
heterodox schools of Indian
Philosophy had matured and
were in dialogue with one
another. In ksmir aivism we
find a coming together of many
schools like a mhnadi. By
positing that the Universal
Unity, tattvas - elemental beings,
are reflected within all sentient
beings and insentient entities, it
opened up a new fountainhead
that was carried forward as
newer tributaries. Specially for
the philosophy of Aesthetics,
the detailed insights in the
nature of cognition, the emotive
states, artistic expression and
the metaphysical view of the
Absolute Unity, builds a grand
world view.

The third section enlarges our

geographical boundaries by
looking at Indian sub-continent
as part of a central asian
cultural and intellectual
identity rather than as south
asian. The Sa rada civilisation
dialogues span from places as
far as western Europe, Central
Asia all the way to China. If we
shift our perspective and accept
our language of art, culture and
philosophy under a central
asian perspective then we can
discard the sanskrit
brahmanical view of history as
espoused by orientalists. We
meet Islam, its art and
philosophy and give it a rightful
place in the schools of Indian
Philosophy. Rather than an
invasive agency, we can claim it
to be a collective and composite
force of Indian progressive
culture.

Finally, the fourth section will

reach a conclusion. I choose to
create a synthesis and dissolve
the dichotomy of the east and
west so that we can finally dip
our selves at the sagam and be
filled with wonder and awe at
the Light expressed in Human
expression.

Section One
18th Century
German Aesthetics

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics

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SECTION ONE

18th Century German Aesthetics

In the 18th century, Europe saw an intense philosophical development of the idea of art as understood today. The
traditional idea that art is a special vehicle for the expression of important truths established the framework for
German aesthetic thought.
From the roots of an esoteric school of the semantic philosophies, Early Christianity embedded universal ideas as
divine truths. The Enlightenment saw new ideas sprouting forth from the light of free thought and science. The
framework grew with great academic minds building a new framework based upon ancient and classical philosophies.
It was a time when the fine arts were developing with great skill in western Europe. The perennial speculation of
Mans relation to God and the Universe was contemplated upon to find a rightful place for the fine arts as sciences
and also provide a continuity with the prevailing theological traditions. A narrative was in the making.
In a meta-philosophical frame of cartesian thought, logic required a defining structure and order to declare it as a
truth. Connecting the self to the other required that subjectivity in the self find an objective connect to others so that
personal experience may be transposed to universal facts. The idea of Beauty, a personal judgement, needed a
universal commonality.
The philosophers that follow were influential in creating nodes along a stream of thought that created a formal
school of philosophy. What is of interest to this essay is the embedded deeper esoteric thought of basic truths that are
discussed in relation to philosophies about art and aesthetics. They reveal a history of the ancient Europa (as distinct
from present Europe) that had crystallised the insight and wisdom from folk-culture and contemplative thought from
the time of early christianity.

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics

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Perfection, Truth and Pleasure

Beauty

Perfection of God

Leibniz and his follower, Christian Wolff,

initiated a frame of idealism and
perfectionism. The world is perfect. It was
created by God from all possible worlds
because it was the most perfect. Thus each
object and all its properties must in some
way or the other contribute to the maximal
perfection of the actual world. Perfection is
the harmony of a multiple objects or parts
situated with a purpose. This order in
things is Truth. For Leibniz, revelation of
perfection leads to pleasure:

Wolff then brought attention to the sensory

mind that perceives perfection existing in
an object. As God was omnipresent in all,
perfection would be present in the self and
the other. From this came forth the idea
that Beauty emerges as the perception of
the perfection with the feeling of pleasure:
He states in the Psychologia Empirica:

The most perfect and therefore most

orderly of all possible worlds exists for a
reason, namely, to mirror the perfection of
God. Sentient and cognisant beings such as
ourselves exist for a reason, namely to
recognise and admire the perfection of God,
that is mirrored in the perfection of things
in the world and of the world as a whole.

Pleasure is the feeling of a perfection or

an excellence, whether in ourselves or
in something else. For the perfection of
other beings is also agreeable, such as
understanding, courage, and especially
beauty in another human being, or in
an animal or even in a lifeless creation,
a painting or a work of craftsmanship,
as well.

Beauty consists in the perfection of a

thing, insofar as it is suitable for
producing pleasure in us.
Beauty needs preceptors who can perceive
it sensorily. It is therefore relational, rather
than intrinsic, to the object. The subject, as
the self, is required to input the sensory
data from the object for pleasure.

Out of Zion,
the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth
Psalm 50: 1-6

The perfection that is added to the natural

world through human artistry is also part of
the perfection of the world that emanates
from and mirrors the perfection of God.
Thus, in admiring the perfection of art, we
are performing part of our larger function
in the world, namely admiring the
perfection of God.
The chief aim of the world is this, that we
should cognise the perfection of God from
it. The experience of beauty is knowledge of
this truth by means of the senses.
It would become a central theme of German
Enlightenment aesthetics that even if
people know the general truths of morality
in some abstract way, the arts can make
those truths concrete, alive, and effective
for them in a way that nothing else can.

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics

Noeta and the Aistheta

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten introduced
the term aesthetics in his 1735 thesis. He
also introduced an emphasis on the
emotional impact of art that is lacking in
Wolff. Recognising the duality of objective
reasoning and our subjective perception,
the concept of Noeta and Aistheta came to
being.
Noeta is the cognition, by the higher
faculties of mind, of the objects of thought
and logic. The Aistheta, from objects of
sense, is the subject of the Aesthetics, the
science of perception.
Baumgarten introduces the idea that a work
of art is not just a medium, more or less
perfect, for conveying truth, but a locus of
perfection in its own right. This aspect of
Baumgarten's early poetics clearly
impressed his student Meier, who states
that:
Aesthetics is in general is the science of
sensible cognition. This science concerns
itself with everything that can be
assigned in more detail to sensible
cognition and to its presentation. Now
since the passions have a strong influence
on sensible cognition and its
presentation, aesthetics for its part can
rightly demand a theory of the emotions.

|6

Meier emphasised that aesthetics should

deal with the passions because they have a
strong influence on sensible cognition.
His position is that not only do passions
have influence on sensible cognition, but
that they are themselves a great source of
sensible pleasure, and therefore part of the
aim of art to arouse them.
Mendelssohn
was
instrumental
in
introducing the topic of the sublime into
German aesthetics, that became central to
the subsequent german discussion of the
sublime, especially in Kant. Mendelssohn
says that either immensity of size or
strength first captures our attention :
arouses a sweet shudder that rushes
through every fibre of our beinggiving
wings to the imagination to press
further and further without stopping.
All these sentiments blend together in
the soul, becoming a single
phenomenon which we call awe.

Photographed by the Author, at

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013)

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics

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A work of genius must have a spirit (Geist),

which it gets through its content, typically a
rational idea, relevant specifically to
morality. Yet for a work of art to be
beautiful it must also provide freedom to
imagination. So a work of art succeeds when
i t p re s e n t s a n a e s t h e t i c i d e a , a
representation of the imagination that at
least strives toward something lying beyond
the bounds of experience. A successful
work of art also stimulates so much
thinking, such a wealth of particular
attributes or images and incidents, that it
can never be grasped in a determinate
concept - thereby stimulating a pleasurable
feeling of free play among
the imagination,
understanding, and
reason.

Free Play
Immanuel Kant classified aesthetic
experiences into 3 types:
experience of natural beauty,
experience of sublimity in nature
experience of the fine arts
He proposed that taste, the ability to
appreciate a beautiful object, was free
from:
utilitarian purpose disinterest
must appeal to all universality.
Kant's argument is that our subjective
pleasure in a beautiful object is an
expression of the free play of the cognitive
faculties of imagination and understanding. It
follows that these cognitive faculties must
in fact work the same way in everyone.
Our taste is subjective and at the same time
universal. He termed this principle sensus
communis. For Kant, all art is intentional
human production that requires skill or
talent, yet fine or beautiful (schne) art is
produced with the intention of doing what
anything beautiful does, namely, promoting
the free play of the cognitive powers.

Above: Bust of Christ by Cristoforo Solari, ~1500 AE

Venetian Style, Marble

Right: Classical Violin, Wood.

Photographed by the Author at Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston (2013).

L ov i n g a n o b j e c t a s
beautiful, in its natural
form, to hold the sublime
in high esteem and
sacrifice our self interests
is a ground for moral
conduct
At the same time it must
satisfy the demand that a
work of art have both a
purpose and a content.

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics

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Well-being

Art, Philosophy and Religion

Herder proposed that aesthetic experience

is that of well-being arising from a
perception of the true order of Nature. The
perception of true harmony and well-being
in the things around us, generates a
correspondent harmony and feeling of it in
ourselves. A resonance of the outer with the
inner. This feeling can come through the
engagement of any, or all of ones senses:

Hegels age was an age of criticism and of

reflective thought about art. His writings
are centric of a tradition that gave immense
importance to art for the advancement of
mankind and his awareness of the world
and his place in it.

whatever preserves, promotes, expands, in short

is harmonious with the feeling of my existence,
each of my senses gladly accepts that,
appropriates that to itself, and finds it agreeable:
the perception of harmony in nature makes our
own being feel well-ordered, just as the
perception of disharmony in nature inevitably
although painfully attracts our attention. the
feeling of beauty is a subjective response to the
perception of objective harmony, a subjective
feeling of well-being triggered by empathy with
the well-being of other things in the world.
May we not rejoice that we live in a world of
good order and good form, where all results of
the laws of nature in gentle forms reveal to us
as it were a band of rest and motion, an
elastic-effective constancy of things, in short
beauty as the bodily expression of a corporeal
perfection that is harmonious both within
itself and to our feeling?

Art expresses mans fundamental beliefs

about the world and himself. Hegels system
of philosophy revolved around the triad of
art, religion and philosophy. Art expresses
its content in sensory form, religion does so
in pictorial imagery and philosophy in the
form of conceptual thought.
He recognises the Absolute and its relation
to the human spirit. Art expresses this by
revealing the Absolute. Man is the highest
manifestation of the Absolute and therefore
art should pay more attention to man than
other entities. Man and his cognitive
abilities and practical work are not only a
manifestation of the Absolute but the
highest phase of the Absolute wherein the
Absolute becomes self-conscious and
returns to itself . Mans objective spirit
comprises of the world history. The absolute
spirit comprises the triad of art, religion and
philosophy. Man becomes aware of the
nature of the universe and his place in it
and thereby spiritualises the non-human
world.

Idea is the concept together with the reality

of the concept. So in the case of man, if soul
is the concept, his body is the reality and
the whole man is the Idea. The universe as a
whole is an idea, it is a unity of its concept
and its reality. Likewise a work of art is also
a unified whole and it arises by the coming
together of its various parts and the
realisation of its concept. It not only
expresses the Idea but is the Idea itself. In
revealing the Absolute it helps to realise the
Absolute.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Proportions of the Human Figure

(Vitruvian Manek), 1490 AE. ; Pen, ink and watercolour
over metalpoint

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics

|9

From this section on 18th century German Aesthetics, we receive ideas as sprouted seeds to expand our essay.
We take forward the ideas:

The Idea of God, Man and the

World plays outs in the idea
that God, as an omni-potent
transcendental being, has
created an unique world for
Man and all sentient and
cognisant beings. Perfection is
the harmony of each entity in
this order. Our purpose is to
admire the perfection of God.
When we perceive this
perfection in harmony, a sense
of pleasure arises and this is
Beauty.

The binary awareness through

the senses and thoughts,
extends to perception and
reasoning. The senses are held
in harmony by thoughts and
logic. Emotions are the result of
sensory pleasure and the
purpose of art is to arouse them.
We are filled with a sense of awe
when we sense and become
aware of either the divine
artistry, human artistry or both.

The free play of imagination

and understanding leads to
aesthetic experience. Art must
have intention and also a free
play of imagination and
understanding. Morally
significant ideas are also
conveyed through art.
Perception of the harmony and
well-being in the world around
resonates in us to create a
subjective sense of well-being.

Art expresses mans

fundamental beliefs about the
world and himself. The Spirit of
Man has the objective - a sense
of world history, lived and
shared with the collective and
at the spiritual level expresses
the world in sensory form as
art, in pictorial form as religion
and in conceptual thought as
philosophy.

Rudolf Steiner, Foundation Stone Meditation (christmas 1923 AE)

Godly Light | Christ-Sun | Warm Our hearts | Enlighten Our heads | That good may become | What we From hearts found |
What we From heads | Direct with single will.

Section Two
Indian Aesthetics

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

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&

SECTION TWO

Indian Aesthetics
The concept of art as yoga, suggested by Ananda Coomarswamy, gives us a frame to look at Indian aesthetics that
exalts art to a higher faculty and also provides the possibility of examining the transcendental.
Art is a statement of the philosophy of the age that produced it. The axis mundi of Indian philosophical dates back to
about 300 BCE. This was a watershed in a traditional metaphysical schools. A deep ecology spiritualism that had
crystallised into the Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads and met with new ideas as expounded by the schools of Jainism
and Buddhism that reviewed the concept of God, Man and the Universe.
Key ideas germinated and finally blossomed into the aesthetic theory of Indian arts.

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

Sa bda
As per classical theory, there are 3 main
sources of knowledge, pramanas;
pratyaksha perception;
anumna inference;
verbal testimony.
abda
Of these abda incorporates the human
world view and experience. The meaning
and purpose of abda expands from its vedic
ro o t s t o t h e t h e p ro g re s s i ve a n d
evolutionary expression of poetics, kvya.
In the Vedic - Upaniad view, abda is an
exalted mode of communication from the
is. As per their classic theory, words are
held together in a sentence by:
mutual expectancy, knksh,
appropriateness, yogyat and
proximity, sannidhi.
It restricted a liberal view of abda for it was
merely a pramana with no intrinsic aesthetic
value. It is connected to the overall purpose
of human life, the Purshrthas - dharma,
artha, kma, moksha. For the Realists, such as
Mmsaka, the purpose of abda was to
preserve the sanctity and authority of the
Vedas, protect it from the emerging
heterodox schools, and establish dharma.
The listener has no role either in creation or
interpretation of abda.

| 12
&

The Buddhist challenged the ritualistic

function of
abda and introduced the
written word to Indian philosophical
discourse. It posits that valid, bonafide
experience was possible outside the ritual
and thus began the epistemological journey
from yagna to kavya.
Around 5 CE With Bharthari came the
concept of sabdabrahman. Language is the
basics of all knowledge including art.
Consciousness follows speech. Unlike the
Buddhists and akara for whom words are
an obstacle in the ultimate realisation, abda
was not concept-free nirgua, but a concept
loaded cognition and realisation. It
established the base for a sagua Brahman.
abda became that bridge between the
visible and invisible, life and liturgy,
temporal and timeless.

sati pradpe,
satya-agnau,
satsu trh, Ravi, Indusu.
Vina me miga-shva-aksy,
tamo bhtam idam jagata.
The Sun has been lighted,
the glow from fire illuminates where I sit,
the sun is busy with his diurnal journey,
the moon shines bright in the sky,
the stars twinkle overhead.
Yet, my world is dark without the
doe-eyed beloved.
Brihatihari
Verse 14, Singratakam

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

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Symbols also evolve as abda metaphors

called sanketa. Symbols are mediators
between the subject and object, expressed
and the suggested. Symbols lead to sphota,
making sense of antiquity and tradition.

Sphota
As the transition from the realism of the
Mmsakas to the idealism of the
grammarian philosophers took place,
language evolved further from being just an
imperative to that of action. It was
re c o g n i s e d a s t h e ex p re s s i o n a n d
experience of transcendental beauty.

Saraswat: The four hands symbolically

mirror her husband Brahma's four heads,
representing manas (mind, sense), buddhi
(intellect, reasoning), citta (imagination,
creativity) and ahamkr (self consciousness,
ego). The four hands hold items with symbolic
meaning
a pustaka (book or script): symbolises the
Vedas representing the universal, divine,
eternal, and true knowledge as well as all
forms of learning
a ml of crystals (rosary, garland):
representing the power of meditation, inner
reflection and spirituality.
a water pot: represents powers to purify the
right from wrong, the clean from unclean, and
the essence from the misleading
a musical instrument (lute or vna): represents
all creative arts and sciences, and her holding
it symbolises expressing knowledge that
creates harmony.

Sphota means blossoming. The expression

through abda is an efflorescence of
thought. It is spontaneous. Meaning was
held in the totality of the vakya ( string of
words held together by knksh, yogyat
and sannidhi) and not in the words
themselves.
In the pasyanti stage, Sabdatattva, the
elemental being, resides with potentiality
and potency, egg like, in consciousness.
In the madhyama phase, vacaka is formed.
In the audible phase called dhavani, ( or
ruti or nda), the artha separates from the
nda and reunites with it in the listener.
The problem of meaning in art is, how does
it reunite?. A flash of meaning appears
rather than a process of logical reasoning.
The meaning shifts away from the domain
of intellect to that of intuition. From manas
to pratibh. Outer meaning to inner
consciousness.

Saraswati (Variant: Tripura Sndari)

Private Collection, Mumbai
Photographed by the Author.

The implication of the Sphota doctrine is

that the onus of the meaning in the
sentence now shifts shifts from the meaning
proposed in the sentence to that of the
consciousness of the listener. It has moved
from an objective to a subjective reference.

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

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Stage One: ktartha

The initial encounter of the art object leads to the first level of meaning: ktartha. The emotive mind, Manas, responds to the sensory
data and its emotive qualities. It responds to both the rasa and rpa, aesthetic emotion and form. The emotional consciousness, the
designated heart (hdaya) is the sagam, confluence of emotional, intellectual and intuitive intelligences.
Rasa

Rpa

The rasa concept provides a continuity to the indian art

tradition. Bharata (dates 3 BE 3AE) initiated this school
of thought. Rasa is the coming together of the primary
emotion, the secondary emotional manifestations of the
primary emotion and the canvas on which the emotions
are played out. There is a process of transformation
from gross (sthula) to subtle (suksma), mundane (laukika)
to extraordinary (alaukika), worldly realism (ssrik) to
artistic reality and individual to universal. The artistic
creator (prajpat) and the artistic receiver (raska)
conjoin at the metaphorical heart, sahdya, in a resonant
emotional state tanmayibhva. Three entities are held
in this matrix the artist, the cognising subject and the
art object.

Aesthetics and metaphysics are closely held

together and therefore an aesthetic form is but a
reflection of the the one primal form Puru. It
also bridges the correlation of the microcosm
(jivtman) with the macrocosm (paramtma).

For the raska, this culminates in a sense of wonder,

beyond classification and emotion. Camatkr is a state of
aesthetic wonder. This leap into a world of bliss is
beyond temporal and spatial limitation of pleasure and
pain, of subject-object dichotomy. There is a totality in
this deep contemplation with absence of conceptual
thought. There is fluidity (druti), enlargement (vistra)
and expansion (viksa) . The outward seeking
consciousness of the raska then returns to an internal
Saraswati, Ivory
state of self awareness and this state is virnti.
Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai.
Photographed by the Author.

In Dhyna, the artist meditates on and visualises

the cosmic Puru. In the mrgi tradition there are
many bijamantras and yantras available to facilitate
the artist. Rpa is an aesthetic transformation of a
natural visual form. There are six essential
ingredients of rpa:
1. pramana: .. proportion
2. rpa -bhed perception
3. bhva: emotion
4. vanya-yojn grace
5. sadsya . resemblance to reality
6. varnikabhanga . artistic use of tools/materials
Form expresses rhythm and harmony as Chhnda
(). It expresses the metaphysical, by interpreting
the sensory experience. Thus rpa depicts pure
physical beauty and sensual qualities to arrive at a
ktartha, the first level of sensory encounter
with the art object.

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

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Stage two: Parokrtha

Anandavardhanas dhvani theory espoused that a word or sentence, and by extension an art object, is capable of providing meaning at
several levels. Parokrtha builds and proceeds from ktartha, that even after the senses have been saturated with meaning, further
meanings still prevails.
The artist exercises his creative
consciousness pratibh to encode both an
overt and covert meaning. The raska in turn
makes a parok inquiry as a deeper artha
revelation. A larger envelope of the context
is created within the gthas, kaths, symbols,
allegory and inner logic of the composition.
A leitmotif of the period in which the art
object is created. Whilst ktartha
depended on perception as mode of
cognition, in this stage, inference as
anumna that comes into play.
Anandavardhanas dhvani theory explains
the Parokrtha stage. The basic dynamics of
dhvani is a shift of meaning from the
superficial perceived meaning to a deeper,
richer, inferential meaning. This is
arthantara. A dialectic tension must be held
together by the aesthete between the
primary and secondary meaning.
Pattern cognition is a natural attribute of
human thought. Panjara, the visual
geometry, unravels the concealed logic of
the art object.

Carmel Berkson
The Life of Form in Indian Sculpture (2009)

Buddha, Bronze
Authors Collection, Mumbai. Photographed by the Author.

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

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Aesthetic Experience.
Kamr Sa ivism is tradition that brings
together a number of heterodox and
Advaita systems together and appears in its
zenith with Abhinavagupta (10 CE). It is a
robust philosophical system and is a
progressive challenge it poses to the Vedic
school and influence other schools of Indian
philosophy.
Abhinavagupta does not consider the
schools of Realism, which include Skhya,
Nyya-Vaieika, Mims and Crvak, to
provide a satisfactory basis for art. Sa kara
rejects the world of objects because
Brahman is passive and nirgua. Therefore
all creative processes, whether in nature or
in human consciousness, including art
objects, are in the status of my.
Kamr Sa ivism counters the concept of
my with the concept of bhsa.
Abhinavagupta defines it as:
all that appears, all that forms the object
of perception or conception, all that is
within the reach of external senses or the
internal mind, all that can be said to exist
in any way and with regard to which any
kind of language is possible, be it the
subject, the object, the means of
knowledge or knowledge itself, is bhsa.

The Chnogya Upaniad hints at this

concept when it declares:
pramada pramidam
prtpramudacyate.
prasya pramdya prmeva
avaiyate.
That is the whole, this is the whole,
from the whole the whole manifests.
From the whole when the whole is negated,
what remains is the whole.
Reality of bhsa appears at 3 levels:
appearance as appearance
appearance as self projection
appearance as providing a value.

The immanent
prakavimaramaya.

Godhead

is

Praka, the Si va tattva is aham, the

subjective that is passive and dormant.
Vimara is tvam, the akti tattva that is
active as reflexive consciousness.
- It has a centrifugal dimension that is
expansive the vistra.
- It also has a centripetal force that is
inward praka.
Tat is idam, the inert nara. The object of
experience.

The world manifests through a free and

spontaneous creative activity, spanda in the
Absolute. It is the self expression of the
Absolute. The created world reflects the
very nature of the Creator. In the same
manner, an art object reflects the nature of
the prajpati, the artist. It implies that the
artists creative self expression is a
reflection, at the human level, of Sivas
creative self expression. A connect from the
transcendental to the immanent.

Ardhanareswara (Si va and Durg), Pta

Painting on Patti, Folk Art, Puri Orissa.

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

Vimara is not my but a ll.

This is the split of Kamr
Sa ivism with Advaita Vednta.
For the Sa ivite aesthete, the self
has to go outward to seek out
and participate in worldly
experience rather than turning
back on the world.
Process of Cognition:
1. A wish to perceive the object
2. The subjects sensory comes
in contact with the object
and brings back an image of
the object.
3. First the object is dimly
perceived nirvikalpa
pratyaka
4. The subject unions with the
object by taking it inward
savikalpa pratyaka
5. The subject becomes what
the object is anbhava
6. Evolution of rasdhavni,
rpadhavani and leading to
experiencing layer upon
layer of rasa and rpa in the
progressive art experience
and the inner sense of form
is revealed as rasaprajn a.

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The artists creation and the

subject are in a resonance
through the subjects direct
intuitive process. The aesthetic
faculties of the subject will
depend on factors of ika or
training, saskras, inherent
psyche impressions, in context of
the gths and kaths. Art
becomes a source of knowledge
and transcendent experience.
Finally, there is the inward
dissolution of the aesthetic
experience, when there is no
m o re s e a rch f o r s y m b o l i c
meaning, no more wanderings
with the gths and kaths. It is
state of bliss, the fullest delight
from the complete and ultimate
knowledge of the object. It is a
state of virnti.
Cognition gives way to samdhi.
This is the symbol of the troika,
triula, of the beauty of the art
object, the rasika and Si va. Now
there is only one revelation, that:
Beauty is Si va.

Krishna and Radha in Rasall, Painted on

Wood, National Museum, New Delhi.
Photographed by the Author.

Section II : Indian Aesthetics

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From this section on Indian Aesthetics, we receive ideas as sprouted buds to expand our essay.
We take forward the ideas:

abda is an intentional and

informed human expression.
As an agency, it is a source of
knowledge and as an agent,
capable of being encoded with
artha, purpose and kvya,
poetics. abda establishes the
idea of a sagua Brahman with
qualities.
Language is recognised as the
expression and experience of
transcendental beauty. Sphota is
the efflorescence of expression
through abda. The encoded
meaning bursts forth rather
than being logically derived
through reasoning.The
meaning shifts away from the
domain of intellect, manas to
that of intuition, pratibh.
The artha of the sentence shifts
from the meaning proposed in
the sentence to that of the
consciousness of the listener.

Rasa is the coming together of

the primary emotion, the
secondary emotional
manifestations of the primary
emotion and the canvas on
which the emotions are played
out. The artistic creator,
prajpat, and the artistic
receiver, raska, conjoin at the
metaphorical heart, sahdya, in
a resonant emotional state
along with the art object. For
the raska, this culminates in a
sense of aesthetic wonder camatkr. After a deep
contemplation with absence of
conceptual thought, the raska
then returns to an internal state
of self awareness and this state
is virnti.
Rpa is the expressed form
reflects an aspect of the
absolute. It interprets the
sensoryreception and presents
the first level of sensory
encounter with the art object.

Dhvani theory espoused that a

word or sentence, and by
extension an art object, is
capable of providing meaning at
several levels. Even after the
senses have been saturated with
meaning, further meanings still
prevail.The basic dynamics of
dhvani is a shift of meaning
from the superficial perceived
meaning to a deeper, richer,
inferential meaning.

In Kamr Sa ivism, the world as

maya, an illusion, is countered
with theconcept of bhsa, all
that is available to the sensory
mind and in our reasoning
mind.Just as the world is the
self expression of the Absolute,
and reflects the very nature of
the Creator, an art object
reflects the nature of the
prajpati, the artist. The artists
creative self expression is a
reflection, at the human level,
of ivas creative self
expression.
The artists creation and the
subject are in a resonance
through the subjects direct
intuitive process. Art becomes a
source of knowledge and
transcendent experience.
Finally, there is the inward
dissolution of the aesthetic
experience, into a state of bliss,
virnti. Beauty is Si va.

Section Three
Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

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SECTION THREE

Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Islamic art is a motif of 3 main influences which have been classified under a religious gross class by the west. Art
flourished, held in a dynamic tension by 3 forces Arabic, Persian and Turkish cultures.
The popular examples are mainly from Arabia, emerging from an islamic theology from its founder, the Prophet. The
other is that from Persia, which has a history pre-dating the birth of Islam. The Central Asian Persian art was
pollinated by the influences of the East by the trade along the silk road. The Ottoman empire, brought its own style to
Islamic art with influences from Europe. Further the division of the faith into 2 sects, that of Sunni and Shia, reflects
on the subaltern theologies that came together under Islam but remained as shadows to the dominant Quran-based
theology. The Arabs wanted Jihad to convert the infidels to Islam waged at the battle-head of an army. The Persians
and Central Asians ware already an artisan and craft based economy and imbibed Islam as a subtle ideology that
resonated with their folk beliefs.
Our focus is to look at the guiding principles in Islam that were the fountainhead of a unique metaphor in aesthetic
expression.
We begin with a journey on the Silk Road, mhnadi, that carried a pan-asian cultural affinity and look at a path of
new ideas.

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Silk Road

The Great Silk Road was a Mhnadi that

spanned from China to Central Asia with
tributaries into Russia and Venice. Routes
along the Persian Royal Road, constructed
in 5 BCE by Darius I of Persia, may have
been in use as early as 3500 BCE. By 475 BCE,
the Persian Royal Road ran some 2,500 km
from the city of Susa, on the lower Tigris to
the port of Smyrna (modern Iszmir in
Turkey) on the Aegean Sea.

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In 329 BE, Alexander founded the city of

Alexandria at the mouth of Fergana Valley
in Tajikstan. It became a major node on the
northern Silk Road and a sea link to
Guangzhou in China. Trade was not
restricted to only Silk. Gold, ivory, exotic
and luxury objects, animals and plants were
traded. It brought political and cultural
integration amongst the diverse groups..
The Parthians adopted most of the Greek
system before them and the Gandhara
culture grew in Peshawar region of
northwest Pakistan.

The Hans moved westwards with their

heavenly horses and reached Persia. They
brought back to with them many artefacts,
especially
religious artwork
and opened up
the Silk Road.
The unification
of Central Asia
with northern
India
within the Kushan
empire in the 1-3 CE
fostered multi
cultural interactions.
The Iranian empire of
Persia was in control of a
large area of the Middle
East extending all the
way to India.

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Central Asian Religious Beliefs

Belief Systems Along the Silk Road
In the Middle East, many people worshiped the gods

and goddesses of the Greco-Roman pagan

pantheon. Others were followers of the old religion
of Egypt, especially the cult of Isis and Osiris.
Jewish merchants and other settlers had spread
beyond the borders of the ancient kingdoms of
Israel and Judea and had established their own
places of worship in towns and cities throughout the
region. Elsewhere in the Middle East, and especially
in Persia and Central Asia, many people were
adherents of Zoroastrianism, a religion founded by
the Persian sage Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE.
The Greek colonies of Central Asia that had been left
behind after the collapse of the empire of Alexander
the Great had, by the 1st century BCE, largely
converted from Greco-Roman paganism to
Buddhism, a religion that would soon use the Silk
Road to spread far and wide.
Not only Silk, but religious ideas also
travelled along this road. Buddhism came to
China from India by travel via Kandahar and
did not reach Tibet till 7CE. It also travelled
east as recorded in the kingdoms of Kotan
and Kashgar in 400 CE by Chinese travellers.

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Christianity travelled to the west when the

Roman Church outlawed the Nestorian sect
in 432 CE and their followers settled along
the Silk Road. The first church was
consecrated at Changan, Iran in 638 CE.
Christians living in Persia, were persecuted
intermittently by their conflict with the
native Zoroastrian priests who often strove
to elevate their native faith over such nontraditional religions as Judaism, Buddhism,
Christianity and Manichaeism.
The culture of Muhammad's time included
belief in a number of spirits and powers, in
particular those associated with rocks,
springs, and trees. Deities were associated
with various stars and planets, and the most
important of these were goddesses.
A superior deity was known as Allah, al-Llah
or "the God," but this god was somewhat
vaguely defined and did not figure strongly
into the religious practices of the time.
Pre-islam religions worshipped a Mother
Goddess derived from the Moon, named AlLat. She is a triple goddess, similar to the
Greek lunar deity Kore-Demeter-Hecate.
Each aspect of this trinity corresponds to a
phase of the moon. In the same way Al'Lat
has three names known to the initiate:

Qre:
Al'Uzza,

the crescent moon or the maiden;

literally 'the strong one' who is
the full moon and the mother
aspect;
Al'Menat, the waning but wise goddess of
fate, prophecy and divination.
Islamic tradition recognised the trinity
(referred to in the Quran : Verse 18-19 of Sura anNajm, Star 53) firmly associating al-Llah as
a pre-Islamic deity paired with the three
forms of the Goddess.
The world-view of the pre-islamic culture
was enriched with cosmology, the planets,
the Moon and the Sun. Idol worship was
prevalent as documented in the existence of
hundreds of idols destroyed around the
Kabah at Mecca. The discovery of a gold
plaque with inscriptions attributes it to be
from Emperor Vikramaditya, Parmara
dynasty, a legendary 1st century BCE
Emperor of Ujjain, India. Thus the doctrines
of vedantic- upanishad philosophy and its
gods and goddesses would be also available
as a community belief system in this era.

Islam was thus born in the cradle of a theosophist society with an appreciation of diverse views of God and an esoteric theology from all
over the world that created a syncretic society. The interpretation of metaphysical concepts in Islam fostered aesthetic expression.

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Central Asian Islamic

Concepts
BEAUTY
Central Asian art, refined by the
islamic theology, centred
around the idea of Beauty. The
idea is attributed to a divine
quality around :
The outer appearance beautiful things manifested
and created in this world and
so attributed to our sense
perception
In God, it is pure inward
beatitude. Beauty most
directly recalls the pure
Being.
Thus art, as sacred,
corresponds to an external
manifestation of most inward
in tradition and hence the
close link between sacred art
and spirituality.

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FANN
Art is fann. It came to be
understood as a knowledge that
was required for the fulfilment
of a science or as a part of
elegant behaviour (adab). The
words an a and ana clearly
c o v e r e d a m o r e s p e c i fi c
meaning of creative ability, art
and craft in Ottoman Turkish
and Arabic lexicons.
IHSAN
Ihsan, means perfection' or
excellence' (husn). It is a matter
of taking one's inner faith
(imn) and showing it in both
deed and action, as a sense of
social responsibility borne from
religious convictions.
Ihsan, meaning to do beautiful
things, is one of the three
dimensions of the Islamic
religion (ad-din): islam, imn and
ihsan.

In contrast to the emphasis of

islam (what one should do) and
imn (why one should do), the
concept of ihsan is primarily
associated with intention. One
who "does what is beautiful" is
called a muhsin. It is generally
held that a person can only
achieve true ihsan with the help
and guidance of Allah, who
governs all things. While
traditionally Islamic jurists have
concentrated on islam and
theologians on Imn, the Sufis
have focused their attention on
Ihsan.
Ihsan is the highest form of
worship (ibadah). It is excellence
in work and in social life. For
example, ihsan includes
sincerity during Muslim prayers
and being grateful to parents,
family, and God.

TAWHD
Art is in the beauty of form.
Contemplation is beauty
without form, unfolding the
formal order, qualitatively, and
surpassing it.
Art is knowledge because
beauty is an aspect of Reality. It
reveals the unity and infinity
that is immanent in creation.
This consciousness of Divine
Unity is tawhd.
As Islam spread to lands far
from Arabia, 3 qualities
crystallised the idea of the
Divine Unity:
1. Rubbyah: creator-sustainer.
Alllah alone caused all things
to exist when there was
nothing; He sustains and
maintains creation.
2. Asm was Shift:
He cannot be described or
given attributes. Man must not
try to give names and
attributes to Alllah.
3. Ebdah: only worship Alllah.
All forms of worship must be
directed only to Alllah without
an intermediary between man
and God.

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

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Aniconism

Paradise

Word

Aniconism is the foundation of

this school of art. The
monotheist opposes idolatry
polytheism and so idols of God
and even of divine messengers,
prophets and saints are avoided
because their images could
become objects of idolatrous
worship and to respect their
i n i m i t a b i l i t y. I n s t e a d o f
projecting his soul outside of
himself, man can
centre it within
himself helping him
to realise his
primordial divinity.
In creating a mindful
void, by eliminating
all passionate
suggestions of the
world, it instead
creates an order that
e x p r e s s e s
equilibrium, serenity
and peace.

Paradise is an eternal
springtime. A garden always in
bloom. It is a final state , like a
precious minerals, crystals and
gold that is indestructible.
Persian Art, especially evident
from Safavid mosques, sets out
to combine these qualities. The
celestial springtime blossoms in
the stylised flowers and fresh
rich colours of ceramic tiles.

In the beginning, and in the very

seat of our consciousness, things
are spontaneously conceived as
determinations of the primordial
sound which resounds in the heart,
this sound being none other than
the first, non-individualised, act of
consciousness; at this level, or in
this state, to name a thing is to
identify oneself with the action or
the sound which brings it forth. The
symbolism inherent in speechand
obscured or deformed to a greater
or lesser ex- tent by acquired habits
seizes on the nature of things not
in a static fashion, as an image is
seized but, as it were, in the act of
becoming.
- Titus Burckhardt, Art of Islam (2009)

Modern Iranian Painting

Iranian Culture House,
New Delhi

Arabic script, as it proceeds

horizontally on the plane of
becoming, starts from the right,
the field of action and moves to
the left the region of the heart.
It is therefore a progression
from the outward to the inward.
Collection of Mumbai Museum Library

For the Persian, Unity manifests

above all as Harmony. By
culture and nature they see,
with poetic eyes, their artistic
activities is as if animated by an
i n n e r m e l o d y. I t i s s a i d
proverbially in the East that
Arabic is the language of God,
but Persian is the language of
paradise.
Allh amal, God is my hope. (Tumar)

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Arabesque
The Arabesque is both a style
and method to classify
ornamentation in stylised plant
forms and strictly geometrical
interfacing work. There are 2
poles of artistic expression the
sense of rhythm and and spirit
of geometry.

Cosmic rhythms will alternate

and complement phases of
evolution and involution.

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The second element is

interlacement. Beginning with a
circle and shapes within, it
develops on the principal of the
star shaped polygon. Holons
emerge as designs are recursive.
The zodiac with its 12 divisions
appears in the circle as a 12 or 6
sided polygon. The 5 part or 10
part circle corresponds to the
Gold Rule. The perfect
integration of a part onto the
whole.
For the craftsman who must
decorate the surface, a
geometric interlacement is the
most satisfying form, for it is a
direct expression of the Divine
Unity, through harmony that is
reflected in the world, Unity in
multiplicity and Multiplicity
in Unity.

Expanding and contracting, it

belongs to the dimension of
time. By its mediation of
movement, it establishes itself
in spatial dimension. With its
relation to plant world, forms
and designs emerge.

Photographed by the Author at Humayuns Tomb and Safdarjungs Tomb, New Delhi

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Sphere and Circle

Unity is never the result of a synthesis of
the components. It exists eternally as a
truth and forms are deduced from it.
Christianity sees union with God as an end
towards which all human effort must aspire.
The central theme in Islamic Art is unity,
present at all times and everywhere. It
simply needs to be recognised so that
manss effort in this regards serves only to
extricate the Unity that already exists in
himself and all things.
The sphere is the threshold between form
and its formless principle, indicated by a
point without extension. The point expands
to a form a sphere or circle regular forms
extend from it by qualitative differentiation
and irregular forms by quantitative
differentiation. The sphere represents the
spirit emanating from the point of Being.
Regular forms are archetypes or essences
contained in the Spirit and accidental forms
to ephemeral beings. Transposed into the
universal order, the sphere corresponds to
the Spirit (ar-R) emanating from the
ungraspable point of Being.

Photographed by the Author at Humayuns Tomb,

Safdarjungs Tomb, Lodi Gardens, New Delhi

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Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Alchemy of Light
God is the light of the heavens and
earth (Quran 24:35)
For the artist who wishes to express the
idea of unity of existence (wajut al-wajd),
there are 3 means:
1. Geometry: spatial order
temporal order
2. Rhythm:
indivisible
3. Light:

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A r t t h e m b e c o m e s a n a l c h e m y.
Transforming base, shapeless dull into
lustrous Gold. In the spiritual order,
alchemy is none other than the art of
transmuting body consciousness into Spirit.
Muslim architecture transforms stone to
light which in turn is transformed into
crystals encapsulating the light.

It is the divinity of light that brings things

out of darkness. To be visible signifies
existence. Just as shadows add nothing to
light, things are real, only to the extent that
they share in the light of Being. Light is the
most perfect symbol of Divine Unity. The
Muslim artisan seeks to transform the art
object into a vibration of light.

Photographed by the Author at Humayuns Tomb,

Safdarjungs Tomb, Lodi Gardens and Qutub Minr,
New Delhi

Section IV
Synthesis

Section IV: Synthesis

Art as Sacred
At the sagam, we are in sacred space. Here
God, Man and the World are in dialogue
about Truth.
At the heart of this dialogue is Man who
experiences the outer world brought to him
by his senses. His awe and rapture of this
world transcends him from the sensory to
thought and leads him to the idea of an
Absolute, a God. To describe this God,
universal principles are established in
Truth. The world comprises of sentient and
non-sentient beings who are assembled in a
great eco-system with each entity having a
rightful place and in proportion that is
appropriate to the entire system. This is
Harmony, and is also Truth. And it pleasing
to realise this perfection, so we call it
Beauty.

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To appreciate this Beauty, Man must express

himself. The Word, abda, brings together a
crystallisation of an idea, the encoding of
agents with meaning and the agency that
will carry it. The meaning encoded at
multiple levels by the artist is a means to
express some aspect of the Absolute. We are
the receivers, appreciators of the principles
of Truth, Perfection and Beauty. We must
meet the artists expression with the heart,
sahdaya. The meanings distill and percolate
drop by drop, meeting the mind of
imagination, perception and intuition. A
titration of the received with the substrate.
And in a flash, the quality of the Absolute,
as the universal principles, get impressed.
Filled with a sense of awe, the person,
pura is supplanted into the cosmic Pura
and in Iwara within which lies all creation,
iti.
Then the idea of Aesthetics lifts itself up
from a narrow terrestrial frame of the fine
arts, to a grand celestial kaa that is deeply
sacred because, it is at this sagam, that
aesthetics can be understood in the context
of the dialogue of Man with Nature and God.
We resonate with the divine vibratory world
(spanda), creating an inner vibration that
amplifies to the cosmic nda. A sense of
well-being of the most perfect world,
created by God, establishes itself within us.
Filled with this sense of wellness, the Grace
of God, the aktipath, is bestowed upon us.

Taking our place in this world, we must dip

ourselves in the mhnadi and be baptised,
by this revelation, for our spiritual birth.

Aesthetics establishes itself as a

science and art of Divinity.
Where matter and spirit are in
union. Reason and imagination are
in harmony because of free play.
Art is thus sacred, where the most inner
dialogue of the prajpati is expressed as
kavya for the rasika to savour.
To do beautiful things, to achieve perfection
in what ever we do is Ihsan, it is dharma. An
universal truth along with the idea of God
as an Absolute (alLlah) and the morality
(imn). Art becomes Fann when knowledge
and skills of both the artist and the
appreciator combine with a decorum of
refined behaviour (adab).
The revelation of the Absolute as an unity,
as pramada pramidam , the universal
truth is tawhd.

Section IV: Synthesis

The point, bind, represents the formless,

transcendental Absolute that presents itself
in an vistr, as development and
progression. This is the dynamic principle
of the bind. For art to be created it must be
bound in structure, space and rules. This
boundary is prastr, a containment for the
transcendental truth to be received in the
immanent.
There are 6 boundaries to a human system:
(Pioneering research in group psychodynamics
as per the Tavistock model of Group Relations
with the additions by Prof. Ajit Mathur, IIMAhmedabad)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Space:
Time:
Task of system:
Role:
Sentience:

spatial
temporal
primary and secondary
function of entities
ability to work together
towards task
6. Understanding: clarification of other
boundaries by individual
entities and the whole
system
And a sacred space, is created by the above
boundaries gives an immanent form to
ksha in which dialogue is born.
All things in this world are born out of ksha
and become dissolved in the ksha:
ksha is indeed greater than these,
ksha is the ultimate substratum.
- Chhandogyopanoshad I-9-1,2

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&

This is the akti-ketra. So geometry defines

space, rhythm defines time and light
defines the absolute.
Now the mind has come to the stage of
Yoga. Sage Ptajali declared:
yogacittavttinirodha
Yoga is the suppression
of the modifications of mind.

There is only one thought of the Absolute

and the mind comes to rest as viranti. In the
heart, akti, reflexive consciousness, reveals,
the reflection of the Absolute, encapsulated
as iva. the Light.