Add : D-108, Sec-2, Noida (U.P.), Pin - 201 301Email id : helpdesk@campus100.in

Call : 09582948810, 09953007628, 0120-2440265

INDIANINDIANINDIANINDIANINDIAN

CULCULCULCULCULTURETURETURETURETURE

1. Meaning And Essence of Culture 5-10

2. Prehistoric Rock Paintings 11-13

3. Arts of the Indus Valley 14-16

4. Indian Architecture 17-26

5. Indian Sculpture 27-30

6. Indo-Islamic Architecture 31-36

7. Modern Age Architecture 37-37

8. Indian Crafts 38-42

9. Dances 43-46

10. Indian Music 47-57

11. Languages And Their Distribution 58-60

12. Indian Literature 61-64

13. Indian Painting 65-68

14. Media 69-71

15. Indian Cinema 72-74

CONTENTS

���

Culture is collective expression of humaninteraction with nature, fellow humans andhimself. It evolves human capacity to classifyand represent experiences with elaborate symbolsand customs, and to act imaginatively andcreatively. It overtime assumes idiosyncrasypeculiar to society which results in culturaldifferences world over.

Culture thus consists of the ideas, customsand art that are produced or shared by aparticular society. A culture is a particularsociety or civilization, especially one consideredin relation to its ideas, its art or its way of life.One can also say, 'culture' is the intellectual andartistic lifeline of a society. NCERT simplifies theterm culture 'as how man earns his living, whatkind of house he lives in, what skills he uses,what he produces, how much knowledge hehas acquired, how he lives with his fellow men,what he believes, how much leisure time he hasand what he does with this time.

Often 'Culture' is erroneously substituted for'Religion' and 'Civilization'. But, they are alldefferent although technically, never opposedto each other. 'Religion' in its wider sensecoincides with, and goes beyond, culture and inits narrower sense, forms an important part ofit. Where religion signifies the inner experiencewhich reveals to the mind the real meaning andpurpose of life, it is the very soul of culture; butwhere it is used for the external form in whichthe inner experience has crystallized itself, it isonly a part of it. Religion as the inner realizationof the highest truth can never be opposed toculture, but positive religion, when it hasdegenerated into mere form without substance,is often in conflict with cultural life.

Civilization is sometimes used as a substitutefor culture but generally in the sense of a higherorder of culture. Man has never been satisfied

with the way he lives. He has always struggledto make improvements. In this struggle whichhas been both long and painful, he has beensuccessful. He has gone ahead to find betterways of earning his living, to set up better waysof cooperating with his fellow men, to discovernew knowledge to express his ideas in art andliterature. To put all this in a few words, man'sculture has always been progressing. The culturesof groups of people that have become highlydeveloped are often called civilizations.Civilization is sometimes used as just anotherword for culture but generally in the sense ofhigher order of cultural development of peoplewhen they begin to live in large habitationscalled cities, which represent a higher level ofmaterial life or a higher standard of living. Buta higher standard of material life has a culturalcontent only when it is imbued with, or servesas a means of attaining some ultimate moralvalue. When such life is in conflict with one ofthe moral values, or even when it is devoid ofany such values, it will prove to be an obstacleto cultural progress. So civilization is not alwaysan ally but sometimes an enemy of culture.

All cultures differ, but their differences stemfrom variations in universal theme, such aslanguage, religion, economy, law, technology,etc. Since these are universal, here is muchpotential for interaction between peoples.Another language may be adopted; one religiondiscarded for another; new ways of making aliving borrowed and so on. As cultures influenceeach other, they are in constant change. Whetheran invention or an idea comes from within orform without, a society must accept it before itcan become part of the culture.

When we talk of the peculiar common cultureof a country, we are concerned with thesegeographical factors which find expression notonly in material forms but also create a special

MEANING AND ESSENCE

OF CULTURE

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

5

6 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

mental atmosphere. It is the atmosphere whichgives to the people of country a common outlookand temperament though they may differ intheir religions and philosophical ideas. Thiscommon national temper and mind is the mostimportant source of the common national culture.Amongst other sources are the new religious orphilosophical movements which take their birthin the country from time to time or the cultureof peoples who have come from outside andsettled in that country or of those with whomthat country has come into contact in war ortrade and commerce.

India's national culture is an amalgam of thecommon temperament and outlook whichinfluence the Indian mind and the intellectualinfluences of various socio-religious movementsand other cultures which have sneaked in duecourse and sit pretty in the national mind.Prehistoric cultures in India, foreign cultureswith which India had a contact, cultures broughtby a stream of immigrants (now very muchcitizens of India) and the socio-religiousmovements sweeping India from time to time,all have went on to construct a national cultureof India.

Physical Environment of India

India mainly consists of plains or low plateauswatered by big rivers. The plains are wellirrigated. Sunshine is ample throughout theyear. Agriculture, therefore, is the mainoccupation since the prehistoric times. Due todifference in climate regime (mainly geared tothe amount of rainfall received) in the country,the soils differ enormously from place to place.Each region produces a unique product of itsown and is transported to the other regionsthrough waterways and roadways, thusestablishing a well-developed internal trade.

External trade was controlled mainly byforeigners, the reason being, the sea was farremoved from the hinterland. People living inthe coastal regions did, however, undertakesome initiative in maritime trade. So, under theinfluence of the physical features and forces,India's economic life developed on anagricultural pattern and this had a marked

influence on the shaping of her culture as awhole. It stressed the values of peace andconstructive activity more emphatically thanthose of war and destruction.

The influence of climate and economicresources on the material life of people e.g. food,dress, modes of living, etc., is too evident. Also,the physical environment shapes the physiqueand features of a people and, no matter howmarked may be the differences in featuresamongst the people of India, there are somecommon characteristics which distinguish themfrom other nations. This direct effect of thephysical environment on the development oftheir physique is fairly obvious. But its indirecteffect on their temperament and character, ontheir mental, social and moral life is not soapparent.

Religious philosophy has always occupied acentral place in India's cultural life. Thesupremacy of thought and perception of unityin diversity are precious traits of the Indianmind and they are mirrored in all the cultureswhich had developed in India. Its perception ofunity as the principle of life leads it to regardharmony, rather than struggle, as the basis ofmoral order. In this respect the contrast betweenthe Indian mind and the modern western mindstands out clearly. The Western minds assigngreat moral importance to the struggle betweenman and his physical environment and regardthe conquest of nature as the key to culturalprogress. The Indian mind, on the other hand,has developed in an environment which isblessed by a warm climate, a rich soil, abundantproductivity and easy communication.

Other important elements are the ideas,beliefs, principles which have their origins in theconsciousness to the higher values. Wheneverany new movement of thought originated hereor came from outside, it resulted temporarily inaccentuating the existing differences. but soonthe Indian mind set into motion its process ofseeking unity in diversity, and after some timethe conflicting elements were harmonized to laythe foundation of a new culture. We must knowin brief the cultural history of India to understandthis phenomenon.

Indian Culture 7

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The Role of History in the CulturalUnification of India

A brief summary of the history of India helpsus in understanding the process of culturalunification. Recent discoveries indicate thataround 3000 B.C. there was a developedcivilization in the north western and northernregions of India, popularly described as theIndus Valley Civilization. It is now known as 'Harappan Civilization'.

It now seems clear that this ancientcivilization was not confined to the valley of theIndus but had spread east and south across halfthe Indian sub-continent. Who the people ofMohenjo-Daro and Harappa were, and wherethey came from cannot be said with certainty.The available remains indicate striking similaritieswith people of Sumer, but historians offerdifferent explanations of the similarity. Someare of the view that the civilization spreadwestwards from the Indus basin till it reachedthe banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris.Others hold it that it came to India from Sumer.Be that as it may, it had around 3000 B.C.attained a high degree of maturity. One is thusjustified in holding that its beginning must goback another 500 years.

The Indus Valley Civilization is the firstrecognizable ingredient in the development ofIndian culture. Its influence has persisted to thisday and some historians declare that it is thetrue progenitor of modern India. The Mohenjo-Daro Civilization appears to have been primarilyurban while Indian life through the centurieshas flowed mainly in rural channels. Traces ofits influence, however, persist in the way of lifeof the people. Forms of dress, utensils andpottery which are still in use go back to Mohenjo-Daro days. It has been suggested that some ofthe religious beliefs current today- the cult of themother goddess, the reverence for cow, and theworship of Shiva date back to this ancientculture.

According to one hypothesis, the mostimportant influence of this civilization is to befound in the pacifist temper of the Indianpeople. Aryans in other parts of the world havenot been especially remarkable for pacifism. In

fact, they have generally been noted for theirwarlike quality and temper. It may therefore bedoubted if the prevalent Indian attitude to warand violence is derived from the Aryans. Thepeople of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro seem tohave developed a pacifist attitude whichaccording to some historians was one mainreason for their defeat at the hands of theAryans. In the scale of civilization, the Aryanswere perhaps inferior to the people of Mohenjo-Daro, but their more aggressive character andtheir superiority in the art of warfare gave themthe victory.

There are no regular histories of this earlyphase of Aryan settlement in India. A pictureof the life of the people, however, is obtainedfrom the epics and other literature. Of the epics,the most important are the Ramayana and theMahabharata. Rama and Krishna dominatethese two epics. The impact of Buddha has beenone of the most significant in the history of man.His was perhaps the first attempt to solve themystery of existence in rational terms andwithout recourse to mysticism. He emphasizedgood conduct and taught the eight-fold way bywhich man can live at peace with his fellows.He broke away from ritualism and the rigoursof caste which had become characteristic ofIndian society. His influence did not remainconfined to India but in course of time spreadthroughout the world.

The first definite date which helps to fixIndian chronology was the invasion ofAlexander in 326 B.C. Alexander did notpenetrate far into India but as a result of hisinvasion, a great deal of information aboutIndia became available to the western world. Hehad brought with him a number of Greekphilosophers, scientists and historians. Aristotle,it is said, wished to discuss with an Indianphilosopher the Indian solution to problems ofmetaphysics. There is a legend that Alexandertook away with him a number of Indian scholarsto satisfy the wish of his teacher. It is certainthat the earlier contacts between western Asiaand India were further developed as a result ofAlexander's invasion.

The first empire in the history was establishedalmost immediately after Alexander's

8 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

withdrawal. There are earlier references toempires which unified India but these are basedon myth and legend and we have no historicalrecord about them. Chandragupta Maurya wason the other hand a historical figure andorganized a vast empire which stretched fromAfghanistan to the boundaries of Bengal.

Under Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka,almost the whole of India was brought underthe sway of the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka wasa great champion of the Buddhist faith. Therewas however no discrimination against menwho followed other religions and in one of hisfamous edicts Asoka declared that a trulyreligious man had regard for all faiths. It wasdue mainly to his patronage that Buddhismspread beyond the shores of India. There arerecords of missions sent by him to Ceylon,western Asia and Egypt and it has beensuggested that his missions also visited Burma,China and Japan.

After Asoka's death, the Mauryan Empiregradually broke up. The reasons for the decayof the Mauryan power are not fully known. Oneexplanation offered is that fresh invasions fromthe north-west took place at a time when Indiawas militarily weak. This weakness, it is said,was due, partly to the long period of peaceenjoyed under the Mauryans and partly to theinfluence of Buddhism which discouragedmartial activities.

The interregnum between the fall of theMauryan empire in the second century B.C. andthe rise of the Gupta empire in the fourthcentury A.D. was one of turmoil and unrest,at least so far as north India was concerned.With the weakening of the imperial power, newtribes were continually pouring in.

Buddhism had suffered a setback after thefall of the Mauryan Empire. By the time of theGuptas, it was no longer the predominantreligion of the land. The Guptas were patronsof Hinduism but they did not prosecute theBuddhists. In fact, both kings and the commonpeople did equal honour to the Buddhist monksand to the priests and gods of Hinduism.

The state maintained law and order but thelaws were mild and bore lightly on the people.

We have an interesting account of the life andthe times in the writings of Fahien, the first ofa famous series of Chinese pilgrims who cameto India, the homeland of Buddhism.

Like the earlier empires, the Gupta Empirealso broke down partly on account of internalweakness and partly because of attacks bytrans-Indian tribes. These tribes were almostinvariably absorbed in the Indian social pattern.Many of these tribes did not have a developedculture of their own. Also the occupationaldivisions of Indian society made it easy to fitthem into an appropriate place in the socialstructure.

From the ninth century onward, we findcontinual reference to a group of people calledthe Rajputs. They gradually replaced thekshatriyas as the ruling and fighting caste. Theterm Rajputs literally means the sons of kings.Their emphasis on royal origin and theirinsistence that they were the descendants of theepic heroes have often attracted comments.Many historians believe that most of them weredescendants of the tribes who came after the fallof the Gupta Empire.

Early in the seventh century, king Harshasucceeded in establishing a unified empire innorth India. His efforts to extend his sway to thesouth were however checked by Pulakeshin II.There were thus two powerful empires in thenorth and the south which offered peace andsecurity to the people. With the establishment oflaw and order, various forms of art and cultureflourished. Agriculture and crafts tradesprospered. The restoration of peace wasaccompanied by general prosperity throughoutIndia, Buddhism had lost its pre-eminence butit was still widely prevalent. Harsha was apatron of both Buddhism and Brahmanism andwelcomed to his court Hiuen Tsang, perhapsthe greatest of the Chinese pilgrims to India. Hehas left an extremely interesting record of thecourt of Harsha as well as of the life of theIndian people.

As in the case of the Aryans, the incursionof the Muslims into India was also spread overcenturies. Sind may have been the first Muslimprincipality in India but the first Arab outposts

Indian Culture 9

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

in the country had been established almost ahundred years earlier in the far south. In fact,it is generally accepted that the immediatepurpose of the Arab invasion of Sind was tosafeguard the trade routes with south India andCeylon. It has been suggested that one of thereasons for the flourishing of religious andphilosophical activity in the southern India inthe eights and succeeding centuries was theimpact of a new and alien force on the indigenousculture.

Except in these two centres of Arab influence,the large majority of Muslims who came toIndia in different times were Turks, Afghansand Persians. Many of them were recent convertsto Islam and had imbibed only some of theexternals of Muslim culture. This did not preventthem from regarding themselves as the standardbearers of Islam. Many of the Hindu templeswere great repositories of wealth. An attack onthe temple was thus tempting to the invadersfor various reasons.

In discussing Muslim rulers of India, wemust remember that the Muslims came insucceeding waves. They were in most casesarmies of fighting men who did not bring theirwomen with them and took local wives. Again,in many cases the alternatives for Indianprisoners of war was permanent slavery oracceptance of Islam. These facts combined withactive proselytisation led to the growth of asizeable Muslim population in the course of fewcenturies.

Social customs of Hindus were alsoresponsible for the growth in the number ofMuslims. Those who were low in the social scalefound in Islam an opportunity to assert theirdignity. The more sensitive among the sociallyprivileged were often attracted by its democraticappeal. Besides, Hindu society looked askanceat released prisoners of war and they often hadno option but to join the Muslim fold. Suchlarge-scale absorption of Hindus slowly changedthe character of Muslim society. Even those whohad originally came from outside graduallylooked upon themselves as Indians. There weremany instances where Muslims and Hindus ofIndia combined to resist a Muslim invader fromoutside.

Akbar was the greatest of the Mughals andconscious integrator. His greatest contributionwas the abolition of distinctions based on religionand the offer of equal opportunity of service andadvancement under the crown to all Indians.Toleration had been forced on many of hispredecessors by force of circumstances. Thisapplied particularly to the principalities thatwere established in outlying areas. Bengal andGujarat had kings who were remarkably tolerantin their attitude to their non-Muslim subjects.This was equally true to the Bahami Kingdomand other principalities in the south. Akbar'sspecial distinction lies in his elevation of thispractice to a principle of sovereignty. He was,however, essentially a ruler and his was perhapsthe conception of a Secular State.

The Mughal dynasty would have beenremarkable if it had produced only a Babar oran Akbar. In fact, it produced five or sixgenerations of exceptionally able men. Thispartly explains the extent and duration of theMughal Empire and the hold it had on theimagination of the people. Another reason wasAkbar's reorganization of the administrativesystem. Though we cannot say that heestablished the rule of law, his reforms did, tolarge extent, replace personal rule by governanceaccording to rules. His policy was followed byhis successors till the time of Aurangzeb.

Aurangzeb differed from Akbar in twoimportant respects. While keeping the policy inhis control, Akbar had delegated large powersto his officers and ran his administration on thebasis of trust. Aurangzeb could not trust evenhis own sons and tried to control not only policybut even the details of administration. Aurangzebalso differed radically from Akbar in his attitudetowards his subjects. Akbar had treated all ofthem equally but Aurangzeb could not treateven the Muslims on the basis of equality as hekept his favours only for the Sunnis.

The first contact between India and modernEurope took place in 1498 when Vasco de Gamacircled the African continent and landed atCalicut. The Portuguese established a smalltrading station but from the very beginning theyhad imperial ambitions.

10 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch,the British and French who were all attractedby the fabulous wealth of the East. It is difficultto say if these later comers had any imperialambition initially. When they first came toIndia, the Mughal power was firmly establishedand they were content to get trade licenses fromthe government. Though they began as tradersthey were soon tempted to share in the quest forempire. They had their trading stations on theoutskirts of the empire, and at first fortifiedthem for self-defence against robbers and otherraiders. It was, however, almost inevitable thattheir struggles in Europe should be reflected intheir trading posts in India. In course of time,these fortifications became centres of bothdefence and offence against Indian rulers.

When the Europeans first came to India,they were certainly inferior to the Indians in thearts of peace. In the science of war also, theywere probably at first inferior, but neverthelessfinally won in the struggle for power. Therewere many reasons for their ultimate triumph,of which three major ones may be brieflyindicated here. The first was the break-up of theMughal Empire and the failure of any otherIndian empire to establish a strong centralgovernment. After the death of Aurangzeb in1707, there followed a period of about 150 yearswhen India was ridden with intrigues andconflict. The second reason for the British

triumph was the absence of Indian naval power.Technical progress was the third and decisivereason why the British were able to establishtheir empire in India. From the seventeenthcentury onward, Europe started on a career oftriumphant scientific discoveries. In course oftime, these led to a transformation of thetechnique of industrial production and thescience of war. Asia as a whole had fallen backin the race for knowledge and power. Whentherefore the clash came, Indian rulers wereunable to stand up to the British.

The introduction of the western system ofeducation in India was not at first encouragedby the Government of the day but the zeal ofa handful of Christian missionaries and Indianleader of vision and faith, overcame alladministrative inertia. The work of missionarieslike Carey and Indian leaders like Raja RamMohan Ray received a great impetus as a resultof Macaulay's vehement support for Westerneducation. With the establishment of the threeUniversities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay,the supporters of Western education haddefinitely won. Indian minds now had directaccess to the scientific temper and the liberalpolitical thought of the Western world. Whateverbe our criticism of the defects of the existingsystem of education, there is little doubt that itwas responsible for the Indian renaissance.

���

Indian Culture 11

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The distant past when there was no paperor language or the written word and hence nobooks or written documents, is called prehistoryor as we often say prehistoric times. How peoplelived in those times was difficult to surmise untilscholars began to discover the places whereprehistoric people lived. Excavation at theseplace brought to light old tools, pottery, habitats,bones of ancient human beings and animals anddrawings on cave walls. By piecing together theinformation deduced from these objects and thecave drawings, scholars have constructed fairlyaccurate knowledge about what happened andhow people lived in prehistoric times. When thebasic needs of food, water, clothing and shelterwere fulfilled people felt the need to expressthemselves. Painting and drawing were theoldest art forms practised by human beings toexpress themselves, using the cave walls as theircanvas.

Why did prehistoric people draw thesepictures? They may have drawn and painted tomake their homes more colourful and beautifulor to keep a visual record of their day-to-daylife, like some of us who maintain a diary.

The prehistoric period in the earlydevelopment of human beings is commonlyknown as the Old Stone Age or thePalaeolithic Age.

Prehistoric paintings have been found inmany parts of the world. We do not really knowif Lower Paleolithic people ever produced anyart objects. But by the Upper Paleolithic timeswe see a proliferation of artistic activities. Aroundthe world the walls of many caves of this timeare full of finely carved and painted pictures ofanimals which the cave-dwellers hunted. Thesubjects of their drawings were human figures,human activities, geometric designs and symbols.In India the earliest paintings have been reportedfrom the Upper Palaeolithic times.

It is interesting to know that the firstdiscovery of paintings was made in India in1867-68 by an archaeologist, Archibald Carlleyle,twelve years before the discovery of Altamira inSpain. Cockburn, Anderson and Ghosh werethe early archaeologists who discovered a largenumber of sites in the Indian sub-continent.

Remnants of rock paintings have been foundon the walls of the caves situated in severaldistricts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. Somepaintings have been reported from the Kumaohills Uttarakhand also. The rock shelters onbanks of the River Suyal at Lakhudiyar abouttwenty kilometres on the Almora-Barechinaroad, bear these prehistoric paintings.Lakhudiyar literally means one lakh caves. Thepaintings here can be divided into threecategories: man, animal and geometric patternsin white, black, red and ochre. Humans arerepresented in stick like forms. A long snoutedanimal, a fox and a multiple legged lizard arethe main animal motifs. Wavy lines, rectanglefilled geometric designs and groups of dots canalso be seen here. One of the interesting scenesdepicted here is of hand-linked dancing humanfigures. There is some superimposition ofpaintings. The earliest are in black; over theseare red ochre paintings and the last groupcomprises white paintings. From Kashmir twoslabs with engravings have been reported. Thegranite rocks of Karnataka and Andhra Pradeshprovided suitable canvases to the Neolithic manfor his paintings. There are several such sites butmore famous among them are Kupgallu, Piklihaland Tekkalkota. Three types of paintings havebeen reported from here-paintings in white,paintings in red, ochre over a white backgroundand paintings in red ochre. These paintingsbelong to late historical, early historical andNeolithic periods. The subjects depicted arebulls, elephants, sambhars, gazelles, sheep,

PREHISTORIC ROCK

PAINTINGS

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

12 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

goats, horses, stylized humans tridents, butrarely, vegetal motifs.

But the richest paintings are reported fromthe Vindhya ranges of Madhya Pradesh andtheir Kaimurean extensions into Uttar Pradesh.These hill ranges are full of Paleolithic andMesolithic remains and they are also full offorests, wild plants, fruits, streams and creeks,thus a perfect place for Stone Age people to live.Among these the largest and most spectacularrock shelter is located in the Vindhya hills atBhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh. Bhimbetka islocated fortyfive kilometres south of Bhopal, inan area of ten square kilometres, having abouteight hundred rock shelters, five hundred ofwhich bear paintings.

The caves of Bhimbetka were discovered in1957-58 by eminent archaeologist V.S.Wakankar and later on many more werediscovered. Wakankar spent several years insurveying these inaccessible hills and jungles tostudy these paintings.

The themes of paintings found here are ofgreat variety ranging from mundane events ofdaily life in those times to sacred and royalimages. These include hunting, dancing, music,horse and elephant riders, animal fighting, honeycollection, decoration of bodies and otherhousehold scenes.

The rock art of Bhimbetka has been classifiedinto various groups on the basis of styletechnique and superimposition. The drawingsand paintings can be categorized into sevenhistorical periods. Period I, Upper Palaeolithic;Period II, Mesolithic and Period III, Chalcohthic.After Period III there are four successive periods.But we will confine ourselves here only to thefirst three phases.

Upper Paleolithic Period

The paintings of the Upper Paleolithic phaseare linear representations in green and dark red,of huge animal figures, such as bisons, elephants,tigers, rhinos and boars besides stick-like humanfigures. A few are wash paintings but mostlythey are filled with geometric patterns. Thegreen paintings are of dancers and the red onesof hunters.

Mesolithic Period

The largest number of Paintings belong toperiod II that covers the Mesolithic paintings.During this period the themes multiply but thepaintings are smaller in size. Hunting scenespredominate. The hunting scenes depict peoplehunting in groups, armed with barbed spears,pointed sticks, arrows and bows. In somepaintings these primitive men are shown withtraps and snares probably to catch animals. Thehunters are shown wearing simple clothes andornaments. Sometimes, men have been adornedwith elaborate head-dresses and sometimespainted with masks also. Elephant, bison, tigerboar, deer, antelope, leopard, panther,rhinoceros, fish, frog, lizard, squirrel and attimes birds are also depicted. The Mesolithicartists loved to paint animals. In some picturesanimals are chasing men. In others they arebeing chased and hunted by men. Some of theanimal paintings. especially in the hunting scenesshow a fear of animals but many others showa feeling of tenderness and love for them. Thereare also a few engravings representing mainlyanimals.

Though animals were painted in anaturalistic style, humans were depicted only ina stylistic manner. Women are painted both inthe nude and clothed. The young and the oldequally find place in these paintings. Childrenare painted running jumping and playing.Community dances provide a common theme.There are paintings of people gathering fruit orhoney from trees and of women grinding andpreparing food. Some of the pictures of men,women and children seem to depict a sort offamily life. In many of the rock-shelters we findhand prints, fist prints and dots made by thefingertips.

Chalcolithic Period

Period III covers the Chalcolithic period. Thepaintings of this period reveal the association,contact and mutual exchange of requirementsof the cave dwellers of this area with settledagricultural communities of the Malwa plains.Many a time chalcolithic ceramics and rockpaintings bear common motifs. e.g. cross-hatched

Indian Culture 13

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

squares, lattices. Pottery and metal tools are alsoshown. But the vividness and vitality of theearlier periods disappear from these paintings.

The artists of Bhimbetka used many colours,including various shades of white, yellow,orange, red, ochre, purple, brown, green andblack. But white and red were their favouritecolours. The paints were made by grindingvarious rocks and minerals. They got red fromhematite (known as geru in India). The greencame from a green variety of a stone calledchalcedony. White might have been made outof limestone. The rock of mineral was firstground into a powder. This may then have beenmixed with water and also with some thick orsticky substance such as animal fat or gum orresin from trees. Brushes were made of plantfibre. What is amazing is that these colours havesurvived thousands of years of adverse weatherconditions. It is believed that the colours haveremained intact because of the chemical reactionof the oxide present on the surface of the rocks.

The artists here made their paintings on thewalls and ceilings of the rock shelters. Some ofthe paintings are reported from the shelterswhere people lived. But some others were madein places which do not seem to have been livingspaces at all. Perhaps these places had somereligious importance. Some of the most beautifulpaintings are very high up on rock shelters orclose to the ceilings of rock shelters. One maywonder why early human beings chose to painton a rock in such an uncomfortable position.The paintings made at these places were perhapsfor people to be able to notice them from adistance.

The paintings though from the remote pastdo not lack pictorial quality. Despite variouslimitations such as acute working conditions,inadequate tools, materials, etc., there is a charmof simple rendering of scenes of the environmentin which the artists lived. The men shown inthem appear adventurous and rejoicing in theirlives. The animals are shown more youthful andmajestic than perhaps they actually were. Theprimitive artists seem to possess an intrinsic

passion for storytelling. These pictures depict, ina dramatic way, both men and animals engagedin the struggle for survival. In one of the scenes,a group of people have been shown hunting abison. In the process, some injured men aredepicted lying scattered on the ground. Inanother scene, an animal is shown in the agonyof death and the men are depicted dancing.These kinds of paintings might have given mana sense of power over the animals he wouldmeet in the open.

This practice is common among primitivepeople of today also. They engrave or painton rocks as part of the rituals they performat birth, at death, at coming of age and atthe time of marriage. They dance maskedduring hunting rites to help them kill animalsdifficult to find or kill.

The paintings of individual animals showthe mastery of skill of the primitive artist indrawing these forms. Both proportion and tonaleffect, have been realistically maintained inthem.

It is interesting to note that at many rock artsites often a new painting is painted on top ofan older painting. At Bhimbetka in some places,there are as many as 20 layers of paintings, oneon top of another. Why did the artists paint inthe same place again and again? Maybe, thiswas because the artist did not like his creationand painted another painting on the previousone or some of the paintings and places wereconsidered sacred or special or this was becausethe area may have been used by differentgenerations of people at different times.

These prehistoric paintings help us tounderstand about early human beings, theirlifestyle, their food habits, their daily activitiesand above all they help us understand theirmind the way they thought. Prehistoric periodremains are a great witness to the evolution ofhuman civilization, through the numerous rockweapons, tools, ceramics and bones. More thananything else the rock paintings are the greatestwealth the primitive human beings of this periodleft behind.

���

14 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The arts of the Indus Valley Civilizationemerged during the second half of the thirdmillennium BCE. The forms of art sound fromvarious sites of the civilization include sculptures,seals, pottery, gold jewellery, terracotta figures,etc. The artists of that time surely had fineartistic sensibilities and a vivid imagination.Their delineation of human and animal figureswas highly realistic in nature, since theanatomical details included in them was uniqueand in the case of terracotta art the modelingof animal figures was done in an extremelycareful manner.

The two major sites of the Indus ValleyCivilization, along the Indus river- the cities ofHarappa in the north and Mohenjodaro in thesouth-showcase one of earliest examples of civicplanning. Other markers were houses, markets,storage facilities, offices, public baths, etc.arranged in a grid-like pattern. There was alsoa highly developed drainage system. WhileHarappa and Mohenjodaro are situated inPakistan, the important sites excavated in Indiaare Lothal and Dholavira in Gujarat, Rakhigarhiin Haryana, Ropar in the Punjab, Kalibanganand Balathal in Rajasthan, etc.

Statues whether in stone, bronze or terracottafound in Harappan sites are not abundant, butrefined.

Stone Statues

The stone statuaries found at Harappa andMohenjodaro are excellent examples of handingthree dimensional volumes. In stone are twomale figures- one is at torso in red sandstoneand the other is a bust of a bearded man insteatite - which are extensively discussed.

The figure of the bearded man interpreted asa priest, is draped in a shawl coming under theright arm and covering the left shoulder. Thisshawl is decorated with trefoil patterns. The

eyes are a little elongated and half-closed as inmeditative concentration. The nose is wellformed and of medium size the mouth is ofaverage size with close cut moustache and ashort beard and whiskers; the ears resembledouble shells with a hole in the middle. The hairis parted in the middle and a plain woven filletis passed round the head. An armlet is worn onthe right hand and holes around the necksuggest a necklace.

Bronze Casting

The art of bronze-casting was practised ona wide scale by the Harappans. Their bronzestatues were made using the 'lost wax' techniquein which the wax figures were first coveredwith a coating of day and allowed to dry. Thenthe wax was heated and the molten wax wasdrained out through a tiny hole made in the claycover. The hollow mould thus created was filledwith molten metal which took the originalshape of the object. Once the metal cooled, theclay cover was completely removed. In bronzewe find human as well as animal figures, thebest example of the former being the statue ofa girl popularly titled 'Dancing Girl'. Amongstanimal figures in bronze the buffalo with itsuplifted head, back and sweeping horns and thegoat are of artistic merit. Bronze casting waspopular at all the major centers of the IndusValley Civilization. The copper dog and bird ofLothal and the bronze figure of but fromKalibangan are in no way inferior to the humanfigures of copper and bronze from Harappa andMohenjodaro. Metal casting appears to be acontinuous tradition. The late Harappan andChalcolithic sites like Dalmabad in Maharashtrayielded excellent examples of metal castsculptures. They mainly consist of human andanimal figures. It shows how the tradition offigure sculpture continued down the ages.

ARTS OF THE INDUS VALLEYCHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Indian Culture 15

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Terracotta

The Indus Valley people hade terracottaimages also but compared to the stone andbronze statues the terracotta representations ofhuman form are crude in the Indus Valley. Theyare more realistic in Gujarat sites and Kalibangan.The most important among the Indus figuresare those representing the mother goddess. Interracotta, we also find a few figurines ofbearded males with coiled hair, their posturerigidly upright, legs slightly apart and the armsparallel to the sides of the body. The repetitionof this figure in exactly the same position wouldsuggest that he was a deity. A terracotta maskof a horned deity has also been found. Toy cartswith wheels, whistles, rattles, birds and animals,gamesmen and discs were also rendered interacotta.

Terracotta Bronze Casting

Seals

Archaeologists have discovered thousandsof seals, usually made of steatite and occasionallyof agate, chert, copper, faience and terracotta,with beautiful figures of animals, such as unicornbull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat,buffalo, etc. The realistic rendering of theseanimals in various moods is remarkable. Thepurpose of producing seals was mainlycommercial. It appears that the seals were alsoused as amulets carried on the persons of theirowners, perhaps as modern day identity cards.The standard Harappan seal was a squareplaque 2 × 2 square inches usually made fromthe soft river stone steatite. Every seal is engravedin a pictographic script which is yet to bedeciphered. Some seals have also been found ingold and ivory. They all bear a great variety ofmotifs, most often of animals including those ofthe bull, with or without the hump the elephant,

tiger, goat and also monsters. Sometimes treesor human figures were also depicted. The mostremarkable seal is the one depicted with a figurein the centre and animals around. This seal isgenerally identified as the Pashupati Seal bysome scholars whereas some identify it as thefemale deity. This seat depicts a human figureseated cross legged. An elephant and a tiger aredepicted to the right side of the seated figurewhile on the left a rhinoceros and a buffalo areseen. In addition to these animals two antelopesare shown below the seat, Seals such as thesedate from between 2500 and 1500 BCE andwere found in considerable numbers in sitessuch as the ancient city of Mohenjodaro in theIndus Valley. Figures and animals are carved inintaglio on their surfaces.

Square or rectangular copper tablets, withan animal or a human figure on one side andan inscription on the other, or an inscription onboth sides have also been found. The figuresand signs are carefully cut with a burin. Thesecopper tablets appear to have been amulets.Unlike inscriptions on seals which vary in eachcase, inscriptions on the copper tablets seem tobe associated with the animals portrayed onthem.

Seals

Pottery

A large quantity of pottery excavated fromthe sites enable us to understand the gradualevolution of various design motifs as employedin different shapes and styles. The Indus Valleypottery consists chiefly of very fine wheel madewares, very few being hand made. Plain potteryis more common than painted ware. Plainpottery is generally of red clay, with or withouta fine red or grey slip. It includes knobbed ware,ornamented with rows of knobs. The black

16 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

���

painted ware has a fine coating of red slip onwhich geometric and animal designs areexecuted in glossy black paint.

Polychrome pottery is rare and mainlycomprises small vases decorated with geometricpatterns in red, black and green, rarely whiteand yellow. Incised ware is also rare and theincised decoration was confined to the bases ofthe pans, always inside and to the dishes ofoffering stands. Perforated pottery includes alarge hole at the bottom and small holes all overthe wall and was probably used for strainingliquor. Pottery for household purposes is foundin as many shapes and sizes as could beconceived of for daily practical use. Straight andangular shapes are an exception, while gracefulcurves are the rule. Miniature vessels mostly lessthan half an inch in height are particularly somarvelously crafted as to evoke admiration.

Beads and Ornaments

The Harappan men and women decoratedthemselves with a large variety of ornamentsproduced from every conceivable materialranging from precious metals and gemstones tobone and baked clay. While necklaces, fillets,armlets and finger-rings were commonly wornby both sexes, women wore girdles earrings andanklets. Hooplas of jewellery found atMohenjodaro and Lothal include necklaces ofgold and semi-precious stones copper braceletsand beads gold earrings and head ornaments,faience pendants and buttons and beads ofsteatite and gemstones. All ornaments are wellcrafted. It may be noted that a cemetery hasbeen found at Farmana in Haryana where deadbodies were buried with ornaments.

The bead industry seems to have been welldeveloped as evident from the factoriesdiscovered at Chanhudaro and Lothal. Beadswere made of cornelian, amethyst, jasper, crystal,quartz, steatite, turquoise, lapis-lazuli etc. Metals

like copper, bronze and gold and shell, faienceand terracotta or burnt clay were also used formanufacturing beads. The beads are in varyingshapes/disc-shaped, cylindrical, spherical,barrel-shaped and segmented. Some beads weremade of two or more stones cemented together,some of stone with gold covers. Some weredecorated by incising or painting and some haddesigns etched onto them. Great technical skillhas been displayed in the manufacture of thesebeads.

The Harappan people also made brilliantlynaturalistic models of animals, especiallymonkeys and squirrels used as pin-heads andbeads.

It is evident from the discovery of a largenumber of spindles and spindle whorls in thehouses of the Indus Valley that spinning ofcotton and wool was very common. The factthat both the rich and the poor practised spinningis indicated by finds of whorls made of theexpensive faience as also of the cheap potteryand shell. Men and women wore two separatepieces of attire similar to the dhoti and shawl.The shawl covered the left shoulder passingbelow the right shoulder.

From archaeological finds it appears that thepeople of the Indus Valley were conscious offashion. Different hair-styles were in vogue andwearing of a beard was popular among all.Cinnabar was used as a cosmetic and facepaint, lipstick and collyrium (eyeliner) were alsoknown to them. Many stone structural remainsare also found at Dholavira which show howthe Indus valley people used stone inconstruction.

The artists and craftsmen of the Indus Valleywere extremely skilled in a variety of crafts-metal casting, stone carving, making andpainting pottery and making terracotta imagesusing simplified motifs of animals, plants andbirds.

Indian Culture 17

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The earliest extant remains of recognizablebuilding activity on the Indian subcontinentdates back to the third millennium, to the IndusValley cities of Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, Lothal,Kalibangan and several others. These cities areamong man's earliest attempts at organizing anurban environment. The remarkable thing aboutthe arrangement of the houses in the cities wasin that they followed the grid system. Streetswere laid out in a grid pattern and there wasa defined system of land use. The buildings,made of bricks- both burnt and unburnt, werestrictly utilitarian and built with skill and asound knowledge of building principles. Amongother structural techniques, the builders of thesecities used corbelled arches.

The great tank of Mohenjo-Daro, now calledthe Great Bath, shows that large, ritualisticstructures were not unknown. The Great Bathmeasures 11.88 x 7.01 x 2.43 metres. Flights ofsteps at either end lead to the surface. There areside rooms for changing clothes. The floor of theBath was made of burnt bricks. Water wasdrawn from a large well in an adjacent room,and an outlet from one corner of the Bath ledto drain. So, it is suggested that the Great Bathserved ritual bathing, which was so vital to anyreligious ceremony in India.

The greatest artistic creation of the Induspeople was the seals. Numbering about 2000,they have been found at a number of sites. Theywere made from a soft stone called 'steatite'. Thetechnique of cutting and polishing these sealswith white luster was a unique invention of theHarappans. The seals were of many shapes-square, rectangular, button shaped, cubical,cylindrical and round. However, the two maintypes were the square type with a carvedanimal and inscription and the rectangular typewith an inscription only. Each seal had anemblem and name or a brief inscription. The

animal most frequently depicted in the seals isthe single horned 'Unicorn'. Other animalsdepicted on the seals were elephants, tigers,bisons and Rhino. These seals probably wereused to mark the ownership of property.

Besides the seals, a large number of terracottafigurines of men and women, birds and animalshave also been found. They were mostly usedby the commoners as toys or objects of worship.They are considered crude artistic creationswhen compared to the seals and images whichwere meant for higher classes.

Some images of stone and metal have alsobeen discovered from the Harappan sites. Thebest and the most famous is the steatite imageof a bearded man wearing an ornamental robefound in Mohenjo-Daro. From Harappa a nudemale torso of red sandstone and a small nudedancing figure made of grey stone have beenfound. A few bronze sculptures have also beendiscovered from places like Mohenjo-Daro,Harappa, Chanhudaro and Diamabad. Thebest specimen is the figure from Mohenjo-Daroof a nude dancing girl with right hand on hips,arms loaded with bangles, head slightly tiltedand covered with curly hair. Models of Bullockcarts and 'ikkas' have been found form Harappaand Chahnudaro. Recently, four unique bronzefigures have been discovered at the site ofDiamabad.

After the decline of the Indus Valley cities inthe second millennium, the highly developedand standardized brick architecture of this periodgave way, in the Vedic period that followed, topastoral settlements of mud, thatch, bambooand timber in the Valleys of the Saraswati andGanga rivers. Although we have no extantexamples of the perishable timber structures ofthe Vedic period, our knowledge of the buildingof this time is based on evidence left bysubsequent Buddhist sculptures of the third and

INDIAN ARCHITECTURECHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

18 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

second centuries B.C. which often depictedepisodes from the life of the Buddha in thearchitectural setting of the Vedic period. Thebase reliefs at the gateways to the magnificentstupa at Sanchi in central India, for example,depicts clusters of circular huts with domedthatched roofs, gables, arched timber palaceand loggias, clearly distinguishing them fromthe workman-like streets of Mohenjo-Daro andHarappa.

Mauryan Art

The growth of new religions and largerstates provided the climate for the developmentof arts and craft in the Mauryan period. The ageof Mauryans witnessed a distinct school of artand architecture. Stone culture emerged as theprincipal medium of Indian artists.

The Mauryan art types can be classified as(i) state executed and (ii) Local. The formerincludes palaces, columns, pillars etc. and thelatter manifests itself in the Yaksha of Parkham,Yakshini of Besnagar etc.

The royal place at Kumarhar near Patilputrahas been lavishly praised by Arrian, who saysthat in grandeur it outscores even the palacesat Susa and Ecatabana.

The best specimens of Mauryan art are thehighly polished, tall and well proportionedcolumns with slightly tapering monolithsstanding free in space. The columns that bearthe edicts of Ashoka include those of Delhi(Meerut), Allahabad, Lauriya Araraj, LauriyaNandangarh, Rampurva (with lion capital),Delhi Topra, Sankissa (elephant), Sanchi andSarnath. The non-edict bearing columns arethose of Rampurva (with bull capital), BesarchBakhira (Single lion capital), Kosam etc. Columnscontaining dedicatory inscriptions are those ofRummindei (horse) and Nigali Sagar.

Comparison of Archaemenid andMauryan Columns

Archaemenid Column

1. The Columns of the hall of Persepolis areprovided with intricately carved capitals.

2. Archaemenid columns had their base.3. The bell form is used as supporting base.

Mauryan Column

1. The Stone columns of the Mauryan palaceare without capitals.

2. Mauryan columns had no base at all.3. The bell form serves as capitals. The

Mauryan bell seems to have been derivedfrom the stylized lotus motif. They used thetapering shaft and inverted lotus.

The Mauryans excelled in cave architecture.In fact they were the pioneers of rock-hewncaves. The Barabar caves, of which the Sudamacave is the earliest, are the earliest examples ofsuch caves. The Sudama and Lomas Rishi caveshave wood imitating chambers and their wallsare polished like glass mirror. Another cavecalled the karma chupar contains an in scriptionof Asoka. The granite Nagarjuni hills possessthree major caves. Dasarath dedicated them tothe Ajivika sect. The largest of these is knownas 'Gopi'.

The Mauryan period also saw thedevelopment of sculpture. These sculptures werefound atop pillars. The elephant sculpture ofDhauli in Orissa and other animal figurines ofbull, elephant, lion, garuda etc. are found on theabacus of the pillars. One of the best specimensis a row of pecking geese that decorate theRampurva lion abacus.

The Mauryan period, formed a distinct epochin the history of Indian art as an attempt wasmade to change from wood oriented art to thatof the stone.

Buddhist Influence

It was around the 3rd to 2nd century B.C.that Buddhism became the dominant religionand as we have seen stone was introduced forthe first time in Indian art and architecture.Many of these stone structures have survivedthe ravages of time and we have, therefore, areasonable amount of information about them.The three characteristic forms of Buddhistarchitecture which were developed around thisperiod were the stupa or monumental funerarymound, the chaitya or hall of worship and the

Indian Culture 19

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Vihara or monastery. At Buddhist centres inSanchi and Bharhut in central India the stonerailings and gateways clearly reflect theirwooden origins in their architectural forms andin the way they have been carved.(a) Chaitya- This fell into two phases Hinayana

and Mahayana. Earlier monuments havebeen found at Bhaja, Kanheri and Karle etc.Karle has architectural grandeur and adisturbing beauty in its sculptures,especially the male and female figures onthe capitals.

A Chaitya consists of portico in front of alarge window on top. Inside, under a highvaulted roof are three constituent parts: amandapa in the centre with a double column onthe two sides, behind there is apradakshinapatha and a garbhagriha at thefurther end which contains a stone stupa calledthe Chaitya. Its highest development has beenfound in cave no. 19 at Ajanta.(b) Vihara- It consists of a central hall entered

by a doorway from the verandah in front.The viharas or monasteries were excavatednear Chaityas for the residence of monksin rainy seasons. It is full of sculptors whichdepict various scenes from the life of theBuddha. Nagarjunkonda prospered mostunder Ikshvakus, the successor of theSatavahanas. It contains not only BuddhistMonuments but also the earliest brahminicalbrick temples.

Important Stupas

The stupa began as an earthen burial mound,which was revered by the local population. Thecult of the stupa was taken up by Buddhism.Asoka is said to have built 84,000 stupas all overIndia. The stupas were large hemisphericaldomes, containing a small central chamber, inwhich the relics of Buddha were placed in acasket, often beautifully carved in crystal. Thecore of the stupa was of unburnt brick and theouter face of burnt brick, covered with a thicklayer of plaster. The stupa was crowned by anumbrella of wood or stone, and was surroundedby a wooden fence enclosing a path for theceremonial clock wise circumambulation (Prada-

kshina). The main stupas according tochronology are Bharhut, Gaya, Sanchi,Amravati, Sarnath and Nalanda.

1. The Bharhut Stupa

The Bharhut Stupa, perhaps in its presentform dating from the middle of the 2nd centuryB.C. (Sunga period) is important chiefly for itssculpture, and the stupa itself has now vanished.The sculptures show very realistic relief ofIndian city life. They also show crowds ofworshippers reverencing the symbols of Buddha,not his image. The upright posts of the stuparailings are carved with Yakshas and Yakshis,beautifully finished and very decorative. Themedallions of the crosspieces mostly depict scenesfrom the jataka stories. The railings of the stupaare built of red sandstone. They give us valuableinsight into the religious faith and city lifeduring that period. However, the art of sculpturewas still developing and lacks finishing and isarchaic.

2. The Gaya Stupa

At Bodh Gaya, there is a railing around thegreat stupa. The railing probably belongs to the1st century B.C. but the Stupa is of a later date.The sculptures are similar to those found inBharhut. The Gaya railing encloses the sacredpath where Buddha is believed to have walkedin meditation. The figures in the railings aredeeper, more vital and rounded and show anadvance over the medallions containing humanhead.

3. Sanchi Stupa

This is one of the most striking architecturalremains of ancient India. It contains three bigstupas. The big stupa originally built by Asoka,was enlarged to twice its original size in the 2ndcentury B.C. It thus becomes a hemisphere ofabout 120 feet in diameter. The old woodenrailings were replaced by stone ones and towardsthe end of the 1st century, four glorious gateways(Toranas) were added at the four cardinalpoints. Although the railings are quite plain, thegateways are full of sculpture illustrating thejataka stories and various episodes in the life ofGautama Buddha. Though the scenes resemblethose at Bharhut, they show a far higher

20 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

standard of technical skill and artistic conception,inspired by a sense of beauty, rhythm andsymmetry.

4. Amravati Stupa

In the lower valley of the Krishna River, thebeautiful stupa of Amravati was erected. In thelate satavahana period, the railings of AmravatiStupa were made of marble. The dome was alsocovered with slabs of marble. The stupacontained reliefs depicting scenes of Buddha'slife and were surrounded with free standingBuddha figures. They mark a difference fromthe northern style and hence said to belong toa new school viz. that of Amravati. The imageof Buddha occurs here and there but mostly heis represented by a symbol. The influence ofAmravati school was felt in Southeast Asia andCeylon. Besides, it influenced the south Indiansculpture.

5. Nagarjunakonda Stupa

Besides the stupa, two chaitya and a viharahave been excavated by the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India. Near the stupa, slabs of limestoneillustrating scenes from Buddha's life were found.A panel shows seven foot prints of the Buddhaon a piece of cloth held by the deities, who werepresent to welcome the blessed one. The stupabelongs to the Saka Satavahana phase.

6. Sarnath Stupa

Sarnath near Varanasi was the place ofBuddha's first sermon. It has beautifullypatterned brickwork with a highly cylindricalupper dome rising from a lower hemisphericalone, with large images of Buddha set in gableends at the cardinal points. In its final form itdates from the Gupta period.

7. Nalanda Stupa

The Stupa at Nalanda was successivelyenlarged seven times. In its present ruinedcondition it gives the impression of brick pyramidwith steps leading up to its terraces. It wasoriginally a tall stupa raised on a high base, witha smaller stupa at each corner. It was successivelyaltered during Gupta and Pala times. It wasdestroyed by Bakhatiyar Khalji.

Important Caves

The art of building artificial caves for religiouspurpose began during the period of theMauryans. The Barabar and Nagarjuni caveshave been dealt with earlier. Some otherimportant caves are as follows:1. Udaigiri Caves: There are two places

named Udaigiri and both have cave temples.One is in the Udaigiri hills in Orissa andthe other is near Bhilsa in M.P. In Orissa,the caves are found near the Udaigiri andKhandgiri hills. Khandgiri hills have 16caves, which include Navagiri, Devsabhaand Anant Gumph etc. The Udaigiri hillshave 19 caves including Rani Gumpha,Ganesh Gumpha, Hathigumpha, VyaghraGumpha, etc. The Rani Gumpha is thelargest cave. Near Bhilsa (M.P.), Udaigiricaves boast of sculpture of the highestquality. During the Gupta period, a greatBoar was carved in relief near the entranceof the cave. The Boar symbolizes GodVishnu's Varaha Avtar.

2. Bhaja Caves: The oldest Deccan cave atBhaja near Poona consists of a deep apsidalhall cut in solid rock, with a row of plainoctagonal pillars near the walls. At thefurther end of the hall is a small stupa, alsocut from solid rock, and the outside of thecave has a carved façade. Besides this cave,there is a second cave where monks usedto dwell.

3. Karle Caves: The Karle caves were madearound the beginning of the Christian era.

Indian Culture 21

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The great Chaitya at Karle is situated at adistance of two miles north of the Bombay-Poona Highway. The Chaitya is cut 124 feetdeep into the rock. Its pattern is similar tothe Bhaja caves but is much moredeveloped in size and splendor.

4. Kondan Caves: It is situated 10 miles northof the Karle Chaitya. It consists of bothChaityas and Vihars.

5. Bedsa Caves: The Bedsa caves are locatedin the erstwhile Bombay Presidency. TheChaityas of Bedsa are smaller in size thanthose of Karle. The preponderance of stonein compression to wood is its distinctivefeature.

6. Peetalkhor Caves: These caves are locatedin the satamala hills, 50 miles south-westof the Ajanta caves.

7. Ajanta Caves: Ajanta in Maharashtra hasno less than 29 caves some going 100 feetdeep into the rock. They were excavated inthe horse shoe curve of a hill side. Theearliest caves date from 2nd century B.C.while others are of as late as 7th centuryA.D. The Ajanta mural paintings are worldfamous. The walls were first covered witha coating of clay or cow dung and boundtogether with straw or hair and thenfinished with white gypsum. It is remarkablethat they have withstood the ravages ofnature. The paintings of cave No. 10 datefrom the beginning of the Christian erawhile those of cave No. 1 and cave No. 16are from perhaps six centuries later. Themurals chiefly depict scenes from the life ofBuddha and the Jatakas. Though paintedfor religious purpose, the murals bear asecular rather than a religious message. Wesee a whole life of ancient India in apanorama. It includes princes, beggars,peasants, ascetics, beasts, birds, flowers etc.The famous paintings are of "the dyingprincess" and "the mother and child". Mostof the caves belong to the Gupta period.

8. Ellora Caves: Ellora caves are situated nearAurangabad, some 30 miles from Ajanta.There are no less than 34 caves constructedfrom the 5th to the 8th centuries A.D., most

of them Hindu but some Buddhist andJaina. The caves generally resemble thoseof Nasik and Karle but the façade of theBuddhist Visvakarma cave shows apleasing modification. Caves No. 14 and 15are famous and are known as 'Ravan KiKhai' and 'Dasavatar caves' respectively.The Jaina caves include 'Indra Sabha' and'Jagannath Sabha'. These caves are at ashort distance from the Kailashnath templebuilt by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I.

9. Elephanta Caves: The cave temples ofElephanta, a beautiful little island off thecoast of Bombay belong to the 8th centuryA.D. They are in the same style as those ofEllora. They are famous for their sculptureespecially for the great Trimurti figure ofShiva. Besides, some other notablesculptures include Ravana shaking theKailash, Ardh-narishwara, Tandav danceof Shiva etc.

10. Kanheri Caves: The Kanheri caves aresituated near Bombay. The Chaityas ofKanheri follow the pattern of the KarleChaitya. The influence of Mahayana isevident. The outer walls of the caves bearimages of Buddha. There are more than 100caves here.

11. Junnar Caves: These caves are located 40miles north of Pune in Maharashtra. It has150 caves, of which 10 are Chaityas andthe rest are Vihars.

12. Mandapeshwar Caves: It has 3 cavesdating from the 8th century. The caves havenow been converted into a Christian shrine.

13. Nasik Caves: These caves date from the 1stcentury A.D. An inscription from the cavereveals that it was built during the reign ofthe Satavahana ruler Krishna. The doorwayof the chaitya has ornate emblems denotingcrescent. The Pandu Lena cave is symbolicof Hinayana influence as Buddha isrepresented only through symbols.

14. Bagh Caves: These caves are situated inMadhya Pradesh, some hundred milesnorth of Ajanta. On the walls of the verandaof a cave at Bagh, a procession of elephantsand a scene of a dancer and women

22 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

musicians are depicted. They are moreimpressive than even those of Ajanta.

Caves

In the centuries that followed, Buddhismlost its hold over the Indian people and thematerial prosperity of the 5th century paved thepath for a resurgence of Brahminical or Hinduthought. Once re-established, Hindu hegemonymaintained its ascendency over the majority ofthe Indian people for the next millennium andthis was reflected in the way religiousarchitecture developed in India.

Important Schools of Architecture

The Gandhara School: The Gandhara Schoolflourished from about the middle of the 1stcentury B.C. to about the end of the 5th centuryA.D., in the lower Kabul valley and upper Indusnear Peshawar. It owes its origin to the Greekrulers of Bactria and north-west India and hashence been called ' Indo-Greek'. However itschief patrons were the Sakas and the Kushanas.Mahayanism led to the deification of Buddha.Hence his images were carved. Gandharasculptures, mostly pertaining to Buddha orBuddhist scenes, have been found in Taxila,Afghanistan and the North West frontierprovince of Pakistan. They used stone, stucco,terracotta and clay and appear to have beenembellished with Gold leaf or paint. The earliestspecimens include two headless statues of

Buddha form Loriyan Tongai and Hastanagarand a standing Hariti figure from sakrah Dheri.However, the best specimens are found in theDharamaraja Stupa at Taxila and at Jaulianaand Hadda near Jalalabad.

The Gandhara School was influenced byGreco- Roman art traditions. It has the tendencyto mould the human body in a realistic mannerwith great attention paid to accuracy of physicaldetails like delineation of muscles, moustaches,curly hair etc. It is marked by the representationof thick drapery with large and bold fold lines.It is also known for rich carving, elaborateornamentation and complex symbolism.

The Gandhara architecture includes largeand small monasteries like those at Taxila(Dharamraya), Mamakhja (Rawalpindi), Mohra,Marada and Jaulian. Though essentially Indian,they used Hellenistic motifs like the Corinthiancapital, triangular pediments, medallions etc.and Iranian features like fire altars and animalcapitals. Even the stupas built in this style havesuch ornamentation. Besides, the height wasincreased by elevating it on a high platform.

Mathura School: The Mathura Schooloriginated in the middle of the 2nd century B.C.,though its real progress began form the 1stcentury A.D. The Mathura sculptures are easilydistinguished by the material used -a kind ofspotted red sandstone. It was partly influencedby the Gandhara School and greatly influencedthe Gupta School of art. Some of the earlycraftsmen made votive plaques depicting thecross legged naked figure of a Trithankara,which may have inspired the Buddhists todepict their own teacher. The Yakshi with a birdand cage found from the railings of a stupa isprobably a Jaina sculpture.

The Buddhists of Mathura impart a sublimeand spiritual expression to the figure as againstlaying stress on anatomical details as in theGandhara School. This is the difference betweenIndian and the Western art. The spiritualstrength of the images in Mathura was displayedby a halo (illuminating circle) behind the facesof the images.

Artists of Mathura also carved out image ofBrahminical Gods like Shiva, Vishnu, Parvati,

Indian Culture 23

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Laxmi, Brahma, Surya, Kubera and MahishasuraMardini etc.

The most striking remains of Mathura schoolare the female figures of yakshini, Nagins andApsaras. Their broad hip, slender waist andpert attitude give an impression of a dancinggirl. It reflects the Indian outlook which did notabhor sensuality in the context of piety andrenunciation.

The Royal statues of Mathura school havebeen found in Mat, near Mathura and at SurkhKota in Afghanistan. Besides, the headless statueof Kanishka is widely renowned.

Gupta Art

The architectural output of the greatresurgence under the Guptas was phenomenal.The artistic creativity became a mighty upsurgeof the national art during the golden age of thisempire. It created a whole new stream ofarchitectural tradition, one which came to beclosely woven around the forms of the Hindutemples that became powerful centres of worshipand learning in the centuries that followed.Until this period, the general plan of all religiousshrines was, by and large apsidal. During thisperiod, the temple evolved from the simplesquare chamber that existed in the early Guptashrines at Sanchi to a more elaborate structure.The Gupta temples were independent structuresbuilt of dressed stone blocks placed together.The shrine was a simple structure to begin with.The doorway was elaborately carved.

The following types of structural templesbelong to this period (i) Flat roofed squaretemple e.g. Temple No. 17 at Sanchi (ii) Flatroofed temple with a vimana above e.g. Parvatitemple at Nachna Kuthara in Panna (M.P.) andShiva temple at Bhumara in Satna (M.P.). Theyshow Dravidian features. (iii) Square templewith a shikhara above e.g. Dasavatar temple atDeogarh in Jhansi (U.P.). (iv) Rectangular templee.g. Kopoleshwara and Durga temple at Aihole(v) Circular temple e.g. Maniyar Math.

During the Gupta period many stupas wereconstructed e.g. the Dhamekh stupa at Sarnath,Jararangh's Assembly at Rajgrih, Stupa at MirpurKhaas in Sindh and Stupa at Ratnagiri in

Orissa. As regards sculpture, two stand out.One is the carved Boar in the Udaigiri Caves inBhilsa (M.P.) and a dancer found at Pawaye,near Gwalior. Excellence in copper casting isreflected in the image of Buddha found atNalanda and the Sultangunj Buddha. In thefield of Painting, those at Ajanta, Bagh andBadami stand out.

After an early period of experimentation,two distinct styles of temple architectureemerged, and the major difference betweenthem was the shape of the temple spire, thatbecame the characteristic feature of the Hindutemple. In the north the spire, called the shikhara,was more or less smoothly pyramidal in outline,rising in an uninterrupted slope to a roundedtop and pointed tip. In the south, the spire wascalled the vimana and it rose in a series ofdiminishing steps, like a stepped pyramid,creating a singular and distinctive shape. Theearliest examples of the shikhara and the vimanawere evident in the masonry forms of theChalukyan temples at Aihole, Pattadakal andBadami, and were later refined by the skill ofsculptors at Mahabalipuram in the 7th-8thcentury who fashioned a series of experimentaltemples out of outcrops of rock, adding yetanother dimension to the traditions of rock cutarchitecture in India.

Styles of Temple Architecture

Indian temple architecture had three distinctstyles i.e. the Nagara, Dravida and the Vesara.In general terms they represented the North,South and the land between the Vindhyas andthe Krishna respectively. However, they did notalways conform to geographical limits and thisis evident in the development of the Vesara stylewhich was a fusion of Nagara and Dravidastyles.

In terms of planning, the Nagara style templeis a square with a number of graduatedprojections (Rathakas) in the middle of eachface which gives it a cruciform shape in theexterior. In elevation, it exhibits a shikharacapped by a spheroid slab with ribs around theedge (Rathaka). Thus the cruciform groundplant and curvilinear tower may, hence, be

24 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

regarded as the fundamental characteristics ofthe Nagara temples. The Orissa temples areregarded as the nearest to the Nagara archetype.

In terms of planning and elevation, a Dravidastyle temple had the sanctum cella situatedinvariably with an ambulatory hall and apyramidal tower formed by an accumulation ofstorey after storey, in receding dimensions. Theseare regarded as the distinctive characteristics ofthe Dravida temple. As later innovations, pillaredmandaps and gateways (Gopuram) were added.

The vesara style is also called the Chalukyanstyle. This style is a fusion of Dravida andNagara styles. Aihole and Pattadakal have manytemples of these styles.

Chalukyan Art

Groups of temples at Badami and Aihole(ancient Aryapura) show a juxtaposition of theNagara and Dravida Shikara style. Virupakshatemple at Pattadakal, near Badami, clearlybetrays the influence of Kailashnath temple ofKanchi. It shows the influence of the Pallavason the Chalukyan art. There are ten temples atPattadakal. The most celebrated of these arepapanatha temple and Virupaksha temple. Thetemple walls are adorned with beautifulsculptures representing scenes from theRamayana.

Rashtrakuta Art

The Kailash temple at Ellora, built in thetime of Krishan I and representing the boldestattempt in the field of rock-cut architecture,reproduced all the details of a structural templein the intricacies of rock excavation. Cave shrineof Elephanta is dedicated to Shiva, whose imageas Mahesha (Popularly known as Trimurti)counts amongst the most magnificent creation

of India. The three faces represent Shiva asCreator, Preserver and Destroyer.

Pallava Art

Pallavas, in far south, were great patrons ofart, especially cave and temple architecture.Mahendravarman and Narasimhavarman werethe most important among the patrons whocontributed to the growth of architecture. AtMahabalipuram, we have several rock-cut caves.In the Adivaraha cave, we have effigies ofMahendravarman and his two queens.Monolithic temples, known as rathams, belongto the reign of Mahamalla. The DharmarajaRatham had portrait of Mahamalla himself. Athird type of Pallava monument is the tirthamor magnificent open- air carving in relief on arock surface. The differences between themonuments of this period and those of Guptaperiod are quite obvious. The Pallava monumentshave greater slenderness and freer movement offorms, a more oval face and higher cheek bones.

In the reign of Rajasimha, the rock-cuttechnique was abandoned and replaced bystructural temple of masonry and stone. Theshore temple of Jalashayama Swami is built ofdressed stone with excellent workmanship.Kailashnath temple is a kind of structural temple.There are three separate parts of it: a sanctumwith a pyramidal tower, a mandapa and arectangular courtyard showing a series ofsubsidiary shrines or cells.

Chola Art

Temple architecture in South India attainedits climax under the Cholas. Under the Pallavas,the rock-cut technique was abandoned. Thenew style of architecture which came intovogue during this period attained its mostmagnificent form under the Cholas. This styleis called Dravida. The main feature of this stylewas the building of a storey upon a storey abovethe chide deity room (garbhagriha). The numberof storey varied from five to seven and they hada typical style which came to be called thevimana. A pillared hall called mandap, withelaborately carved pillars and a flat roof, wasgenerally placed in front of the sanctum. Itacted as an audience hall and was a place for

Indian Culture 25

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

various other activities such as ceremonial danceswhich were performed by devadasis. The entirestructure was enclosed in a courtyardsurrounded by high walls which were picturedby lofty gates called gopurams. In course of timethe vimanas rose higher and higher and theGopurams also became more and more elaborate.Thus, the temples became a miniature city.Kalashnath temple (8th century) is an earlyexample of Dravida style. One of the finest andthe most elaborate examples of this style isBrihadeswara Temple of Tanjore which wasbuilt by Rajaraja I. This is also called Rajarajatemple because the cholas were in the habit ofinstalling image of kings and queens in thetemples, in addition to the deity. The temple atGangaikonda-cholapuram is another exampleof this style.

Temple architecture was refined and givenclarity between the 10th and 13th centuries inthe soaring temple of Khajuraho in centralIndia, Konark in eastern India, and Thanjavurin the south where the form of the temple cameto fruition in triumphantly confident structuresthat are rich and satisfying. Intricate carvingson the surfaces of these temples provided a richtexture to the forms and united them stylistically,by establishing a uniformity of treatment indiverse regional variations. Thus, developmentsin the western states of Rajasthan and Gujaratculminated in the huge Jain temple of MountAbu and Palitana, which are decorated withamazingly intricate carving both inside andoutside the shrines. In Tamil Nadu, vestibulescalled Gudha mandaps and towering gatewaysor Gopurams became an intrinsic part of templedesign just as dancing halls and ambulatorypaths were incorporated into the temples ofModhera in Gujarat, Konark and Puri in Orissaand Khajuraho in Central India. InRameshwaram in the south, Kashmir in thenorth and Konark in the east, open courtyardscalled parikramas and chariot shaped structuresbecame the distinguishing features of the templeof these regions.

Hoysala Art

The wheel came full circle once again in theregion of modern Karnataka. Here, in the twin

cities of Halebid and Belur, the so-called northernand southern styles were submerged once againinto a single entity in the greater creation of theHoysala dynasty. The rectangular off sets of thepyramidal form of the vimana and thecurvilinear profile of the shikhara weretransmuted into a bell shaped tower plantedover a star-shaped tower garbhagriha or shrine.The stones that were used in the temples are ofmuch finer grain, kind of greenish or bluishblack coloristic schist, which being close textured,can take delicate and minute carving. KeshavaTemple at Somnathpur and a group of templeat Belur in Hassan district are fine examples ofHoysala art. The greatest achievement of this artis Hoysaleshvara Temple at Halebid.

The last monumental, if not innovativeoutcome of Hindu building talents was thelegendary city of Vijayanagar, in a place calledHampi in modern Karnataka. We have evidenceof architecture which sought to preserve theexisting landscape, using it as a means ofenhancing the buildings designed at Vijayanagar.The architecture seems to virtually have beenbuilt in the landscape. At places, one is unableto discern where landscape ends andarchitecture begins. A profusion of heavilycarved columns in flat roofed pavilionscharacterize the buildings of Vijayanagar.

Pala School

Pala School is referred to as the "EasternSchool". It flourished in Bihar and Bengal from8th to the 13th century. Nalanda was its greatestcentre. Ichnographically, there are three stagesof Nalanda Art:a) Early Mahayana phase with Buddha and

Bodhisattva images-both in stone andbronze.

b) Safhjayana imagesc) Kalchakra of the Kapalika system

Stone sculptures of the Pala School werefound at Nalanda, Rajagriha, Bodhgaya,Rajashahi and Kching in Mayurbhanj.

Orissa School

The temples of Orissa form one of the mostcompact and homogeneous architectural groups

26 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

within the Nagara style. In fact the Orissatemples are regarded as the nearest to theoriginal Nagara archetype. In Orissan templethe plan of the sanctum and the hall in front ofit (called Jagmohan) is plainly square in theinterior but externally the walls exhibit series ofbuttress like projections in the middle of eachside because of which the ground plan tends toassume a cruciform shape.

The early temples of Orissa resemble theGupta temples and include theShatrughaneshwara group, Parsuramesvaratemple, Markandeshwara temple andBhuvaneshwara temple. The Mukteshwaratemple, belonging to 9th century A.D. representsa mature expression of the Nagara temples inOrissa. On the other hand, the Siddheshwaratemple represents the transition from the Nagaraform to the typical Orissan form. The lingarajatemple represents the Orissan type in itsmaturity. The sun temple, Konark built byNarsimha I excels the Lingaraja temple in nobilityof its conception and the perfection of its finish.The court of the temple had erotic sculpture.

Bundelkhand School

In central India the Nagara Temple reachedone of its most exuberant expressions. It followed

the Orissan style and as in Orissa, developed itsown regional features. Its crowning glory is theKhajuraho group of temple. While in Orissantemples the sanctuary, assembly hall andentrance portico were considered as separateentities joined by a vestibule, Khajuraho templestreat them as a whole. In central India pillarshave been introduced in the interior as well asthe lateral ends to support the roof. Khajurahoshikharas also have miniature shikharas. Themain temples of this school are KendriyaMahadev temple at Khajuraho, Panchrathatemple at Baroli, Keshvanarayana temple,Amarkantaka, Karna temple, Virateshwaratemple, and Vishwanath temple at Khajuraho.

Southern School

It began during the reign of Pallavas. Itreached its climax during the Cholas. One of thegreat contributions of the south Indian Art isShiva Nataraja, symbolizing the processes ofcreation and dissolution in terms of the dynamicdance of divinity. The great metaphysicalproblem of motion and rest as expressed in thecosmos and its source have been best expressedin the dancing figure of Shiva Nataraja.

���

Indian Culture 27

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Indian sculptors had mastered the bronzemedium and the casting process as much asthey had mastered terracotta sculpture andcarving in stone. The cire-perdu or lost-waxprocess for casting was learnt as long ago as theIndus Valley Culture. Along with it wasdiscovered the process of making alloy of metalsby mixing copper, zinc and tin which is calledbronze.

Bronze sculptures and statuettes of Buddhist,Hindu and Jain icons have been discoveredfrom many regions of India dating from thesecond century until the sixteenth century. Mostof these were required for ritual worship andare characterized by exquisite beauty andaesthetic appeal. At the same time the metal-casting process continued to be utilized formaking articles for various purposes of dailyuse, such as utensils for cooking, eating, drinking,etc. Present day tribal communities also utilizethe 'lost-wax' process for their art expressions.

Perhaps the 'Dancing Girl' in tribhangaposture from Mohenjodaro is the earliest bronzesculpture datable to 2500 BCE. The limbs andtorso of this female figurine are simplified intubular form. A similar group of bronze statuetteshave been discovered on archaeologicalexcavation at Daimabad (Maharashtra) datableto 1500 BCE. Significant is the 'Chariot', thewheels of which are represented in simplecircular shapes while the driver or human riderhas been elongated, and the bulls in the forefrontare modelled in sturdy forms.

Interesting images of Jain Tirthankaras havebeen discovered from Chausa, Bihar, belongingto the Kushana period during second centuryCE. These bronzes show how the Indiansculptors had mastered the modelling ofmasculine human physique and simplifiedmuscles. Remarkable is the depiction of Adinath

or Vrishabhnath, who is identified with longhairlocks dropping to his shoulders. Otherwisethe tirthankaras are noted by their short curlyhair.

Many standing Buddha images with righthand in abhaya mudra were cast in NorthIndia, particularly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.The sanghati or the monk's robe is wrapped tocover the shoulders which turns over the rightarm, while the other end of the drapery iswrapped over the left arm. Eventually the pleatsare held by the extended hand of the same arm.The drapery falls and spreads into a wide curveat the level of the ankles. The Buddha's figureis modelled in a subtle manner suggesting, at thesame times, the thin quality of the cloth. Thewhole figure is treated with refinement; there isa certain delicacy in the treatment of the torso.The figure appears youthful and proportionatein comparison with the Kushana style. In thetypical bronze from Dhanesar Khera, UttarPradesh, the folds of the drapery are treated asin the Mathura style, i.e., in a series of droopingdown curves. Sarnath-style bronzes have foldlessdrapery. The outstanding example is that of theBuddha image at Sultanganj, Bihar, which isquite a monumental bronze figure. The typicalrefined style of these bronzes is the hallmark ofthe classical quality.

Classical Sculpture

The highest expression of form in art isthrough sculpture according to Indian canons.Chitra is the term for sculpture in the round,while carving in relief, high or low, is styledArdhachitra. The earliest examples of sculpturein India go back to the Harappan period in thethird millennium B.C. The renowned dancinggirl form Mohenjo-Daro is an image in metalwhich is world famous.

INDIAN SCULPTURECHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

28 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

For quite a long time there was a gap ofperiod unrepresented by sculptural examples,creating a dark age, which came to an end bythe fourth century B.C., when there appearedagain sculptures of exquisite charm. TheMauryan period, with Asoka's craftsmen atwork, has examples of such highly sophisticatedtechnique, realistic charm and perfection ofstudy of the anatomy of human, animal andbird that there should have been a long traditionbehind it, running into centuries. The anatomyand form of the animal had been so well studiedin the magnificent row of elephant on thefaçade of the Lomas Rishi cave in the Barabarhills and the sturdy bull and the stately lioncomposition from Sarnath pillars. The Chauri -Bearer from Didarganj is a monolith with mirror-like polish.

Sunga sculpture of the second century B.C.is represented adequately by the remains of thecarved rail and Torana gateway that onceadorned the Stupa at Bharhut in central India.The visit of king Ajatasatru of Magadha andPrasenajit of Kosala are two famous episodesrepresented at Bharhut.

Contemporary rulers of the Sungas in theDeccan were the Satavahanas whose earliestphase of art has given us the famous panels ofSurya and Indra in the Bhaja cave of the secondcentury B.C. in western India. The magnificenteastern torana gateway of the Sanchi Stupa wasdelicately carved by the ivory carvers of Vidishawho were equally at home in carving in stone,as recording an inscription on it. An inscriptionequally informs us of an early Satakarni whohas created this. The beautiful carvings in theKarle and Konadana caves are also the result ofSatavahana patronage.

The most magnificent phase of Satavahanaart is seen in the exquisitely rendered carving onthe rail from Amravati of 150 A.D.

Kushana Art

The Kushanas had a large empire thatextended from the north western area ofGandhara to nearly the borders of Bihar withone mode of sculpture (Gandhara) in theirwestern and another the indigenous Mathura

school in their eastern part. The GandharaSchool is mainly determined by Greco- Romannorms and is an Indian theme expressed inforeign technique and spirit. The Mathura schoolof Kushana art is more pleasing as a worthycompanion of Satavahana art in the south.

Solar Deity

The most astounding temple monument ofthe Ganga is the one for the solar deity atKonark which is literally a monumental charioton several wheels drawn by seven horses. Themonumental sculptures of the running elephantand horse here, once seen, are never forgotten.

Chandella Architecture

Chandella sculpture itself is mostconcentrated in Khajuraho, where the templesdating from the 10th to the 12th century havea wealth of sculpture representing gorgeousroyal processing, rare iconographic forms anderotic scenes illustrating many of the Ratibandhasof the Kama sutra.

Pallava Architecture

In the south the great Pallava kingMahendravarman, who was at once a sculptor,painter, poet, musician, engineer all in one,created rock-cut temple for the first time. Amonghis several simple massive cave temples the mostfamous is the one at Triuchirapalli. His sonNarasimhavarman became immortal throughhis famous monuments. They include the fiverathas with their beautiful sculptures. TheKailash temple at Kanchipuram with its precioussculptured decoration is a gem of Pallava art.

Chola Architecture

The Cholas, who continued the tradition,have magnificent early temples at Kodumbalur,Srinivasanallur and other important places intheir realm, but the most striking examples ofChola architecture and sculpture are from thehuge temples built by the father and son,emperors Rajaraja and Rajendra, at Thanjavurand Gangaiknodacholapuram. The Bhikshatanaimage at Thanjavur completes the picture alongwith the Nataraja at Gangaikondacholapuram.

Indian Culture 29

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Shiva as Nataraja

Chalukya Architecture

From the Western Chalukyas, Mangalesamust be remembered forhis magnificent cavetemple at Badami andVikramaditya for hismasterly Virupakshatemple at pattadakal.Vikramaditya the greatpatron appreciated thebeautiful Pallava templebuilt by Rajasimha atKanchipuram, andliterally imported almostthe same sculptors tobeautify his temples likeVirupaksha, simulatingthe architecture at Kanchipuram.

Rashtrakuta & Hoysala

The Rashtrakutas who succeeded theChaulkyas were great builders. The mostmagnificent work of them include rock-cuttemple the Kailasa. The Hoysalas continued thetradition of the later western Chalukyas.

Vishnuvardhana's greatest contribution is thecharming embellished temples with exquisitesculptures in Belur and Halebid besides others.

Vijayanagara Period

The Vijayanagara period is indeed a greatphase in Indian culture where the Chalukyanand Chola tradition combined. Krishna-devaraya, the great emperor flanked by hisqueens as depicted in metal at Tirupati, will everbe remembered as the builder of several templesincluding the famous ones for Vithala andKrishna at Hampi, his capital. One of the greatand imposing Gopuras at Chidambaram has afine portrait of Krishnadevaraya.

The bronzes of the Pallavas are famous andamong them the mostimportant are per-haps Tripurantakawith a single pair ofarms in the Sarabhaicollection. The eight-armed Nataraja fromNallur and So-maskhanda from Tri-uvalangadu areequally noteworthy.Among the Cholaones, the beautifulParvati, Natarajafrom Triuvarangu-lam, Vrihbhantika and Devi from Tanjavur andArdhanarisvara form Truvengadu, are all ex-quisite.

Modern Indian Sculpture

The range of production of contemporarysculptors both in material and style is very wide.But the works are of comparatively smallerdimensions since the sculptors have not had theopportunity to work on a monumental scale.The traditional materials- wood, metal andstone are still in vogue. Metal has become ausual material over the last decade or two andis used in different ways. Lost wax (cire perdue)is traditionally practiced in Orissa and is calledDokhra. Mira Mukherjee of Calcutta is a wellknown sculptor using this technique.

30 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

���

Balbir Singh Kotta, Ram Sutar, Grish Bhatt,Narayan Kulkarni and Sarbari Roy Chaudharyhave presented their works in bronze. Originalcompositions in bronze are usually somewhatlimited in size because of the cost and difficultiesof casting. Carved wood is one of the oldesttraditions in India. In olden days the carvingwas restricted in relief. Modern sculpture hasshown an appreciation of wood grain and theuse of its lined and smooth surfaces and flowingcontours.

Stone, cement, plaster and similar heavymetals have a ponderability and palpability

which make them eminently suitable forsculpture. These can be either modeled or carved.The present type of modeling in clay and workingin plaster were introduced by the British inIndian art schools as also drawings and workingfrom casts. Plaster was used and continues tobe used mostly in the art schools during thetraining of sculptors. Its lack of durability makesit unsuitable for permanent monuments.

Baroda, Delhi and Calcutta are centres fortraining young sculptors. The artists naturallytend to concentrate in these towns.

Indian Culture 31

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

In the seventh and eighth centuries CE Islamspread towards Spain and India. Islam came toIndia, particularly, with Muslim merchants,traders, holy men and conquerors over a passageof six hundred years. Although by the eighthcentury CE, Muslims had begun to construct inSind, Gujarat, etc., it was only in the earlythirteenth century that large scale buildingactivity was begun by the Turkish State,established after the Turkish conquest of northernIndia.

By the twelfth century India was alreadyfamiliar with monumental constructions ingrandiose settings. Certain techniques andembellishments were prevalent and popular,such as trabeation, brackets and multiple pillarsto support a flat roof or as small shallow dome.While arches were shaped in wood and stone,these were unable to bear the weight of the topstructure. Now, however, the arcuate form ofconstruction was introduced gradually in whicharches could support the weight of the domes.Such arches needed to be constructed withvoussoirs (series of interlocking blocks) andfitted with keystones. The domes resting onpendentives and squinches enabled spanning oflarge spaces leaving the interiors free of pillars.

A noteworthy aspect of these migrationsand conquests was that Muslims absorbed manyfeatures of local cultures and traditions andcombined them with their own architecturalpractices. Thus, in the field of architecture a mixof many structural techniques, stylised shapes,and surface decorations came about throughconstant interventions of acceptance, rejectionor modification of architectural elements. Thesearchitectural entities or categories showcasingmultiple styles are known as Indo-Saracenid orIndo-Islamic architecture.

According to E. B. Havell Hindus conceivedmanifestations of God everywhere in multiple

forms as part of their religious faith whereas aMuslim thought of only one with Muhammadas His Prophet. Hence, Hindus adorned allsurfaces with sculptures and paintings. Muslimsforbidden to replicate living forms on anysurface, developed their religious art andarchitecture consisting of the arts of arabesque,geometrical patterns and calligraphy on plasterand stone.

Typologies of Structures

Keeping in mind religious and secularnecessities, architectural building like mosquesfor daily prayers; the Jama Masids, tombs,dargahs, minars, hammams, formally laid outgardens, madrasas, sarais or caravansarais, Kosminars, etc. were constructed over a period oftime. These were thus additions in the existingtypes of buildings in the sub-continent.

Architectural edifices in the Indian sub-continent, as elsewhere in the world, wereconstructed by wealthy people. They were indescending order, rulers and nobles and theirfamilies, merchants, merchant guilds, rural eliteand devotees of a cult. In spite of the obviousSaracenic, Persian and Turkish influences, Indo-Islamic structures were heavily influenced byprevailing sensibilities of Indian architecturaland decorative forms. A lot depended on theavailability of materials, limitations of resourcesand skills and the sense of aesthetics of thepatrons. Although religion and religiosity werevery important to people of medieval India, aselsewhere, they borrowed architectural elementsliberally.

Categories of Styles

The study of Indo-Islamic architecture isconventionally categorized into the Imperialstyle (Delhi Sultanate), the Provincial Style

INDO-ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURECHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

32 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

(Mandu, Gujarat, Bengal and Jaunpur), theMughal Style (Delhi, Agra and Lahore) and theDeccani Style (Bijapur, Golconda). Thesecategories help in understanding better thespecificities of architectural styles rather thanputting them in immutable slots.

Architectural Influences

Amongst provincial styles, the architectureof Bengal and Jaunpur is regarded as distinct.Gujarat was said to have a markedly regionalcharacter for patrons borrowed elements fromregional temple traditions such as toranas lintelsin mihrabs carvings of bell and chain motifs,and carved panels depicting trees, for tombs,mosques and dargahs. The fifteenth centurywhite marble dargah of Shaikh Ahmad Khattuof Sarkhej is a good example of provincial styleand it heavily influenced the form and decorationof Mughal tombs.

Decorative Forms

These forms included designing on plasterthrough incision or stucco. The designs wereeither left plain or covered with colours. Motifswere also painted on or carved in stone. Thesemotifs included varieties of flowers, both fromthe sub-continent and places outside, particularlyIran. The lotus bud fringe was used to greatadvantage in the inner curves of the arches.Walls were also decorated with cypress, chinarand other trees as also with flower vases. Manycomplex designs of flower motifs decorating theceilings were also to be found on textiles andcarpets. In the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies tiles were also used to surface thewalls and the domes. Popular colours wereblue, turquoise, green and yellow. Subsequentlythe techniques of fessellation (mosaic designs),and pietra dura were made use of for surfacedecoration particularly in the dado panels of thewalls. At times lapis lazuli was used in theinterior walls or on canopies. Other decorationsincluded arabesque, calligraphy and high andlow relief carving and a profuse use of jalis. Thehigh relief carving has a three dimensional look.The arches were plain and squat and sometimeshigh and pointed. From the sixteenth century

onwards arches were designed with trefoil ormultiple foliations. Spandrels of the arches weredecorated with medallions or bosses. The rootwas a mix of the central dome and other smallerdomes, chatris and tiny minarets. The centraldome was topped with an inverted lotus flowermotif and a metal or stone pinnacle.

Materials for Construction

The walls in all buildings were extremelythick and were largely constructed of rubblemasonary, which was easily available. Thesewalls were then cased over with chunam orlimestone plaster or dressed stone. An amazingrange of stones were utilized for constructionsuch as quartzite, sandstone, buff, marble, etc.Polychrome tiles were used to great advantageto finish the walls. From the beginning of theseventeenth century, bricks were also used forconstruction and these imparted greaterflexibility to the structures. In this phase therewas more reliance on local materials.

Forts

Building monumental forts withembattlements was a regular feature in medievaltimes, often symbolizing the seat of power of aking. When such a fort was captured by anattacking army the vanquished ruler either losthis complete power or his sovereignty. This wasbecause he had to accept the suzerainty of thevictorious king. Some examples of strong complexedifices which still exercise the imagination ofthe visitor are the forts of Chittor, Gwalior,Daulatabad, earlier known as Devgiri andGolconda.

Commanding heights were utilized to greatadvantage to construct forts. These heights gavea good perspective of the region, strategic ad-vantage for security, unfettered and unhin-dered space to make residential and officialcomplexes while simultaneously creating a senseof awe in the people. Other complexities woveninto such topography were concentric circles ofouter walls as in Golconda, so that the enemyhad to breach these at all stages before gettingin.

Daulatabad had several strategic devices to

Indian Culture 33

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

confound the enemy such as staggered entrancesso that gates could not be opened even with thehelp of elephants. It also had twin forts, onewithin the other but at a higher elevation andaccessed by a complex defense designarrangement. One wrong turn in the labyrinthor complex pathway could lead to the enemysoldier going in circles of falling to his deathseveral hundred feet below.

The Gwalior Fort was invincible because itssteep height made it impossible to scale. If hadhad many habitations and usages. Babur, whodid not find much merit in many things he sawin Hindustan, was said to have been overawedat the sight of the Gwalior Fort. Chittorgarhbears the distinction of being the largest fort inAsia and was occupied for the longest length oftime as the seat of power. It has many types ofbuildings including stambhas or towers to signifyvictory and bravery. It was replete withnumerous water bodies. Innumerable acts ofheroism have been associated with the principalpeople in the fort, forming the substance ofmany a legend. An interesting aspect associatedwith forts is that within the palace complexesstylistic and decorative influences were absorbedmost liberally.

Minars

Another form of stambha or tower was theminar a common feature in the sub-continent.Two most striking minars of medieval times arethe Qutub Minar in Delhi and the Chand Minarat Daulatabad Fort. The everyday use of theminar was for the azaan or call to prayer. Itsphenomenal height however symbolized themight and power of the ruler. The Qutub Minaralso came to be associated with the muchrevered saint of Delhi. Khwaja QutbuddinBakhtiyar Kaki.

The Qutub Minar, built in the thirteenthcentury, is a 234 feet high tapering towerdivided into five storeys. The minar is a mix orpolygonal and circular shapes. It is largely builtof red and buff sandstone with some use ofmarble in the upper storey's. It is characterizedby highly decorated balconies and bands ofinscriptions interwined with foliated designs.

Chand Minar, built in the fifteenth century

is a 210 feet high tapering tower divided intofour storeys. Painted peach now, its facade onceboasted of chevron patterning on the encaustictile work and bold bands of Quranic verses.Although it looked like an Iranian monument itwas the combined handiwork of local architectswith those from Delhi and Iran.

Tombs

Monumental structures over graves of rulersand royalty was a popular feature of medievalIndia. Some well known examples of suchtombs are those of Ghyasuddin Tughlaq.Humayun, Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, Akbarand Itmaduddaula. According to AnthonyWelch, the idea behind the tomb was eternalparadise as a reward for the true believer on theDay of Judgement. This led to the paradisiacalimagery for tomb construction. Beginning withthe introduction of Quranic verses on the walls,the tomb was subsequently placed withinparadisiacal elements such as a garden or neara body of water or both, as is in the case of theTaj Mahal. Surely though, such vast expansesof structured and stylized spaces could not havebeen intended only to signify peace andhappiness in the next world but to also showcasethe majesty, grandeur and might of the personburied there.

Sarais

A hugely interesting feature of medievalIndia was the sarais which ringed cities anddotted the vast space of the Indian subcontinent.Sarais were largely built on a simple square orrectangular plan and were meant to providetemporary accommodation to Indian and foreigntravellers, pilgrims, merchants, traders, etc. Ineffect, sarais were public domains whichthronged with people of varied culturalbackgrounds. This led to cross-culturalinteraction, influences and syncretic tendenciesin the cultural mores of the times and at the levelof the people.

Structures for Common People

One of the architectural features of medievalIndia was also a coming together of styles,

34 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

techniques and decorations in public and privatespaces of non-royal sections of the society.Theses included buildings for domestic usage,temples, mosques, Khanqahs and dargahs,comme-morative gateways, pavilions inbuildings, and gardens, bazaars, etc.

Early Muslim Architecture

After Muhammad Ghori returned, Aibackestablished himself as the ruler of Delhi andalmost immediately commenced work on theearliest extant mosque on Indian soil theQuwwat-ul-Islam mosque which is the core ofthe famous Qutub complex south of New Delhi.Qutb-ud-din had neither the time nor theresources to import artisans, masons andarchitects form his native Afghanistan. In hishaste to build, Qutb-ud-din had blocks of stones,columns and lintels removed from existingHundu and Jain temples in the area, and hadthem reorganized around a rectangular court,haphazardly assembling the essential rudimentsof a mosque at the site he had chosen. This has,subsequently, been termed as an "archaeologicalmiscellany". However, it sowed the seeds of atradition of give and take between the austeretraditions of Islam and the sculptural skills ofthe local masons and Muslim overseers.

Ala-ud-din Khilji, who ruled in the early14th century, built the city of Siri near the Qutbcomplex. Though almost nothing of Siri hassurvived, his Alai Darwaza at the Qutb complexmarks the beginning of a process of refinementof the basic module of Muslim architecture.Once this basic module had been perfected andthe new technological principles of the true archand the dome understood by Hindu builders,this module could be assembled in varyingcombinations to build mosques, tombs, places,markets and entire cities.

• Tughlaq Architecture:

The Tughlaqs, who ruled Delhi form A.D.1320 to 1413, endowed their new cities with agenuine Muslim flavor. This is clearly evident inthe fortress cities of Tughlaqabad and FirozShah Kotla founded by Ghias-ud-din and FirozShah, respectively. They made deliberate attemptto combine the principle of the arch and beam

in their buildings. Hauz Khaas and Kotla builtby Firuz Tughlaq are fine examples of it. TheTughlaqs were also responsible for creating arather militant style of architecture characterizedby sloping, fortress-like walls studded withbuttresses and circular pylons.

• Turkish Architecture:

The Turks used the arch and dome on awide scale. The style of decoration was inaccordance with their religious beliefs. No humanor animal figures were used since it wasconsidered to be unislamic. They used scrolls offlowers & geometrical forms and verses ofQuran Sharif which were intertwined in a veryartistic manner (Arabesque). The Turkish rulersused both the dome and arch method and theslab and beam method in their buildings. Theyalso freely borrowed Hindu motifs such as thebell motif, swastika, lotus etc. The Turks addedcolour to their buildings by using red sandstone.They also used yellow sandstone or marble.

In Gujarat and its environs, however, theMuslim rulers seem to have been completelyswamped by the artistic skills of the local Jainand Hindu craftsmen. In sharp contrast in thesouth, Muslim immigrant well versed in Persiantechnology arrived by sea and building activityin this region displays a strong structural bias.Beginning with a large mosque at Gulbarga, thistradition culminated in the building of thefamous Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, the largestdome of its time.

Meanwhile, the Sayyids and the Lodi dynastyheld nominal sway over the cities of Agra andDelhi in the north and, during their rule, thedominance of Muslim structural techniques werewell established with the construction of massiveboat kneel shaped domes over the numeroustombs built at Delhi by the Lodi rulers, whosebuildings had virtually turned Delhi into a royalnecropolis.

• Lodi Architecture:

During this period, both the arch and linteland beam were used. Besides balconies, kiosksand caves of the Rajasthani-Gujarati style werealso used. Another device used by the Lodis wasplacing their buildings, especially tombs, onhigh platforms thus, giving the buildings a

Indian Culture 35

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

feeling of size as well as a better skyline. Someof the tombs were placed in the midst of gardense.g. Lodi Garden. Some of the tombs were ofoctagonal shape.

Mughal India

During the reign of Babar, magnificent forts,palaces, gates, public buildings, mosques, baolis(water tank or well), etc. were built, There weremany formal gardens with running water. Useof running water in palaces and pleasure resortswas a special feature of the Mughal architecture.Dome, arch, perforated jail work, inlaydecoration and artistic calligraphy were theother special features of the architecture of theperiod. Nishat Bagh in Kashmir, Shalimar inLahore and Pinjore garden in the Punjab foothillsare the gardens laid out by Babar.

The Mughal Empire, however, was foundedas much on Babar's endeavors as on the geniusof the great Afghan ruler, Sher Shah, whoforced Babar's son Humayun to relinquish Delhiand ruled the land for a fruitful fifteen years. Hecontributed handsomely to architecturaltraditions. While the balanced perfection of theQuila Kuhana Masjid in the Purana Quila atDelhi became the prototype upon which theMughals developed their structures, his tomb atSasaram in Bihar was indeed a fitting climax tothe series of octagonal tombs erected by theTughlaqs and the Lodis. Its builder Aliwal Khanconceived a fine elevation unity of the square,the octagon and the sphere.

With the arrival of Akbar on the Indianscene an era of unparalleled building activitybegan. Under his benevolent but powerfulguidance, all that was best in the buildingtradition of India came to life. During Akbar'srule, Persian ideas were blended with Hinduand Buddhist traditions to produce a style asunique and eclectic as the personality of Akbar.This is seen at its best in Humayun's tomb atDelhi, in the numerous structures at Akbar'snew capital city of Fatehpur Sikri and at hisown tomb at Sikandra in Agra. Fatehpur Sikriis a palace cum-fort complex. It includes manybuildings in the style of Gujarat and Bengal. Themixture of styles, both Hindu and Muslim, was

given unity by the material used for all thebuildings, red sandstone, quarried from the veryridge on which the city was erected. Anothercontribution of Akbar to the Indian architectureis the Red Fort at Agra. Built of red sandstone,it had many magnificent gates. Diwan-i-Amand Diwan-i-Khas were added to it by ShahJehan. The Jahangiri Mahal in the fort is a finebuilding attributed to Akbar himself. PanchMahal, built by Akbar, is five-storied structureof open pavilions. All types of pillars used invarious temples, were employed to support itsflat roofs.

The Buland Darwaza is another significantcontribution of Akbar. It is 170-ft. high structurewhich commemorates Akbar's triumphal returnfrom his Deccan campaign. The style, in whichit was built, was called half-dove portal. Adome was sliced into half. The sliced portionprovided the massive outward facade of thegate while smaller door could be made in therear wall where the dome and the floor met. Thestyle, borrowed from Iran, later became acommon feature in Mughal buildings.

Akbar's son Jahangir was not a prolificbuilder, preferring to express his creativity inthe laying out of numerous Mughal gardens,and in replacing the dignified austerity of Akbar'ssandstone architecture with the flamboyanceand luster of pure white marble. An outstandingcontribution of Jahangir to Indian architectureis the Tomb of Akbar at Sikandrabad. Towardsthe end of Jahangir's reign, began the practiceof putting up building entirely of marble anddecorative walls with floral designs made ofsemi-precious stones. This method of decorationis called pietra dura; it became more popularunder Shahjahan who used it on a large scalein the Taj Mahal.

Shahjahan was a passionate builder insandstone and marble and so, he took thetraditions of Mughal architecture to theirclimactic best in the famous Taj Mahal at Agra.But before the Taj was built, Shahjahan'scraftsmen had mastered the use of marble as abuilding material in structures such as Diwan-i-khas and Diwan-i-Aam, the halls of privateand public audience, and the Moti Masjid orPearl Mosque at the Agra Fort. The Taj Mahal

99

36 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

was placed at the head of the garden ratherthan at centre, creating a rich dimension ofdepth and perspective to the first view of thisperfectly proportioned edifice. The four minaretsthat surround the central structure provide aspatial frame for the arched facade and thesoaring dome. There are minimum decorations,delicate marble screens, pietra dura inlay workand kiosks, adding to the effect. The doubledome is another feature of the building. It wasdesigned by a Persian Ustad Isa.

With the growing wealth of the empire,Shahjahan laid out the splendid city ofShahjahanabad, at Delhi. For the devout, thereis the perfectly proportioned Jama Masjid justopposite the fort. This mosque, the Taj Mahaland the palaces of Shahjahan in the Red Fortat Delhi are proof of the swan song of Muslimarchitecture in India. Jama Masjid is built in redsandstone. A lofty gate, tall slender minaretsand a series of domes are its important features.

Moti Masjid in the Agra Fort which is built likethe Taj, entirely in marble is another example ofShahjahan's passion for the use of marble inbuildings.

The Mughal Empire continued under theorthodox rule of Shahjahan's son Aurangzebfor another sixty years. However, under hisaustere rule no great work of art or architecturewas created and with the disintegration of theMughal Empire, the focus once again shifted toregional centres such as Oudh in present dayUttar Pradesh where a rather florid style basedon the whims of the ruler rather than anyarchitectural principles emerged. Safdarjang'sTomb was built by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula ofAwadh. Gol Gumbaz was built by SultanMohammad Adil Shah of Bijapur. Thefoundation of the Golden Temple was laid byGuru Ram Das and completed by his son ArjunDev.

Humayun Tomb Qutub Minar Taj Mahal

���

Indian Culture 37

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Europeans built strong fortresses andimposing churches. The forts had no architecturalsignificance, but the churches had. ThePortuguese at Goa established impressivechurches in the style of Iberian architecture. TheEnglish built churches resembling the Englishvillage churches.

Victorian style, being imitative rather thanoriginal, did not have a vitality of its own. TheVictorian architects in India further debasedthemselves by attempting to copy oriental styleswhile trying to construct public buildings. Bigbrick work buildings with iron supports anddomed roofs represented Victorian architectureat its worst examples - Churches of Calcuttaand Madras, the cathedrals of Simla and Lahore,the High Courts at Lahore and Calcutta etc.

When Sir Edwin Lutyens and his colleagueSir Edward Baker were appointed to carry outthe grand design of a new imperial capital, theygrudgingly embellished major buildings withmotifs and artifacts borrowed from Indiantraditions. The basic forms, however, remaineduncompromisingly Western. Viceroy's palace

appeared with a huge dome on the lines of aBuddhist stupa. A demerit of the experiment tosynthesize the different styles of Indianarchitecture within a broader European fabricwas that simplicity, modernity and utility wereconsiderably compromised for the purpose of socalled beauty and structural majesty. Most ofthe structures appeared massive, heavy andstrong, but also congested, close and evenmedieval.

After India achieved independence in 1947,Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister, called forthe development of a truly Indian architecture.What resulted at first were awkward imitationsof the past and this prompted Nehru to both callfor a vital style of contemporary Indianarchitecture and to commission the FrenchmanCorbusier to build the city of Chandigarh, anew capital for the state of Punjab. Corbusierplanned Chandigarh as an integrated scheme ofsectors, each a functional entity in itself. Corbusierset the pattern for what is known as Indianarchitecture, which took its cues from the westand laid great stress on rationality, functionalismand economy.

MODERN AGE ARCHITECTURECHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

���

38 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

In traditional Indian society there was nosharp distinction between 'art' and 'craft'. TheSanskrit word shilpa has been used to meanskill, craft, work of art or architecture, design ordecoration. A simple earthen pot used forfetching water was as much Shilpa as the stoneimage of the deity worshipped in a temple.

Traditionally the craftsman himself was thedesigner of his item and received full emolumentfor his product. The introduction of the alienconcept of the designer as distinct from thecraftsman has, as pointed out by Pupul Jayakar,destroyed the craftsmen's natural response toform goods. The traditional skills are still alivein many pockets of India. Wherever a localclientele has existed fine craft tradition hassurvived.

Clay and Terracotta

Clay craft is considered man's firstcraftsmanship. Domestic pottery is in profusionand found in an innumerable forms from anyIndian scene. Despite the paramount role playedby domestic earthenware it is its religiousassociation that gives it far wider dimensionand status. Each region has a number of godsand goddesses to be worshipped at specialperiods and on special occasions. One mayclassify those under three heads: the figurines ofdeities, ceremonial pottery and votive offerings.The first is understandable; the second typeincludes lamps for Diwali, toys for Dusserah,etc. and the votive offering are a substitute forsacrifices for they consist of a variety of clayanimals, offered either in fulfillment of a vow,for warding off some disease or for obtainingsome favour.

Blue pottery is the traditional earthenwareof Delhi. The Jaipur blue pottery is equallyfamous, but is unique, for the base is preparedout of the material from which the slip is made

and no clay is used. Alwar is noted for its paperthin, almost sheer body pottery, known asKagzi pottery. The Nohar centre of Bikaner isfamous for the pottery tinted with lac colors towhich the gold shade is added.

In U.P., Khurja's pitchers, Rampur's surahisand Nizamabad's earthenware are quite famous.Saurashtra has Chandan like clay calledgopichandan which provides glows of a buringbuff to articles. Goa earthenware with its red,velvety surface has a charm and style of its own.Karigiri pottery in South Arcot is unique inmany ways. Pottery from Karukurichi inTirunelveli district is popular. Kashmir has itsearthenware of ordinary clay but with a glazelike surface. Potters from Gujarat form a bigcolony at Dharavi, Bombay. Khanapur inBelgaum district of Karnataka is known mostlyfor its large size container and jars.

Metal Work

Copper was the earliest non-ferrous metalused by man to make tools. The metal was lightand corrosion-resistant. In course of time copperand tin were mixed to produce a new alloy-bronze. The statue of a dancing girl, discoveredat Mohenjo-Daro dated around third millenniumB.C., with its intricate but elegant carring,shows that cire perdue process was alreadyperfected.

Like earthenware, Indian metal ware canalso be divided into three groups: religiousimages, ritualistic items and objects of utility.The most common metals used are copper, brassand bell-metal. Brass is an alloy of copper andzinc. Bell-metal is a mixture of copper and tin.

Moosaris are the traditional artisans engagedin bell metalware and belong to one of the sixclasses of Kammalars. Kammala means themaker of an article pleasing to the eye.Nachiarkoli in Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu

INDIAN CRAFTSCHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Indian Culture 39

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

is important centre for metalcrafts. Guwahatiand Sarbari are important centres in Assam.Manipur is well known for its bell-metal,particularly the ceremonial artifacts by the cireperdue casting. A special type of dish is knownas Krishna Kanti.

Uttar Pradesh is the largest brass and coppermaking region in India. The range of items is toolarge. Etawah, Varanasi, Sitapur, etc., havetheir own characteristic domestic wares. InVaranasi icons are also cast. Srinagar, a smallvillage, makes very beautiful traditional imageswith prominent conch shell eyes. Ritualisticitems like tamrapatra, panch patra, sinhasanand Kanchanthal are also produced in largenumbers.

Tamilnadu is one of the famous bronzeproducing states. Stylistically the images madeconform to periods like Pallava, Chola, Pandyanand Nayaka. The artisans are known as stapathis,literally icon-makers. Swamimalai in Thanjavuris best known for image making in stone andbronze, both.

Kerala is famous for its statuary, chief centresbeing Trivandrum, Payyanoor in Cannouredistrict and Angadipuram in Palaght district.Kerala makes a different version of Shiva'standava dance- gaja Tandava or Gajasanharain which Shiva crushing the demon in theelephant form.

Koftagiri is inlaying of a light metal on adark one, technically known as damascening. Awide range of article is produced in this techniqueboth for ornamental purpose and for utility.Elegant picturisation is also done sometimes inKoftagiri. At present it seems to be practicedmainly in Kerala. Bidri is also a type ofdamascening. The original home of bidri isBidar in Karnataka. The metal wire inlay workknown as tarkashi was originally from Mainpuri,a little place in Uttar Pradesh. Here brass wiresare used in place of Pieces.

Kashmir is famous for metal engraving.Hukka bases of various shapes are the pride ofKashmiri crafts. The Himalayan foothills havea lovely copper metalware in Ganga-Jamunistyle that is a blending of brass and copper inthe same article with a little German silver in it.

Stoneware

Excavations reveal carving of stone figures3000 year old. India is blessed with a very largevariety of stones. Granite, the granular rock,seems to have been the earliest in stone to beuseful to man. Stone monuments are, thus,fairly common all over the country.

Midnapur district in West Bengal is animportant traditional region for stoneware andthe main centre in Simulpal. The practicingcraftsmen are karga, bhumif and karmakar. Thestone here though called "potstone", is reallyphyllite. Agra in Uttar Pradesh is world famousfor its marble work flowering under the aura ofthe Taj Mahal. Vrindavan near Mathura inUttar Pradesh has marble as well as alabasterproducts.

Sculpture of Mauryan period proves thatBihar has an ancient tradition in stone carving.The most noted stoneware centre of Bihar isPatharkatti in Gaya district. The craftsmen areGaur Brahmins. Buddhist icons are a specialty.Singhbhum and Santhal Parganas are alsofamous for their beautifully grained greenishblack soap stone.

Rajasthan is the land of marble. Makrana inNagaur district is the major source of its marble.Rajasthan is particularly noted for its ornamentalstone work. The green spotted copper colouredtamrastone found in Sawai Madhopur is usedfor making images. A soft shaded stone fromDungarpur, which turns black when oiled, isalso used in icon-making.

In Orissa, monuments like the famousKonark, Bhubaneshwar temples are testimonyto the genius of the craftsmen dating back to thefamous Kalinga School. Puri is an importantcentre for stonework. Its specialty is figurines.

Wood Carving

As suggested by the earlier construction ofstone railings at the stupas of Sanchi and thewindows and ceilings of some of the earlywestern Indian cave temple and monasteries,wood was the predecessor of stone in Indian artand architecture. Being a soft material availablein plenty, almost all over India, there is hardly

40 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

any region where wood carving has not existed.By using teak, shisham, deodar, sandal wood,ebony, walnut, sal, etc. and employing thetechniques of caring, inlaying, veneering,painting and lacquering, the wood carvers ofIndia have developed intricate fixtures forarchitecture and produced fine furniture, cabinetwork, chests, etc.

Kashmir has the soft toned elegant walnutand the facile deodar wood that have guidedthe craftsmen's deft fingers into delicate linesand decorative motifs. Kashmir produces acountless variety of the most alluring objectswith lovely grain and natural colour, andtastefully executed, with great attention tominutest details. Kashmir is particularly notedfor its fine lattice work screens as also caskets.

Gujarat is one of the richest regions in woodcarvings. The dominant feature is the entrance,the door or the arch. The doors have delicatelattice work and the pillars are decorated byhalf roundels or floral friezes. Blocks for textileprinting carved out of teakwood are made inPethapur in Mehsana district of Gujarat.

Assam being thickly forested has an ancienttradition of woodwork. The state is known fora special type of wooden house called namgharor Kritanghar, besides producing finely carvedchests for storing everything from ornaments ofvessels.

Painting on Wood

Painted door have been a distinctive hallmark of Rajasthan. In the village of Bassi itemsmeant for rituals are gaily painted with theGangaur figures. Andhra Pradesh has woodenboxes, containing village deities, finely decoratedwith paintings in folk style using mainly red,blue and yellow colors. Fine specimens of paintingon wood can be seen in some of the Keralachurches which, rich in wood-carvings, areoften embellished by appropriate colors. Aspecial technique in metal plating has beenevolved whereby thin sheets of gold and silverare so applied that the entire piece appears asif it were made of these precious metals Bestexamples of this are seen in Gujarat in theVaishnava temple or Jain households.

Ahmedabad has craftsmen versed in thistechnique.

Lac Turnery

This craft is essentially Indian. Lac is ananimal resin which is applied on to wood in drystate due to heat generated by friction. Thelathe-turner, found almost all over India,prepares on this lathe: toys, boxes, bed-posts,hukkah mouth-pieces, etc. In etched lac work,the object is coated with first one colour, thenon the top of second, a third or a fourth,uniformly all over. Then with a fine chisel orstyles the lac coated surface is scratched, thehand being made to move lightly or to pressheavily as may be necessary to bring out thecolour required from the numerous layersbeneath the surface. Ferozepur, Jaipur andHoshiarpur are the famous centres of this craft.

Bighar and Orissa too have a distinct typeof lacquering with their own designs and colourschemes. The lac articles in Bihar have ritualisticvalue e.g. during the marriage the vermillioncontainer has to be of lac. The community thatmakes these containers is called laheri.

Ivory

Caning, painting and staining ivory is ahighly value art of India. In India the craft hasconfined itself only to the tusks of elephants.Most of the ivory has to be imported from Africawhich are considered closer in texture. In Indiaivory is used for as number of purposes fromsacred images to dies. There is a record of evenan ivory workers guild in Vidisha in MadhyaPradesh.

Delhi is one of the main centres for ivorycarving. Popular items are chess sets, billiardballs, mathematical scales and small articles likescent bottles, compact cases, paper knives, salt-papper cellars, book-marks, trinket or pan boxes,and a number of jewelry items.

Kerala has become the renowned centre forivory carving. The noted items is statues,especially the medium sized figures, designed insuper dignity, and such perfect form that theyare a delight to look at no matter from whichangle you view.

Indian Culture 41

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Cane and Bamboo

The North Eastern states of Manipur,Meghalaya, Arunachal and Nagaland areendowed with rich natural wealth of cane andbamboo. In most of these areas almost anythingthat might be required for daily life-fromdwellings to utensils and ornaments -can bemanufactured from these materials. A hoard ofbaskets, mats, screens, fish-traps, bags, boxes,hat, trays, umbrellas are made from fine chipsof bamboo.

The finest and most delicate bamboo fibreproducts appear to be creations on canvas.Bihar is greatly noted for its bamboo work. Canefurniture is durable as also decorative anddignified, and even a few pieces lend fullness toa room. Low seats called mooras are made ofbamboo and cane, the top being woven inartistic designs. They are major item of exportand made all over the country. Assam is wellknown for its canwork. Uttar Pradesh alsoproduces articles made of canes.

Puppetry

There are many types of puppets in India.Those in practice today are string, rod, gloveand shadow. String puppets are found in AndhraPradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Tamil Nadu,Karnataka; rod puppets in Bengal; and glovepuppets in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Indianpuppets have a wide range of variety as theydiffer in form and colour from place to place.

Karnataka has a very special bombeyatta(doll show) based on the popular folk musicdrums called yakshgana. The puppet figureshave ball and socket joint to facilitate movements.These are shaped out of light wood capable ofsmooth surfacing. The wooden frame has joistat the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.

Tamil Nadu has a well known tradition inmarionettes known as bomalatta. The techniquecombines the string and the rod puppets. Oneof the specialties of this bomalatta is their dancepieces which the puppets perform beautifully.

The play of wooden puppets in AndhraPradesh is called Koyabommalata,Kathaibommalata, Keelubommalata, according

to each regional dialect. The marionettes arestring -manipulated.

The marionettes of Rajasthan known asKathputli are among the liveliest. The traditionalpuppeteers were known as bhatts. The puppetsare of small size. Normally the puppets have nolegs. Music is provided by the women in thefamily members, who sing to the accompanimentof the dholak. The themes are taken fromRajasthani historical tales or local legends.

Revival and Development

To give a new lease of life to the dwindlinghandicrafts situation in the country theGovernment of India set up the All IndiaHandicrafts Board in 1952. Regional DesignDevelopment Centers were set up by StateHandicrafts and Handlooms DevelopmentCorporations. The Crafts Museum, whichfunctions under the office of the DevelopmentCommissioner (Handicrafts), has a collection of1500 representative samples of the glorioustraditions of Indian crafts.

Glossary of Folk Arts and Crafts

Aftaba: Sprouted wine dispenser with longneck.

Ajrakh: printed cloth of Kutch and Rajasthan.

Aksi: Embroidery of Kashmir.

Alpana: Floor decoration especially in Bengal.

Angarakha: Coat like garment of men innorth India, tied at sides.

Aripana: Floor decoration of Bihar.

Bagh: embroidery of silk on cotton in Punjab.

Bichua: Toe rings.

Chandrahaar: moon necklace.

Change: rice beer of Arunachal Pradesh.

Chembu: water vessel.

Chhalnis: Umbrella of royal stature.

Chuda: Ivory Bangles.

Gaji: silk satin.

Gajra: jasmine flower bracelet.

Gulbanda: neck collar.

42 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Hasli: Solid silver collar.

Hathphool: hand ornament.

Jajam: Floor spread of printed cotton.

Jama: Coat of men.

Jhumka: earrings.

Joshan: armlets.

Kagazi: Pottery like paper of Alwar.

Kalamkari: cloth printed with use of dyes.

Kanat: wall cloth.

Kanjari: Backless choli worn in Kutch.

Kara: Bangle worn at the wrist.

Karanphool: a heavy earring or jhumka.

Lavang: a small nose-stud like clove.

Lugdha: Printed sari.

Mandana: Floor decoration of Rajasthan.

Mashru: Mixed cloth of silk and cotton.

Maurpankhi: nose ring of Orissa and alsoivory carved boats of Bengal

Mehrab: Arch

Meenakari: enamel work on Gold; inlay ofdifferent colors in woven fabrics.

Nath: Nose ring.

Nishka: A gold coin necklace.

Paizeb: Anklets.

Pashmina: Soft wool of mountain Goats.

Rangoli: Decorative floor of Gujarat andMaharashtra.

Shahtoosh: Finest shawl woven from theunder hair of a mountain goat.

Sujani: Quilted and patterned spread madefrom threadbare cloth in North Bihar.

Tarkashi: Metal wire inlay.

Thalli: black bead and Gold necklace wornas sign of marriage.

Toran: decoration for the door in Gujarat.

Zari: Gold thread.

���

Indian Culture 43

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The contemporary Indian classical danceforms which are governed by elaboratetechnique and stylized system of both puremovement and "mime" have had their origin inthe dances of the common people.

Five dance styles are known as classical orart dance on account of a sophisticated degreeof stylization. The history of these forms can betraced backward beyond two hundred,sometimes three hundred years. Each has a linkwith the literature, sculptural and musicaltraditions of the ancient and medieval period ofIndia and the particular region. They all adhereto the principles enunciated by Bharata, namelyof the division of dance into nritta (pure ofabstract dance), nritya (dance with mime), oftandava and lasya of stylized presentation(natyadharmi). However, the technique ofmovement is distinctive, with a definitestylization. Each follows a different set of rulesfor the articulation of movement.

• Bharatnatyam

Bharatnatyam developed in south Indiaparticularly in Tamilnadu in its present formabout two hundred years ago. While its posesare reminiscent of sculptures of the 10th centuryonwards, the thematic and musical content wasgiven to it by the musicians of Tanjore courts ofthe 18th -19th centuries. It is essentially a solodance and had close affinities with the traditionaldance-drama form called Bhagvata Melaperformed only by women. Nonetheless, itschiseled sophistication and stylization make it aunique form of art-dance.

• Kathakali

Kathakali from Kerala is classical dancedrama. Unlike the others, it is dramatic ratherthan narrative in character. Different roles aretaken by different characters; the dancers are allmen or were so, till recently. It takes epic

mythological themes as its contents, and portraysthem through an elaborate dramatic spectaclewhich is characterized by an other-worldlyquality, a supernatural grandeur, a stylizedlarge size costume to give the impression ofenlarging human proportions, and a mask likemake up on the face which is governed bycomplex symbolism of colour, line and design.

Character types, such as heroes, anti-heroes,villains, demons, sages, kings, all have aprescribed makeup and costume to give theimpression of co-relating basic e.g. green withgood, red with valor and ferocity, black withevil or primitiveness, white with purity, and soon.

Why is it not a drama?

Within the framework of drama withdramatic personage, Kathakali is dance-dramaand not drama, because the actors do not speaktheir lines. The dramatic story is carried forwardthrough a highly evolved vocabulary of bodymovements, hand gestures and eye and eye-ballmovements. The vocalist recites, narrates, andsings the lines of the dramatic piece; the actoron the stage portrays the meaning through thiselaborate language where he has freedom toimprovise and interpret the dramatic line. Hemakes departures and deviations freely like thedancer of any other styles. Also like the dancesof the other styles, the mime (abhinaya) isinterspersed with pure dance sequences (nritta).

• Kuchi Pudi

It is a form of classical dance popular inAndhra Pradesh. It was a dance-dramaperformed by the Brahmins in the temple. It wasconfined to males. Sidhendra yogi, in the 14thcentury revived this form of dance. He composedthe Bhama Kalpam. The efforts of LaxmiNarayan Shastri and Vedantam Satya Narayanresulted in bringing in females to participate in

DANCESCHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

44 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

this dance form. Carnatic music forms thebackground in this dance. The dance has lasyaand tandav elements and is a mixture of folkand classical from. Of late flute, violin, manjirasare being used in this dance. The main modernexponents of this dance are Raja and RadhaReddy, Chinta Krishnamurti, YaminiKrishnamuriti, Swapna Sundari, Shobha Naidu,Pashumarti vithal etc. a famous aspect of thedance is that the dance is performed with thefeet kept on brass plate and also dancers drawingpictures on the floor with their toes.

• Mohiniattam

Mohiniattam is one of the distinctive classicaldance styles of India. It originated in Kerala andthe movements of Mohiniattam evoke in one'smind the ethereal splendor of Kerala with itslush venture, lagoons, the purple hills and aland kissed by the foams of turquoise sea waters.This form had almost become extinct when itwas revived by poet Vallathola Narayana Menonin early 19th century. Since then, dancers havestriven to reclaim the lost repertoire ofMohiniattam. The main features of Mohiniattamare its exquisite feminine charm and its gracefulswaying movements. It is a solo dance performedby women only.

• Kathak

Kathak, from north India, is an urbansophisticated style full of virtuosity and intricatecraftsmanship. Commonly identified with thecourt traditions of the later Nawabs of northernIndia, it is really an amalgam of several folktraditions. Its origins are old, its present formatnew, attributed to the genius of Nawab WajidAli Shah and the hereditary musical dancer,Pandit Thakur Prasadji. The contemporaryrepertoire was evolved by a few families oftraditional dancers; during the last hundredyears. Birju Maharaj is the greatest livingexponent of this dance form.

• Manipuri

Manipuri is a lyrical dance form from theeastern region of India. Although many forms ofritual, magical, community and religious dancewere known to Manipur before the advent ofVaishnava faith in the 18th century, the dances

known as the Rasa dances evolved only as aresult of the interaction of the Vaishnava faith.

The origin of the Rasa dances is attributedto the vision of a king. Be that as it may, fivedifferent types of ballets, with a well-conceivedstructuring of Corps de ballet, solo pas de deuxrevolving round the theme of Radha-Krishnaand the Gopis (milk maids) comprise the largepart of the classical repertoire.

The second group of the classical dances isknown as the Sankritanas, performed generallyby men with typical Manipur drums calledpung or cymbals (Kartals) or clapping. At largevariety of intricate rhythmic patterns is playedon the drum and the cymbals. The NataSankritana often precedes the Rasa.

• Odissi

Odissi is a close parallel of Bharatnatyam. Itdeveloped from the musical play and the dancesof gymnasiums known as the akharas. Sculpturalevidence relating to the dance goes to thesecond century B.C. From the 12th centuryonwards there are inscriptions/manuscripts andother records which speak of the prevalence ofdance styles of ritual dances of temples andentertainments of the village squares. A 12thcentury poetic work called Gita Govinda hasdominated the poetic and musical content of thedance styles. The dance was performed bywomen called maharis in the temple of

Indian Classical Dances

Indian Culture 45

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Jagannath. Later, men dressed as women, calledgotipuras, performed these dances in thecourtyard of the temple. The present Odissi isa solo form evolved out of all the above. It hasbeen revived during the last two decades. SonalMansingh is the greatest living exponent of thisdance form.

Folk Dances of India

There is not a region, a valley or mountain,a sea-coast or a plain, which does not have itscharacteristic folk dances and songs. Roughlyspeaking, depending on the level of social andcultural development, these dances can begrouped under the three categories of tribal,village folk and traditional ritual dances.

A tribal belt runs through all parts of India,be it the Himalayas from the north to the east,or the plains and marshlands or the sea-coasts.All these varied groups comprising many racialand ethnic strands ranging from the Austric tothe Mongoloid, from the Aryans to theDravidians, are people who represent the pre-agricultural state of civilization. While most ofthem, have taken to agriculture and toolcultivation today, their dances and musiccontinue to recall the functions of hunting,fishing, food gathering and animal husbandry.

• Dances of the Plains

The richest amongst these are the dances ofthe Ho's and Oraons of Jharkhand, the Mariasof Bastar and the Santhals of Bengal. Kaksar isa typical festival dance performed by theAbhujmarias before reaping a harvest. Theinstruments used are dhol (cylindrical drum),timiki (bowl-shaped percussion instrument) andbansuri (a kind of flute).

Close to the lush marshland of MadhyaPradesh and yet very different, are the tribes ofJharkhand. Amongst these the Ho's and Oraonsare rightly famous for their vigor and vivacity.Dance and rhythm runs through the veins ofthe Oraons of Jharkhand. Men and women viewith each other in creating choreographicalpatterns of extreme complexity and intricacy.Jadur and Karma dancers of the Oraons celebrate

a series of festivals, which start in March andend in June. All these dances are essentiallyharvest dances meant as a prayer for thebetterment of the crop. These dances are also anabstraction of the everyday agriculturaloperations of the people. The dancers are usuallygraceful and the dances have a very well definedstructure. The musical instruments consist ofnagara (bowl-shaped drum), kartal (clappers).The leader hold a staff of peacock feathers andthe drummers (medal players) join the dance atvarious points.

• Himalayan Dances

From the northern Himalayas region comemany dances which belong to the villagecommunities. Himachal and Uttarakhand arethe home of many interesting and colourfuldances. The popular favourites come fromJaunsa Bawar in Uttarakhand. The festival oflights called Diwali is celebrated throughoutIndia at the end of autumn. On a dark nightlight are lit and presents are exchanged. This isalso the time for the home-coming of marriedwomen. The dance begins with semi-circularformations: it breaks into single files of men andwomen. The song which accompanies is usuallyset as questions and answers. With glidingmovements, graceful knee dips, the danceprogresses, until one or two amongst the womenproceed to the centre to rotate dishes on theirfingers or sometimes pitcher full of water turnedupside down over their heads. So perfect is thebalance that not a drop of water trickles out ofthe pitchers.

The musical instruments resemble those usedby the dancers of Himachal Pradesh, comprisingnarshingha (a large trumped), brass bells, barrelshaped percussion instruments and bowl-shapeddrums.

Description of some Folk Dances

• 'Bhangra' of Punjab

In the Punjab, a virile agricultural dancecalled the Bhangra is popular and is closelylinked with the ritual importance which is givento wheat. After the wheat crop is sown, the

46 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

young men gather together in an open filedunder the light of the full moon. The dancersbegin to move in a circle, so that as many newcomers who wish to join can do so withoutbreaking its continuity. The circle goes onwidening until a large open circle is formedwith the drummer as the leader.

• Bihu

It is a Folk dance of Assam. Its ancient formis traced to the tradition of the Aranyaka dance.The kachari and Kacchari tribes perform thisdance, thrice each year.1. Bohag bihu: This dance is performed to

mark the first day of the New Year.2. Magha Bihu: When the paddy ripes, this dance

is performed to symbolize joy and prosperity.3. Baisakh bihu: This dance is performed in

baisakh. It is purely performed for joy andhas no religious connotation.

• Pandvani

It is a folk dance of Chhattisgarh in MadhyaPradesh. It is a solo dance where the performerholds an Ektara and sings with body movements.The dance is linked to the story of the pandavas.The performer sings and acts to tell the story ofthe pandavas. This dance has two forms i.e.vedamati and kupalika. Tijan bai, Ritu verma,Jhaderam Devangan, Gulabdas Manikpuri aresome of its modern exponents.

• Videsia

It is a folk dance of the Bhojpuri speakingareas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The dancewas invented by one Bikhari Thakur. In moderntimes, this dance has taken the form of drama.It is presented through song and dance. Themain purpose besides entertainment is to createawareness against social evils.

• Chhau

It is war dance of the tribes of Bihar, Bengaland Orissa. There are three famous school of thisdance namely saraikela, purrulia and Mayurbhanj.Basically, it is a male dance. The themes of thisdance include epics and incidents from ancienttexts. Except in the Mayurbhanj School, the dancerswear a mask moulded from mud. It is ceremoniallyperformed during the sun festival.

Modern Dances

Understandably, the confrontation of thecomparatively dramatic styles such as Manipuri,Kathakali and folk forms with western influencesproduced a new form of dance in the 20thcentury which has been loosely termed asModern dance. Uday Shankar, its founder, hadmet and danced with Anna Pavlova when hewas himself unacquainted with the Indiantradition. Later he returned to India to create,to recreate, revive and to break away from theset norms of the tradition. While he borrowedfreely and successfully from all styles, what hecreated was his own, unrestricted to anytraditional mannerism, unbound to the metericalcycle and the word- mime relationship.Contemporary themes, labour and machinery,the daily rhythm of life were chosen in additionto myth and legend. Unlike traditional schoolsdance was composed first, music accompanied.It did not govern. Gradually a whole schoolgrew up as the Uday Shankar School of Dance.

Most modern choreographers belong to thisschool: the most talented amongst these wasShanti Bardhan (died 1952), the creator of tworemarkable ballets called Ramayana andPanchatantra. In each, while the theme wasold, the conception and treatment was totallynew. In one the format is that of a puppet playpresented by humans in the other typicalmovements of birds and animals.

Chandralekha is India's most talentediconoclast, original choreographer and radicalthinker. She welds martial arts movement intoa dance that even as it is focused on the body,it seems to transcend it and unlock the gatewayto an inner space of great beauty. Chandralekhahas used Bharat Natyam dancers back to back,that too a male and a female in movementssymbolic with the yoni and the lingum. Thenotable productions are Navagraha Angika,Lilavati, Shree, Prana and Bhinne Pravaha.

All this shows that these development didnot leave the traditional dancers unaffected.Without departing from the norms of theparticular stylization, dance-dramas (sometimescalled ballets in India) have been created inpractically all styles including Bharatnatyam,Manipuri, Kathak, Kuchipudi and Odissi. TheThemes continue to be rooted in the tradition forthe most part. But there are refreshing departuresand innovation.

���

Indian Culture 47

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

INDIAN MUSICCHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Raga

Raga may not be the earliest form of melody.The earliest melodies can be traced in the tribaland folk music. The simple tunes of these peoplein the course of times, after much polishing andformalization, became ragas.

Matanga (6th-8th centuries) deals with ragasin his work Brihaddesi. He opined that noclassical melody could be composed with lessthan five notes. At that time less than five noteswere used in tribal music. Thus a process ofdramatization of folk and tribal music started in5th century A.D.

The earliest forms of music with a grammarwere:

1. Margi Sangeeta

2. Gandharva Sangeeta

3. Desi Sangeeta

Samaveda, the sung version of Vedas, waschanted in a descending progression. Thisecclesiastical melody was known as margisangeeta.

Gandharva Sangeeta was a highlygrammatised music. It was an upa-veda. Thisform of music has been described in Ramayana,Mahabharata, Puranas and Budhist and Jaintexts. Desi Sangeeta was not that strict as far asthe grammar was concerned. The nature of themusic varied from regions to region, hence theword desi.

Characteristics of Raga

A minimum number of five notes arenecessary to gain the status of raga. The upperlimit is seven. In Hindustani music nine notesare quite common. But in carnatic music morethan seven notes are rare.

It is usual to attribute a particular seasonand time to ragas. Some of the importantseasonal ragas are Vasant and Malhar. The firstis of the spring and the second is of rains.

A Hindustani raga has been ascribed to thewatch of the day. The day is divided into eightpraharas, each of three hours. Lalit is sung inthe early moring. Poorvi is sung during dusk.

A few ragas (usually six) have become themajor ones, each with a few wives (raginis). Theraga becomes a nayaka (hero) and the ragini anayika (heroine).

Jatis

Jatis were the precursers of ragas. A jati wasdefined by ten rules or gramma. The scale towhich a Jati could be ascribed was called themoorchana. This system seems to have been inpractice from about 600 B.C. Amsa was themost important note in Jati.

Tala

Tala is a rhythmic arrangement of beats ina cyclic manner. Each cycle is complete in itselfand is repetitive. The cycle is divided intosections which may or may not be equal. It isformed by the addition of time units in a definedmanner. The closed or cycled arrangementdifferentiates tala from rhythm. According toancient texts there are hundred and eight talas.

The more common talas now in vogue are:

Carnatic

1. Adi Tala

2. Jhampatala

3. Roopaka Tala

4. Misra Champu Tala

5. Khanda Chapu tala

48 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Hindustani1. Keharuva2. Dadra3. Deepchandi4. Chautal (used in dhrupad and dhamar)5. Dhamar6. Roopak7. Jhaptal8. Ektal9. Jhumra

10. Trital11. Tilvada

The breakdown of the ‘up and down’movement yields the ‘notes’ (swaras) and aseries of swaras arranged in a certain orderwithin certain limits is a scale (saptaka, grama,mela). The interval between the ‘repetitive’pitches is called an octave or in Indianterminology ‘saptak’. The word octave is usedbecause the eighth note is a ‘repetition’ of thefirst. The saptak signifies that there are sevensteps within the span of an octave. The rangeof an octave is known as sthayi.

Swara Expansion Meaning Animal Chakra God

Sa Shadja Sagar Peacock Muladhara Ganapati

[base of spine]

Re Rishabha Bull Bull/Skylark Swadhisthana Agni

(genitals)

Ga Gandhara Gagan Goat Manipura Rudra

(solar plexus

Rudra and navel)

Ma Madhyama Middle Dove/Heron Anahata Vishnu

(Heart)

Pa Panchama Fifth Cuckoo/Nightingale Vishuddha Naarada

(Throat)

Dha Dhaivata Dharti Horse Ajna (third eye) Sadashiva

Ni Nishada Hunter Elephant Sahasrara Surya

The ancient Vedic scale was described interms of the profane (flute) scale as early as thefirst century A.D. by Narada. The followingtable gives the scale in current terminology:

Forms of Indian Music

Musicians in India can invent numerousmusical structures with a raga and tala. Thesestructures can either be closed or open. Closedones are called nibaddha. Open ones are calledanibaddha. Nibaddha follows tala and haswords- meaningful or meaningless- and definiteparts with preset beginning and end or in otherwords one can call it a “composition”. Anibaddhaon the contrary may not follow tala and maybe devoid of words.

Anibaddha Forms

Alapa: Alapa is the most importantanibaddha music. Whether a musician is adroitin his art or not is tested through his alapa.Alapa, the most elaborate and most delicatepresentation of raga, demands much patienceand sentitivity in rendering. In Karnatak music,Alapa always precedes the composition. In caseof Hindustani music it may or may not precedethe composition.

Tans: Tands, like alapa, is anibaddha asthey are not pre-composed. In Hindustani music,particularly in instrumental music, they aretermed as plats.

Neraval: In Karnatak music, the bole tanhas its equivalent – the neraval. The difference

Indian Culture 49

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

between the two being that a bole tan can beplaced anywhere in a composition whereasneraval is placed at certain recognized sectionsof the song.

Sangati: It resembles with neraval. Tyagarajais the inventrr of this technique. The sangati isslight variation of a phrase of song which ispreconceived. Neraval or the bole tan is extensive.It doesn’t exist in the north.

Sargam: The Sargam is a word formed ofsyllables Sa-Re-Ga-Ma in Hindustani Music. InCarnatic music it is Kalpana Swara. It is alsofree rendering and practiced more often inCarnatic music.

Jode and Jhala: These are confined toinstrumental music. The Jode is a rendition,without tala, or the raga in a medium tempo.It always follows the alapa. Jhala is faster.

Tanam: It is found in Karnatak music andis similar to jode. It is not as wider in its melodicrange and movement as jode.

Alapa, Jode and Tanam always precede theclosed form or composition. Tan, neraval andbode tan etc. form the parts of melodicimprovisation of a composition. These are notindependent like the former group, as they areassociated with the variations of the raga themein a song. One may then argue they are closedforms. But being not pre-composed nor set totala we place them in the category of ‘free’ or‘open’ class. They are essential part of musicaljugalbandi.

Nibaddha Forms

Prabandha: It is one of the earliest formalstructures. This form of ‘composition’ waspopular till about the middle age. But today, theword prabandha means any song and not aparticular type. Jayadeva, a mystic poet and thecourt-poet of Raja Lakshamana Sena, is famousfor his prabandhas. He wrote Geet Govinda, amusical rendering of the love play of LordKrishna.

Geeta Govinda: It is an ‘opera’ organizedinto twelve chapters. Each chapter is furthersub-divided into twenty four divisions calledPrabandhas. The prabandhas contain coupletsgrouped into eights, called Ashtapadis. The

astapadi has eight (asta) sections or feet (pada).Each section is set in a raga and a tala, perhapsthe first work where these are mentioned. Fromthe 15th century onwards the Geeta Govindawas the only music performed in Jagannathtemple at Puri; it became popular all over Indianand caught fancy of fancers and painters. Theliterary structure is simple. It is amenable to anystyle of music. It was one of the finest productsof Bhakti movements.

Dhrupad: It is one of the early types that arestill surviving. The older ones were known asdhruva prabandhas. Raja Mansingh Tomar ofGwalior and Akbar were great patrons. The15th and 16th centuries witnessed the finestsingers of dhrupad.

The style is characterized by masculinity innature as these are rendered in ragas only andnot raginis. The rendition is less grave in melodicprogression. Great stress is laid on rhythmicvariations. It is one of the most serene and soberforms of music.

Dhamar is always associated with dhrupad.Approach and technique are same; the twodiffer on the use of gamaka. There is greaterfreedom in gamaka in Dhamar.

Exponents: The most famous are SvamiHaridas and Tansen. Svami Haridas lived at theend of the fifteenth century. He was basically abhakti singer and sang of Kunj Bihari, the Lordof Brindavan and his love, Radha. He hashundred compositions to his credit. Baiju andTansen are believed to be his shishyas. Pt. Jasrajis the greatest living exponent of this style.

Tansen lived in Gwalior in 16th century. Hisoriginal name was Tanna Misra. He is creditedwith new ragas such as Darbari Kanada, Miyanki Malhar, Miyan ki Todi. He wrote three books:Sri Ganesh-stotra, Sangeet Sar and Raga mala.

Khayal: The word Khayal is Persian. Itsmeaning is ‘imagination’. Amir Khusrau (13thcentury) is said to be the inventor of khayal. Itis the most popular form of vocal music in northIndia. Two types of Khayal are in vogue thebada (large) and the chhota) small.

A Khayal can be divided into two sections:the asthayi (sthayi) and antara. Khayal isromantic and delicate. In technique and structureit has certain freedom not found in the dhrupad.

50 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

It is due to the efforts of Sultan MohammadSharqui (18th century) that the Khayal came inprominence and became accepted as ‘classical’from the time of Sadarang Nyamat Khan (18thcentury). The most prominent gharanas ofKheyal are four: Gwalior, Agra, Jaipur andKirana. The first is the oldest and is alsoconsidered the ‘mother’ of all other gharanas.

Thumri: It is a closed form and a way ofsinging, very popular in the north. It is a verylight form, extremely lyrical. The sentiment isusually erotic; dealing with emotion of love andromance. The word of the song and how it isexpressed through musical modulations aremore important than the grammar of the raga.Ragas like Kagi, Khamaj, Peelu and Bhairaviand the common favourites of thumri singers.Poorab style of singing is popular in Varanasiand Lucknow. Punjab style of singing is moremercurial and can be heard in and aroundPunjab.

This form is associated with Radha Krisnabhakti cult. It forms an important form ofKathak dance. Thumri was extremely popularin 19th century with its centre at Lucknow.Wajjid Ali Shah was a composer of fine thumris.The song Babul mora in Bhairavi raga is said tohave been created by him on the eve of hisdeparture from Lucknow. The other school ofVaranasi borrows much from folk forms likeChaiti and Kajri.

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, who is alsoconsidered as greatest classical singer recorded,was great exponent of this style. Presently Pt.Channu Lal Mishra and Shobha Gutru areconsidered greatest living exponent of this styleof gayaki.

Tappa: It is a type of singing supposed to havegrown from the songs of the camel drivers ofNorth-West India. It is romantic in content withvery quick cascades and cadences. The ragas areof lighter type-Kafi, Bhairavi and such others.

Tarana: It is a form which has no meaningfulword. Sthayi and antara are there. Its librettois made of syllables like nadir, tome, tarana,yalai without any semantic reference. It isgenerally accepted that these syllables aremnemonies of tabla and sitar strokes.

Light Classical Music

Gazal: The origin is Persian. The themesrevolve around ‘love’. These are generallycomposed of 5-13 couplete (shere) which areindependent. Same melodic theme is applied toall the couplets for a particular Gazalcomposition. Some of the famous exponents areMaster Nadan, Begum Akhtar. Mehdi HassanGulam Ali, Jagjit Singh, Anup Jalota, PankajUdhas and Talat Aziz.

Qawwali: This is a devotional song sung ina group, but with a solo voice against a chorus.It was developed by Amir Khusro for his teacherHazrat Nizzamuddin. Due to international fameits greatest exponent Ustad Nusrat Fateh AliKhan this musical style has achieved worldfame. Today his nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan,Sabri Brothers and Wadali brothers areconsidered greatest qawwali singers.

Soofiana Kalam: This is highly grammaticaland has well set rhythmic structure. This formis popular in northwest India (present dayAfghanistan, Pakistan, Indian Punjab, Kashmirand Rajasthan). Most famous kalams werewritten in Panjabi. Heer is most famous Kalamwritten by sufi saint Warris Shah, apart fromhim Bulle shah’s Kafis are still sung by sufistoday.

Keertan: It literally means ‘to sing the praisesof’ is a typically Vashnavaite congregationalsinging of Bengal. Starting from ChaitanyaMahaprabhu (1485-1533) it blossomed out intomany varieties. Today the legacy still survives inform of Baul music in Bengal region of India andBangladesh.

Rabindra Sangeet: Rabindranath Tagoreused Indian ragas and talas from Indian classicalmusic. He was also influenced by western music.He created various mixed ragas (mixed) likeBhairava-Bhairavi; Darbari Todi-Bhairavi andcreated new talas such as Navami and Roopaka.

Bhajan: Bhajans are sung throughout thenorth in the praise of the Lord. Narsi Mehta ofGujarat, Meera, the Princess of Mewad, Kabir,Tulsidas were the chief exponents. It is mostpopular form of devotional music amongHindus.

Indian Culture 51

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Gharanas

The word Gharana has its root in the Hindiword Ghar (from the Sanskrit Word grah). It isan abstract noun of ghar meaning ‘of thehouse’. Right from the earliest times, there havealways been different schools of music in ourcountry. After Akbar, music did not occupy theplace of importance, and gifted musicians allover north Indian were absorbed into differentnative states. The rulers of these states weregenerally averse to their musicians travelling toother states. This isolation produced a kind ofmusical conferment. The enforced isolation gavethe musicians no alternative method but tovigorously practice whatever they knew and todevelop even greater refinement and subtlety.In the present age of easy movement from placeof place, the abolition of princely states, thegeneral tendency towards abandoning allbarriers or limitations, and the facilities of radioand television, the modern generation ofmusicians cannot remain tied to any particulargharana. Today, we have an integrated, eclecticstyle of music.

Qawwal Bache Gharana: This gharana issaid to be the first of its kind in the stylizationand dissemination of Khyal and Khyal gayaki.The famous exponents were Savant and Bula(brothers), Shakkar Khan, Bada MohammadKhan and his three brothers and sons -all wereexponents of Khayal. The thirds son, MubarkaAli Khan, had the greatest success and learntthe most from his father. Another musician wasSadiq Ali Khan who lived in the time of NawabWajid Ali Shah of Lucknow

Atrauli Gharana: Atrauli is a village aboutfifty miles from Aligarh in western UttarPradesh. This Gharana was founded by twobrothers Kali Khan and Chand Khan. TheGharana is famous for its Dhrupada School, butKhayal singing is the latest fad.

Dullu Khan and Chhajju Khan were twoDhrupada singers who sang Gauhar Bani. Otherexponents are Husain Khan, Shahab Khan,Ghulam Ghaus Khan, Zahoor Khan, Imam Bux,Ajmat Hussain Khan, Ustad Alladiya Khan,Haidar Khan, Bashir Khan, Burji Khan, etc.

Ustand Alladiya Khan is the brightest jewel ofthis Gharana. Kishori Amonkar is the onlydaughter of the famous singer Mogubai Kurdikarof Bombay. She is one of the most gifted singersamong women today in the north.

Gwalior Gharana: This gharana originatedfrom Abdullah Khan and Kadir Baksh Khan,who were brothers. They were reputed singersof Khyals. After that came the two sons of KadirBaksh-nathan Khan and Pir Bux. The twobrothers settled down permanently in Gwaliorand trained their sons Haddu Khan. Otherexponents are Pandit Vishnu DigambarPaluskar, Anant Manohar Joshi, Ingle Bua,Anna Bua, Mehdi Hussain Khan, Onkar NathThakur, Vanayanrao Vyas, B.R. Deodhar andothers. Gravity and sobriety are importantfeatures of this Gharana.

Agra Gharana: Agra Gharana, it is believed,had two branches the first sprang from Syamrangand Sarasarang and the other from ImdadKhan. The school of Imdad Khan gravitatedtowards light music. The other branch of theAgra Gharana, which began from Imdad Khan,faded away in the early part of the century.Moreover, many of the musicians of this branch,despite good training in Khayal, took a greaterliking for Thumri, Dadra and other lightervarieties. For instance, after Imdad Khan andHamid Khan, Pyar Khan, Latif Khan, MahmudKhan and Raja Hussain were all known primarilyas Thumari singers.

Saharanpur Gharana: This Gharana isbelieved to have begun from Khalifa MohammadZama, who was a well-known Sufi. After him,there were several great musicians in thisgharana. Bande Ali Khan, the famous veenaplayer, Bahram Khan, Zakruddin Khan andAllabande Khan, Nasiruddin and NasirAminuddin Dagar, and Nasir Zahiruddin andNasir Faizuddin Dagar (Younger brothers) weresome of the reputed musicians who kept thisstyle in prominence. This gharana specialized inalapa Hori, and Dhrupada.

Sahasvan Gharana: This Gharana is anoffshoot of the Gwalior Gharana. It began withInayat Hussian Khan, the son-in-law of DadduKhan of Gwalior. Of the several musicians of

52 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

this gharana, four have been outstanding: InayatHussain Khan, Haidar Khan, Mushtaq HussainKhan and Nisar Hussain Khan. Its gayaki isakin to Gwalior gayaki.

Delhi Gharana: This gharana traces itsorigin to Tansen but, according to some, thiswas founded by Miyan Achpal in the 19thcentury. Some other great musicians of theGharana were Sadiq Khan, Murad Khan,Bahadur Khan, Dilwar Khan, Mir Nasir Ahmed,Panna Lal Gosayin, Noor Khan, Vazir Khan,Ali Bakesh Khan, Mohammed Siddiqis Khanand Nisar Ahmad Khan.

Fatehpur Sikri Gharana: It did not becomea well known gharana. It claims its origin fromthe time of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Thisgharana is said to have started with two brothers,Zainu Khan and Zorawar Khan, who weregreat Dhrupada and Khayal singers. After thesetwo brothers Dulhe Khan was a very goodmusician. Other great names are Chhote Khan,Ghulam Rasul Khan and Madar Bux andSayyad Khan. Most of the singer followed thedhrupada style.

Khurja Gharana: This gharana began in the18th century with Nathan Khan and his sonJodhoo Khan. Imam Khan was the son ofJodhoo Khan. He was followed by his sonGhulam Hussain. Zahur Khan and GhulamHaidar Khan, son of Ghulam Hussain continuedthe traditions of this gharana. The last of theustads in this gharana was Ustad Altaf HussainKhan.

Jaipur Gharana: This gharana is nearly 160years old. The most famous exponent was RajabAli Khan. Other greats were Sawal KhanMushraf Khan, Mujahid Ali Khan, Sadiq AliKhan, Jamaluddin Khan, Shamsuddin Ali Khan,Abid Hussain, Amir Bux, Muhammad Ali Khanand Ashiq Ali Khan.

Bhendi Bazaar Gharana: Famous ustadsare Nazir Khan, Ghajju Khan and Aman AliKhan. Shivkumar Shukla and Ramesh Nadkarniare the pupils of Aman Ali Khan. The mostsignificant characteristic of this gharana is thatit specializes in Madhyalaya Khayal. Theexponents of this gharana seldom sing VilambitKhayals.

Kirana Gharana: This gharana claims itsorigin from the famous binkar Ustad Bande AliKhan. It was recognized after Ustad AbdulWahid Khan and Ustad Abdul Karim Khanclaimed to belong to it. Other exponents areSuresh Babu Mane, Swami Gandharva,Gangubai Hangal, Giranbai Barodekar, SarasvatiRane, Bhimsen Joshi, Feroz Dastur, ShakurKhan and Pran Nath. This gharana specializesin singing the swara as accurately as possible.

Rampur Gharana: This gharana is also anoffshoot of the Gwalior Gharana. It was foundedby Ustad Wazir Khan. Other exponents wereInayat Hussain Khan, Bahadur Hussain andMohammad Ali. The contemporary exponentsare/were Ishitiaq Hussain Khan, Nisar HussainKhan and Ghulam Mustafa. The main featuresof the gharana are similar to those of Gwaliorwith the difference that there is specializationin taranas.

Carnatic Music

The word ‘Carnatic’ was coined byVidyaranya in the fifteenth century. He servedVijayanagar Kingdom as prime minister.However, Carnatic denotes south Indian musicdistinct from the Hindustani music.

This form of music has been influencedgreatly by the old Dravidian (Tamil) music. Astudy of the Structure of its present forms (Kriti,Kirtanam, Varnam, Padam, Javali) makes itamply clear that this music is maintaining theancient traditions of the prabandhas more closelyand rigidly than Hindustani music.

The rigid fidelity to the composition inevitablyinhibits improvisation. These are more precise inthe rhythmic patterns and elaboration on Talain Carnatic music than there is in Hindustanimusic. This result in the limitation in the scopefor rhythmic variation and the same patternshave to be repeated again and again. Themanner of interpretation and the shift ofemphasis from structural bondage to freeimprovisation in Hindustani music is one of themain differences between the two.

Stalwarts of Carnatic music

Jalapakkam Annamacharya of Andhra

Indian Culture 53

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

pradesh is believed to have conceived Kirityfrom of composition, which consists of pallavi,anupalavi and charanam. Purandardasa, whohailed from Maharashtra, is said to havecomposed 475,000 songs (according to his ownreference in the dasarpada). He developed theKriti, which has just been introduced byJallapakkam. He also composed the earliestlakana gitas and other vocal exercise.

The immortal Trinity of Carnatic music,Thyagaraja, Syama Sastrya and MuthuswamiDikshita, were born in the later half of thenineteenth century. The greatest of them wasundoubtedly Thyagaraja. He would makeseveral compositions in Raga so as to explorethoroughly its various musical potentialities. Healso introduced what are known as sangatis.These are beautiful variations of phrasesoccurring in Kritis. The post-Trinity periodwitnessed many stalwarts setting traditions anddifferent styles. Some of the important namesare Patnam Subramani Lyer, Poochi SrinivasLyengar, Veena Dhanam, Triukodikaval Krishnalyer (violin), Subrama Diksatar (musicologistand Vainikar), Konerirajapuram Vaidyanathalyer, Kumbakonam Azhagunambi Pillai(Mridangam), Sarabha Sastri (flute) andPudukkottai Daksinamurti Pillai (Mridangamand Kemjira).

Veena Dhanam is the quintessence ofCarnatic music. Her style was handed down toher daughters who, in turn, passed it on to theirdaughters. Her grandchildren are Brinda andMukta (Vocal), Balasarswati (Bharatnatyam)and Vishwanath (flute). The family is the bestexponent of the Padams. Other great names areT.R. Mahlinam (Mali), T. Viswanatham (Viwam),and the violinists M.S. Gopalkrishan, T.N.Krishanan and Lalgudi Jayaraman.

Hindustani and Carnatic Music: Acomparison

Firstly, there are several ragas in both styleswhich have identical swaras but which soundvery different. This happens because theoscillations of notes are much faster in Carnaticmusic than in Hindustani music.

The Hindustani and Carnatic systems are

very different in regard to Tala. The latterfollows the old tradition in its nomenclature,division and structure. The main elements ofCarnatic Tala are laghu, druta, anudruta, guru,pluta and Kakapada. The Hindustani Talasystem uses a different terminology, but it is alsofounded on a seven tala base. The internaldivisions of the Talas are also different fromthose of Carnatic music.

The Khayal made tremendous strides onimproving the melodic structure of Hindustanimusic, opening vast avenues of improvisationand enhancing the aesthetic element. But whatit gained in the sphere of melody and aesthetics,it lost in the sphere of Tala.

Just as South Indian music does, Hindustanimusic also employs the three Kalas, which arewrongly termed laya in the north. Laya is usedin Indian music, in the sense of both tempo andrhythm; the term Kala, which is still in voguein South Indian music, is more appropriate.

As far the evolution is concerned, it is almostsame for both. From Naradiya Siksa onwards,both trace their evolution through Sama Vedamusic and prabandha. The divergence becomesmarked from A.D. 1960 with the emergence ofthe great work Chaturdandi Prakasika ofVenkatamakhin, son of Govinda Dikshatar.

To conclude, it may be inferred that themanner of interpretation and the shift ofemphasis from structural bondage to freeimprovisations in Hindustani music is one of themain differences between the two.

Kriti: Kriti is the finest compositional type.The word Kriti means “that which is made orcreated”. The musical structure is of greatersignificance. The text is always religious. Ifcompared with the Khayals, it stands out in theterm of literary value. Also the structural beautyis better planned than that of the modernKhayal.

The heydays of Kriti were in the 18th centurywith the rise of the Trinity: Shyama Shastri,Thyagaraja, Muttuswami Dikshitra. SwatiTrunal, the Maharaja of Travancore, was alsoa composer of some eminence.

54 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Musical Instruments:

The importance of instruments and theirhistory in the overall panorama of music cannotbe ignored. Without them not much musicologyis left. In fact if there were no musical instrumentsthere might not have been any music theory orGrammar because there is no way of measuringvocal sounds directly in the throat itself. Musicalinstrument, help us to develop sound-musicologyand study musical scales. Besides, the nature ofmusical instruments has profound influence onthe development of our music.

The musical instruments have been classifiedas solids, drums, wind instruments and stringedinstruments.

1. Solids or Ghana Vadya : The mostfamous Ghana vadyas are:

i) Dandiya or Kolu: These are rhythmicsticks, coloured or plain, with jingles orwithout them. In Gujarat they are knownas Dandiya, in south they are known as koluand used in a dance called kolattam.

ii) Dahara or Laddi shah: It is used in Kashmirvalley. It is an iron rod of about threequarters of a meter length, bent like awalking stick, having a cross handle and anumber of rings.

iii) Chudiyan: It is a metallic bangle, which isstruck by a wooden stick.

iv) Slit drum: it is not a hollow drum but madeof wood. It is called songkong by tribalAssamese and Longten by the Nagas. It isused either as an alarm or for dancing. In

the north-east another but portable versionof the slit drum is the tak dutrang made ofBamboo. Another type is the katola usedby the Abhuj Maria tribes of M.P. it iswooden, hollow and shaped like atrapezoid.

v) Kashta tarang: It is a set of a number ofwooden slabs of varying lengths andthickness and fixed loosely on a frame. Thebars are arranged in a row of increasingpitch and struck with a pair of sticks.

vi) Nal tarang: It is metallic version of Kashtatarang.

vii) Tokka: It is used in Assam. It is a bamboopiece of about a metre in length, is splitlengthwise keeping one end intact. At thisend the sides are carved to make a handle.When rattled, the slit portions clash andcreate sound. It is used when huntingelephants in Mysore.

viii) Moorsing or Moorchang: It is a small rodidiophone of fine musical value used inRajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assaam andSouth India. A bamboo moorchang inAssam is called gagana. More commonly itis a trident shaped iron. The main framehas an annular base which does notcomplete the circle. The end of thisincomplete ring projects into two prongs.A thin tongue passes between the prongs,which is held between the teeth by theperformer and plucked.

ix) Kirikittaka: It is one of the most primitiveinstruments we have. It bears likeness to thefire making implement. It consists of a mainbody on which there are dents againstwhich is rubbed a rod, generating a weirdsound. Its variations include the ruga braiya,doddu rajan, Kokkara etc. Of these onlykokkara is made of iron tube. The rest aremade of a hollow piece of bamboo with aseries of crosswise serrations on the surface.

x) Plates: They are usually made of bell metal.Examples of plates are thaliv (N. India),jagte (Karnataka), Chenkala (Kathakali),Semmankalam (Tamil nadu). Seemu (Northeast), Sree mandal (Rajasthan).

xi) Chimta: It is an iron fork, a metre long, on

Indian Culture 55

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

the arms of which are fixed loosely, sets ofsmall discs of brass.

xii) Cymbal: A convex bend given to a platemakes it a cymbal. Examples of cymbals arethe Manjira or jalra, bortal (Assam), Kartal,tali, talam, elattalam, Jhanj, etc.

xiii) Bells: They are single concave bodiesshaken or struck on the rim with a stick.The gilaband used by the chenchus ofAndhra Pradesh is a dried fruit. The basigasof Madhya Pradesh tie a set of driedpumpkins to their waist while dancing.Similarly the kanjari fruit is used by theoraons. The Ghungroo of North and Gejjeof South are a set of metallic bells.

xiv) The Jal tarang: It consists of a number ofChina bowls, the number depending on thenotes to be played. This is affected bypouring certain fixed quantity of water ineach bowl.

xv) The earthen Pot: It is popular both in folkand classical music. The folk varieties aremade of clay or metal. Examples of suchpots are matki, gagri and noot. The Ghatamis used in Carnatic classical music.

2. Drums or avanaddha Vadya: BharataMuni in his Natyashastra has called them‘pushkars’. The important from of drums are:

i) Ronza or Runza: It is made from the hollowof a tree trunk and is thus vertical. It is usedin Andhra Pradesh tough the wood hasnow has been replaced by brass and is nowshaped as a truncated cone.

ii) Kharram and dhole: The Kharam of Assamand the Dhole played by Reddis of Andhraare log drums.

iii) Earthen ware: The may be spherical pots,shallow pans, long neck jars and so on. Potslike dardura, panlike Tasha and jar shapedtumbaknari are examples of such earthenware.

iv) Stanmped pit: It is deep hollow, dug in theground and covered with thin planks or barkson which tribal women jump. The Bhoomidundubhi was a pit covered over with oxhide with the hairy surface facing up andnailed to the ground all around the pit. Thedrumstick is the tail of the animal itself.

v) Dundubhi: It is a drum of high pitch. It wasnot only used in war but also in peace andreligious rites. The drum was generallycovered with deer skin.

vi) Damru: In Hindu mythology it is associatedwith the dance of Shiva and tantric sects.

vii) Frame drum: It is one in which the skin isstretched over a frame of wood or metal.The diameter is much longer than thedepth. The hide may cover one or bothends. Examples of such drums are sooryaor Chandra pirai (Andhra and Tamil nadu),daff, ghera (Rajasthan), Chengu (Orissa),dafli, tep (Tamil nadu), tappate(Karnataka), dayara, change, Karchakra,khanjari, Khanjeera, Khanjari, Gna(Ladakh).

viii) Cylinderical drums: The Bheri so commonin our history was used in battles,processions and merry making. The ranabheri, Anada bheri and Madan bheri areits examples. This drum was usually madeof copper. One face was played with thehand and the other with a kona. The dholeor dholak, the padmba (Tamilnadu),Chenda (Kerela) are also examples ofcylindrical drums.

ix) Bulging drums: They are also known asbarrel drums. The most famous drum of thisgroup is the mridangam. It was also knownas murya and mandala. It has a body madeof wood with a bulge in the middle. Incontemporary times, it means a two beadeddrum. The pakhavaj of Hindustani music,the Khole of Bengal etc. are also calledMridangam despite change in shape andstructure. The mridangam is shaped like abarrel with one face slightly smaller thanthe other. The right and left faces are calledtoppi and valan talai respectively. Thepakhavaja is the King of drums inHindustani music. Shri khole (Bengal) andpung (Manipur) also belong to this class.

x) Tavil: It is a wooden barrel, shorter thanmidrange and has membrane almost of thesame size. The parchment fixed to a ring,are held together by leather. One side isbeaten with sticks and the other side byfingers.

56 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

xi) Damru shaped drums: Examples of thisclass are panava, dindima, uttukai,hudukka, derudhanka, trivali, Budbudke,kudukuduppe etc. The Naga Chung of Tibetis made of sandal wood. Tudi is a smallhourglass drum played in kerala andKarnataka. Idakka is played in Kerala.

xii) Vessels: They consist of pots, pans, troughsetc. which are modified to be used asmusical instruments. The Pabuji ki mate(Rajasthan) is an earthen pot, the mouth ofwhich is covered with leather, Dardura isa pot-drum consisting of three pots. TheKooja, Surahi, Ghumat (Goa), Tumbakanari(Kashmir), gummate (Karnataka), Burra(Andhra), Jamukku (Tamilnadu) areshaped like a wine jar.

xiii) Conical drums: The nagara is an exampleof such a drum. It consists of two conicaldrums. The smaller one has a higher pitchcalled madi and the larger one has deepertone called nar or male.

xiv) Bowls: The sambal of Maharashtra andTasha are its example.

xv) Tabla: The tabla is a Persian word and itsorigin is controversial. It is a two piecedrum. One is the table proper and the otheris called dagga. The former is shapped likea pakhavaj and the latter like a miniaturenagara.

xvi) Friction drums: One of the few frictiondrums played in India is the burburi playedby worshippers of Mariyamma in SouthIndia. It is a cylinderical two facedinstrument.

3. Wind Instruments: These instrumentsare called sushira Vadya in Indian music. Themain instruments in this category are:

i) Filili or fifli: It is a thin flute made ofbamboo and used by the Lhota Nagas ofAssam.

ii) Fululu: It is used by the sema nagas.iii) Horns: Singe (Bhils), Kohuk (Marias), reli-ki

(Angami and Lhota Nagas), Sakna (Santhals),Visan and Singi (U.P.), Singha (Orissa).

iv) Kombu: It is a C-shaped trumped made ofbrass and copper and is constructed of threepieces with the blowing end having amouth piece.

v) Straight trumpets: Khang ling used in theHimalayan region is made of the femur orthigh bone of a woman. Those made fromtiger’s thigh bone are called stag ling. Otherimportant straight trumpets are tutari andBhangal (Maharashtra), tuttoori(Karnataka).

vi) Shell triumphed: Sankh (conch shells),bakura, gomukha etc. fall under thiscategory.

vii) Bansuri: It is a pastrol instrument ofnorthern India. It is a flute with press endscalled beak.

viii) Algoza: It is a pair of beak flutes playedsimultaneously. It is played in Rajathan,Punjab and Maharashtra.

ix) Reed flutes: Reeds are vibrators that arefixed to a tube or an air reservoir. The snakecharmers use the pungi, been, mahudi ornagasvaram. Mashak or titti is a leather bagconnected with a bamboo. The pipa isplayed in Assam during Bihu dance.

x) Harmonium: The reed here is a tonguefixed at one end vibrating within anaperture without touching the edges of theframe.

4. Stringed instruments: They are calledTata Vadya. There are three major classes ofstringed instruments. The first group is employednot for creating a raga or melody but as dronesand rhythmic adjuncts. The second groupconsists of poly-chords on which melody can beplayed and finally we have the monochords,which again may be fretted, fretless, plucked orhowed. Some important ins-truments of thestringed class are given below:a. Tuntune: It is commonly used by

mendicants and beggars in south-centraland western India. It has a hollow woodencylinder with the bottom of the vessel closedby parchment. A bamboo piece is nailed orscrewed to the side of the body on theoutside. Between the peg and the leatherbottom of the bamboo passes a single stringwhich can be tightened or loosened bytwisting the peg.

b. Gopi yantra: It is called ektara in Bengaland Orissa. It is like the tuntune but thebowl, though cylindrical is wider at the baseand narrower at the upper end. The string

Indian Culture 57

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

is attached to a bamboo fork whose prongsare nailed to the outside of the resonator.

c. Premtal, Khamak, chonka, Jamidika: Thepremtal (Hindi), Khanak (Bengali), chonka(Marathi) and Jamidika (Telugu) aremodifications of the tuntune and gopiyantra. The string is plucked by a woodenplectrum. They are used by snake charmersand balled singers.

d. Buang: The santhals of Orissa use arhythmic cordophone called buang. Itconsists of a bamboo tube, a resonator anda rope. The round box is like an egg shapedbasket paste over by paper.

e. Tamboora: The major classes of thisinstrument are the ekatara and the tamboori.The ektara is a single stringed instrument. Theresonator is a flat dried pumpking and thedanda or hollow rod holding the string isattached to it. The rum sagar of Gujarat hastwo strings but is still called ektara. Thetamboori is the cruder prototype of tamboora.The tamboora is also called tanpoora. Thesound box is a large pumpking. A woodenneck is fixed and a hollow fingerboard isattached to it. There are four metallic stringswhich are plucked with fingers.

The melodic stringed instruments include:(i) Polychords and (ii) monochords(i) Polychords: They are also called ‘veena’.

The villadi vadyam found in kerela andTamilnadu are its example. Yazh of theTamil country also resembles the veena.

(ii) Santoor: It is used mostly in Kashmir. Theinstrument is made of a box of wood,trapezoid in shape. Over this there arethirty bridges arranged in 15 rows, two ineach row. A set of four strings of metalsuned to the same note is stretched overeach pair of bridges. Thus the total numberof wires is 60.

(iii) Svaramandal: It is like a santoor but smallerin size.

(iv) Monochords: The tuila of Orissa, thekacchapi, rabab, sarod, sitar, kinnari etc areits examples. The rudra veena and vichitraveena also fall in this class.

a) Violins: The Pena of Manipur, Kenra andbanam of Orissa, Kingri of Andhra and

Maharashtra and Veena kunju of Keralaare examples of violins.

b) Bowed instruments: Ravanhatha ofGujarat and Rajasthan, Kamaicha ofRajasthan, Sarinda of Bihar and Sarangibelong to this class.

Popular Western Music

Reggae: Jamaican popular music thatdeveloped in the 1960s among Kingston’s poorblacks, drawing on American ‘soul’ music. Manyof highly political songs of this class proclaimthe tenets of the Rastafarian religious movements.Springy offbeat rhythm characterizes its sound.Bob Marley and his group, the Waiters, andToots and the Maytals are among the best-known performers.

Rock: A hybrid of black and white Americanmusical forms; Blues, rhythm and blues, gospelmusic, country and western music. In 1955 BillHaley’s song ‘Rock, Around the Clock’ set off a rock‘n’ roll craze because of its exciting, heavy beat andthe urgent calls to dance and action of its lyrics.Most successful rock artists are Elvis Presley, Beatles,the Rolling Stones, etc. In the 1970s country rock,a fusion of country and western and rock ‘n’ rollgrew popular as did Disco.

Jazz: American musical form developedfrom black worker’s songs, spirituals and otherforms whose harmonic, melody and rhythmicelements were mainly African. It came to generalnotice in the 1920s when whites adapted orimitated it. Jazz began in the south and spreadnorthward and westward.

Blues: The blues generally employs a 12-barconstruction and a ‘blue’ scale, thought to beAfrican in origin. Vocal blues have earthy,direct lyrics, the tempo may vary and moodsrange from despair to cynicism to satire. Majorearly blues artists were Blend Lemon Jefferson,Ma Rainy and Bessie Smith.

Country Music: It has directly descendedfrom the folk music of the English, Scottish andIrish settlers of the south-east US. It tendstowards simpler forms and depicts the lifeexperience of poor rural and urban whites.Noted performers are Hank Williams, JohnDenver, Kenny Rogers Merle Haggard, JohnnyCash and Loretta Lynn.

���

58 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

LANGUAGES AND THEIRDISTRIBUTION

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

India’s unity lies in her diversity and this isfurther substantiated by the high degree ofdiversity, they have, in their languages anddialects. They speak various languages anddialects. The 1961 census has listed 1652languages and dialects as mother tongues spokenin India. This figure was arrived at, taking intoaccount even dialect spoken only by five persons.

The 1971 census gave a more realistic figure of700, having taken into account the dialectsspoken by 100 people and above. The Indianconstitution has officially recognized 22languages after taking into consideration theirnumerical, commercial, political and culturalimportance. The languages contained in the 8thSchedule of the Constitution, are as follows:

S. No. Language Location

1. Assamese Assam

2. Bangla Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tripura, West Bengal,

3. Bodo Assam

4. Dogri Jammu and Kashmir

5. Gujarati Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat

6. Hindi Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, the national capitalterritory, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand.

7. Kannada Karnataka

8. Kashmiri Jammu and Kashmir

9. Konkani Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra

10. Maithili Bihar

11. Malayalam Lakshadweep, Kerala

12. Manipuri Manipur

13. Marathi Dadra & Nagar Haveli , Daman and Diu, G o a ,Maharashtra

14. Nepali Sikkim, West Bengal

15. Oriya Orissa

16. Punjabi Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab

17. Sanskrit Listed as a Classical Language of India.

18. Santhali Santhal tribals of the ChotaNagpur Plateau (comprisingthe states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa)

19. Sindhi Sindhi community

Indian Culture 59

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

20. Tamil Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu.Listed as a ClassicalLanguage of India.

21. Telugu Andhra Pradesh

22. Urdu Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, UttarPradesh

Classification of Indian languages

The language spoken by the people of Indiabelong to the following four language families:

A. Indo-European Family

A substantive population of India speaksone or the other forms of the Aryan languages.It is the biggest of the languages groups in India,accounting for about 73 per cent of the entireIndian population. Aryan Languages aregenerally divided into two main branches:Dardic and Indo-Aryan.� The Dardic group includes Dardi, Shina,

Kohistani and Kashmiri.� The Indo-Aryan branch is divided into the

North- Western, Southern, Eastern, East-Central, Central and Northern groups.

� The North-Western groups include Lhanda,Kachchi and Sindhi.

� The southern group comprises Marathi andKonkani.

� The Eastern group includes Oriya, Bihari,Bengali and Assamese. Among the dialectsof Bihari may be included Maithili, Bhojpuriand Magadhi.

The East-Central group consists of threemain sub-groups:

(a) Avadhi (b) Baghaili and (c) Chhattisgarhi

The central group includes Hindi, Punjabi,Rajasthani and Gujarati. Hindi or Hindustanihas produced two great literatures, Urdu and(High) Hindi. Both have the same grammar andthe same basic vocabulary though they differ inscript and higher vocabulary. Hindi uses thenagari script while Urdu uses the Perso-Arabicscript. Moreover, Hindi has a preference forpurely Indian words while Urdu has numerousArabic and Persian borrowings. The Rajasthaniitself consists of several varieties of speeches, the

principal among them being Marwari, Mewariand Malawi. The speeches that fall in theNorthern group consist of one or other varietyof pahari speeches. They include Nepali, CentralPahari and Western Pahari. Besides theselanguages, Sanskrit, the classical language ofIndia, represents the highest achievement of theIndo-Aryan languages. Although hardly spokennow-a-days, it has been listed as a nationallyaccepted language in the 8th Schedule of theconstitution.

The Himalayan and the sub-Himalayan areasare inhabited by the speakers of the variousforms of Pahari and Nepali which belong to thenorthern group of the Indo-Aryan languages.

B. Dravidian Languages

The Dravidian language came into Indiacenturies before the Indo-Aryan. It is spoken byabout 25 per cent of the Indian population. Itsplits into three branches in the Indiansubcontinent-

The South-Dravidian group includes themajor languages such as Tamil, Kannada,Malayalam as well as the minor languages ordialects such as Tulu, Kurgi, Badaga, Tada,Kota, Kodagu and Yerukala.

The Central-Dravidian group is composedof Telugu and a number of dialects spoken incentral India- Kui, Khond, Holani, Konda,Gondi, Naiki, Parji, Koya and others.

The North-Dravidian branch comprisesBrahmi spoken in Baluchistan and Kurukh(Oraon) and Malto spoken in Bengal and Orissa.

Languages of the Dravidian family areconcentrated in the Plateau region and theadjoining coastal plains. Telugu is spoken inAndhra Pradesh; Tamil in Tamil Nadu; Kannadain Karnataka and Malayalam in Kerala. Thespeeches of the Dravidian family are also spokenby a large number of tribal groups living in the

60 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

eastern and the north-eastern parts of thepeninsular plateau. These groups include theGonds of Madhya Pradesh and central Indianand the Oraons of Chota Nagpur Plateau.

C. Austric Family

The Austric languages of India belong to theAustro-Asiatic subfamily of languages. Nearly1.38% of the entire Indian population speaks it.This sub-family is further divided into two mainbranches: (a) Munda and (b) Mon Khmer.

The Mon Khmer branch consists of the twogroups: Khasi and Nicobari. The Munda branch,the largest of the Austric, consists of fourteentribal language groups. These are Asuri, Birhor,Ho, Korwa, Mundari, Mahali, Santhali, Turi,Gata, Bondo, Bodo Gadaba, Parenga, Sora,Juray and Lodhi.

The largest group of speakers of the Austro-Asiatic sub-family of languages is that of Santhalispeakers, who alone account for more than thehalf of the total speakers. The speeches of theAustric family are spoken by the tribal groupsin the Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya andthe Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, thepredominantly tribal districts of Santhalparganas, Mayurbhanj, Ranchi, East Nimar,Betul and Baudh Khnodmahals. Of the twospeeches of Mon-Khmer, Khasi is confined tothe Nicobar Island.

D. Sino-Tibetan Family

The speakers of the Sino-Tibetan languagesfall into three main branches- Tibeto-Himalayan,North-Assam and Assam-Burmese.

The Tibeto-Himalayan branch comprisesBhutia group and Himalayan group. The Bhutiagroup includes Tibetan, Balti Ladakhi, Lahauli,Sherpa and Sikkim Bhutia. The Himalayangroup consists of Chamba, lahauli, Kanauri andLepcha. Ladakhi has largest number of speakersfollowed by Sikkim Bhutia and the Tibetan. In

the Himalayan group, the speakers of Kanaurihave the highest numerical strength.

The North-Assam or Arunachal branchincludes Aka, Dafla, Abor, Miri, Mishmi andMishing. In this group, the Miri has the largestnumber of speakers.

The Assam-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan family is divided into the followinggroups: Bodo or Boro, Naga, Kachin, Kukichinand Burma group. Each of these groups consistsof several speeches. Among them the Nagagroup displays the highest variations. Thespeeches falling in this category includeManipuri, Garo, Boro, Tripuri, Mikir and Lushai(Mizo). Among them, Manipuri has the highestnumber of speakers.

The languages and the dialects belonging tothe Sino-Tibetan family are spoken by the tribalgroups of north-east and of the Himalayan andsub-Himalayan regions of the North and theNorth-West. The speeches of the Tibeto-Himalayan branch are in Ladakh and parts ofHimachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The Assam-Burmese branch is concentrated in the statesand Union Territories of North-East India alongthe Indo-Burmese border. Among these, Nagadialects are spoken in Nagaland; Lushai isconcentrated in Mizo hills, Garo in Garo hillsand Methei in Manipur.

Article 343 of the constitution provides thatfor a period of 15 years from the commencementof the constitution, the English languages shallcontinue to be used for all official purposes ofthe Union. It was expected that after the expiryof the stipulated period i.e. 1965, Hindi wouldreplace English but till date no definite date hasbeen fixed for its elimination and replacementby Hindi. As matters stand, the languages listedin the constitution remain the official languagesof the respective states, while Hindi and Englishcontinue to be used for inter-Statecorrespondence and for all India use generally.

���

Indian Culture 61

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

INDIAN LITERATURECHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Like the Indian languages, the history ofIndian literature may conveniently be dividedinto two main stages or phases, the old and themodern. The old is also capable of being sub-divided into ancient and medieval, and thelower limit of this old period has been put downroughly at 1000 A.D. This is the period whenthe Indian people experienced some of thegreatest transformations in its political andcultural set up. It was about this time that theNorth Indian Aryan language took definiteforms, evolving out of the earlier Apabharamsaand Prakrits.

The scholarly and scientific literature ofIndia continued to be written in Sanskrit evenafter the development of the Prakrit or MiddleIndo-Aryan dialects and the Bhasa or ModernIndo-Aryan speeches. The older literary traditionwas partly religious and partly secular, such aswe find in both Sanskrit and the Prakrits. Thereligious literature consisted of Philosophicaldisquisitions and narrative poems describingthe legends and stories of the ancient heroes aspreserved in the great epics and the Puranas,and in the case of the Jainas, in the stories ofreligious edification on the lives of the Jainasaints. The atmosphere of Brahmanism,Buddhism and Jainism was carried over fromMiddle indo-Aryan to New Indo-Aryan.

On the secular side, the literature consistedof little lyrics of love and life, and the habit ofcomposing long narrative poems on romanticlegends, which was prevalent in Sanskrit also,received a new form in the New Indo-Aryanlanguages. Modern Indian literature thus startedwith in heritance from Prakrit and its laterphase the Apabhramsa, and from Sanskrit, inNorthern India, and in South India, in the caseof Dravidian languages, there was a profoundinfluence of Sanskrit all through. Althoughcertain types of literature appeared to have

developed independently in the variousDravidian languages, particularly Tamil, theSanskrit influences became predominant.

Modern Literature

An overall picture of the present literarysituation in some of the major languages indiscussed here. Assamese has the same script asBengali. There are several young, experimental,avant garde poets like Navakant Barua, HemBarua, Mahendra Bora and other, as well asfiction-writers like Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyaand Syed Abdul Malik. Social realism issubstituted by regional documentation andpsycho-analytical short stories. Bengali, thelanguages of great thinkers and poets, novelistsand essayists like Raja Ram Mohan Roy,Vivekananad, Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore,Saratchandra Chatterji and so many others, isconsidered to be the best of the East and theWest and translation from all world languagesare available in Bengali.

After the death of Rabindranath Tagore in1941, there seemed to be a very big gap in thefield of poetry which is still unfilled, thoughJibananad Das, Buddhadeva Bose, Sudhin Datta,Bishnu Dev and others did take up theirresponsibility. But in the field of fiction, threeBanerjees did remarkable work: Bibhuti BhushanBanerjee (Author of Pather Panchalli, the SatyajitRay film), Manik Banerji (author of the pupplet’sTale) and Tarasankar Banerji. There are manyimportant names in the field of shorts story andanthologies in English like Green and Gold(edited by Humayun Kabir) and Broken Bead(edited by Lila Ray) are some specimens. Drama,in spite of Utpal Dutt and Shombhu Mitra, hasnot advanced much. The latest trend like theinfluence of the Beatniks is seen in “HungaryGeneration” poets like Malay Raichuadhari.

62 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

After 1904, Oriya came to its own andnovelists like Fakir Moun Senapati and K.C.Panigrahi discovered in their rural life excellentgems of extraordinary characters. Poets likeSuchi Raut Ray, Mayadhar, Mansingh andothers were trying their best to light the torch.Modernism in poetry has come to stay. GopinathMohanti and Raj Kishore Ray tried to breaknew grounds in fiction.

Tamil literature has a rich past. Modernitydawned during 19th century with V. Swaminathlyer and Subramanya Bharati. Many powerfulmodernists like Janaki Ramanad D. Jayakantanare replacing the popular novelists like Kalkiand Akilan. Kambadassnand and Bharatdasanblazed new poetry. Aruna and Karunanidhiwrote authentic stories about the depressedclasses.

Malayalam is the most interesting language,as it has Muslim, Christian and Hindu writersin equal proportion. Poets like Vallanthol and G.Sankara Kurup were replaced by a youngergeneration of significant non-conformist writers.Fiction writers like Joseph Mundasseri,Muhammad Basheer, P Keshavadev and T.S.Pillai have made their mark. Most of the novelsand short stories are still lingering around socialdocumentation, romantic realism and protest.

Literature in Marathi language is full of“storm and stress”, revolutionary tendenciesbeing the uppermost. The greatest follower ofGandhi, Vinodba Bhave, is from Maharashtra,so also are leaders like Tilak and Savarkar whoadvocated Hindu revival, and leftists andsocialists like Dange, Gorey and Joshi. Inliterature too there is a constant debate onmodernism.

Gujarati is the language of business peopleand its literature has been influenced to a greatextent by Gandhi’s non-violence. Much workhas been done in research in folklore and folk-drama. It can boast of poets like UmashankarJoshi, “Sundaram” and Rajendra Shah, andnovelists like Pannalal Patel, “Darshak”,Chunnilal Madia who have artisticallyarticulated the conditions of rural Gujarat.

In Hindi there has been the largest numberof translation from other Indian languages.

There are poets of great stature like Nirala,Agyeya, Muktibodh; there are many otherpopular and pleasant lyricists like Mahdevi,Pant, Bachchan. Nationalist poetry has a specialimpact on Hindi and Maithilisharan Gupta,Makhanlal Chturvedi, Naveen, Dinkar and manyothers wrote poems which, though didactic,were so widely appreciated. In fiction fromPremchand to Renu, there has been an emphasison rural documentation, but metropolitianpressures are also very much in view, particularlyin the short stories of Mohan Rakesh, RajendraYadav, Kamleshwar and Rajkamal Chaudhari.

Punjabi has great zest for life. Poets like VirSingh, Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam have madea remarkable contribution; so also the novels ofNanak Singh, Kanwal and the short stories ofDuggal, Satindra Singh and Ajit Kaur. Thislanguage is the nearest solution to the meetingof tradition and modernity. Poets like Mehjur,Dinanath Nadim and Rahi and prose writerslike Akhatar Mohiuddin and Lone are the morewell-known modern writers.

Indian writing in English has beenacknowledged abroad with the novels of R.K.Narayan, Raja Rao, Desani, Dr Mulk Raj Anand,Khushwant Singh, Bhabani Bhattacharya andMalgaonkar. Poets like Nissim Ezekiel, P. Lal,Ramanujan and Kamla Das are published in theEnglish speaking countries and appreciated. Inlate twentieth century writers like Vikram Seth,Amitabh Chaudhary and Anita Desai, andothers left their mark on international audience.

In recent times many Indian authors haveleft their mark on international arena. Kirandesai, Aravind Adiga, Arundhati roy havereceived coveted Man Booker prize. Apart fromthem writers of Indian origin like SalmanRushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri and Amitav Ghosh arewell respected names in English literature.

In 1930s emerged the first major figures inthe field of English literature in the shape of the“Big Three” of Indian fiction: Mulk Raj Anand,Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan. Mulk Raj Anandis the most Westernized of the trio; Rao, whilewriting in English and using the genre of thenovels has its roots in Sanskrit culture; Narayan’swork occupies a middle ground between theapproaches of his two illustrious contemporaries.

Indian Culture 63

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Anand’s reputation was first established byhis first two novels, Untouchable (1935), whichgives an account of “a day in life” of a sweeper,and Coolie (1936), which follows the fortunes of apeasant boy uprooted from the land. His trilogy-The Village (1939), Across The Black Waters (1940)and The Sword and the Sickle (1942)- is an epicaccount of the gradual growth of the protagonist’srevolutionary consciousness which may be seen asa microcosm of India’s movement toward anawareness of the need for independence.

Raja Rao’s first novel Kanthapura (1938) ismost straightforward. It gives an account ofhow her village’s revolt against a domineeringplantation owner comes to be informed by theGandhian ideal of nonviolence. Rao’s majorwork ‘The Serpent and the Rope’ (1960) isregarded by some Indian critics as the mostimportant Indian novel in English to haveappeared to date. Rao has also published theshort novels ‘The Cat and Shakespeare’ (1965)and ‘Comrade Kirillov’ (1976).

Narayan’s early novels include the trilogy‘Swami and Friends’ (1935), ‘The Bachelor ofArts’ (1937) and ‘The English Teacher’ (1945).The novels of his middle period represent hisbest work. These include ‘Mr. Sampath’ (1949),‘The Financial Expert’ (1952), ‘The Guide’ (1958),‘The Man-Eater of Malgudi’ (1961) and ‘TheSweet-Vendor’ (1967). They explore conflictsbetween traditional Hindu values and Westernincursions into the society. Narayan’s morerecent novels include The Painter of Signs (1976),A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) and Talkative Man(1986). He has also published several volumesof short stories, including An Astrologer’s Day(1947) and Lawley Read (1956).

Nirad Chaudhari is the most Controversialof Indian writers in English. He emerged on thescene with his book The Autobiography of anUnknown Indian (1951). When he visitedEngland, he recorded his experiences in ‘APassage to England’ (1959). In ‘The Continentof Circe’ (1965), he puts forward the thesis thatthe Aryan settlers of India became enfeebled bythe climate of North India. He has also publishedTo Live or not to Live (1970) and a secondvolume of autobiography ‘Thy Hand, GreatAnarch’ (1987).

Anita Desai has written ‘Fire in theMountains’ (1977), ‘Clear Light of Day’ (1980)and ‘The Village by the Sea’ (1982), ‘Cry thePeack’ (1963), ‘Bye-Bye Black Bird’ (1971) and‘In Custody’ (1984). Her subtle prose andsensitive evocation of the inner lives of hercharacters makes her one of the finest talents atwork in the Indian novel.

Salman Rushdie won the 1981 BookerPrize for Midnight’s Children (1981). He hasalso published Grimus (1975), a science fiction,Shame (1983) and The Jaguar Smile (1987), ajournal about war-torn Nicaragua and of course,the banned book-Satanic Verses. He was alsoawarded the Booker of Booker for MidnightChildren.

Vikram Seth’s first novel, ‘A Suitable Boy’has made him the most hyped-up first–timenovelist in the history of Indian literature. ‘TheGolden Gate’, a novel in verse had hit thebestseller’s lists in 1986-87. ‘The Golden Gate’was followed by three collection of verse: TheHumble Administrator’s Garden, ‘All you WhoSleep Tonight’ and ‘Beastly Tales from Here’and There.

Other Novelists

The Period around Independence providedKhushwant Singh and Manohar Malgaonkarwith the subject matter of their best novels:Singh’s ‘A Train to Pakistan’ (1956) andMalgaonkar’s ‘A Bend in the Ganges’ (1964)deal with partition; Singh’s ‘I Shall Not Hear theNightingale’ (1959) is about the movements ofa Sikh family in the Punjab in the uncertainperiod before partition and Malgonkar’s ‘ThePrinces’ (1963) a sympathetic account of thetragedy of a family in the Punjab in the uncertainperiod before partition and Malgonkar’s ThePrinces (1963) a sympathetic account of thetragedy of a family who represents the local elitethat ruled many ‘native’ states during the Raj.Kamla Markandya’s novels, which include‘Nectar in a Sieve’ (1954), ‘A Handful of Rice’(1966) and the ‘Coffer Dams’ (1969), are mainlyabout rural and urban poverty and dispossession.

Nayantara Sehgal, a niece of Nehru, writesabout the Indian elite of today and yesterday.

64 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Her novels include This Time of Morning (1965),The Day in Shadow (1971), A Situation in NewDelhi (1971), Rich like Us (1985) and Plans forDeparture (1986), she was the winner of theEurasian section of the 1987 CommonwealthWriter Prize.

Indian Poetry in English

While Indian poetry in English dates backto the early nineteenth century, it is really onlyin the period since independence that it has

come of age. Kamala Das Writes about women’semotions with a candor unprecedented in Indianverse and Arum Kootchar, winner of the 1977Commonwealth Poetry Prize for his collectionJapura, in which the eponymous village providesa reference point for meditations on Indian life,ancient and modern. Other notable poets afterindependence writing in English include AdilJussawalla, P. Lala, Jayanta Mahapatra, DomMoraes, Rajagopal Parthasarathy, Gieve Pateland A.K. Ramanujan.

���

Indian Culture 65

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

INDIAN PAINTINGCHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

The origin of Indian painting goes back to8000 years and an account of its developmentis inextricably meshed with the development ofIndian civilization. Hunters and gatherers whomade primitive tools and lived in the rockshelters of central India, made exaggeratedlinear figures of wild animals, such as the bison,the elephant and the stag in red and yellowochre on the rock surfaces of cave walls. Thetradition of painting on the walls of caves wentthrough at least ten distinct phases. But theculmination of Indian frescoes can be seen atAjanta, where from the time of the Sungas inthe second century B.C., wall painting continuedto be made until the fifth century.

There is no definite evidence from the Indusvalley Civilization of any painting activity, exceptthe decorations which occur on earthen pots.Geometric, floral and faunal designs in black onred terracotta pots seem to indicate that the artof painting was not entirely unknown.

The Indus Valley civilization came to anend around 1500 BC when the cities in whichit had flowered declined and were replaced bysmall anonymous chalcolithic villages. There isvery little information about the next 1000 yearsand there is no evidence of any painting datingto the Mauryan period. If there were paintings,it is possible that they were made on fragilematerials and did not survive the passing ofover 2000 years.

Indian painting reached a high level ofachievement around Gupta period of Ajantaand at Bagh in central India, where entiresettlements of rock-cut caves were decoratedwith figures of men and women. Some for them,like the famous painting of the Bodhisattva, aregraceful and yet pensive, as of pondering thecycle of birth and death. Others portraysumptuous court scenes in which foreigndiplomats in unfamiliar garments are being

received with their retinues at royal courts. TheAjanta style has been described as poeticdynamism set in motion, and these paintingsare indeed cynically lovely and universallycharming.

When the Gupta Empire declined andshrank, its style of art underwent several distinctchanges which art historians have classifiedinto three phases. In the 7th to 8th century,which constitutes the first phase, the styles didnot change very visibly. Painting activity seemsto have shifted at this time from Ajanta cavesto the neighboring caves at Ellora. In the Hindurock–cut Kailash caves, artists painted scenesfrom the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.

Further south, in the southern state of TamilNadu, the 7th century Kailashnath temple haspaintings in a bold style with stylized facialfeatures. During the second phase, from the 9thto the 12th century, we find new sensibilities.The paintings of murals in south depict bothstories from the epics and secular representationsof king Rajaraja the Great, with his queens.

The third phase, which dates to the 13th to16th centuries, is considered a period of slowdecadence, since creativity in art was replacedby excellence of craftsmanship. It was duringthis period that the earliest book illustrationsdeveloped. Buddhist scriptures such as thePranjaparamita preserved on palm-leafmanuscripts were now illustrated for the firsttime with miniatures in flat, bright houses of redand blue, outlined in black. The pala rulers ofeastern India, who came to power in the 9thcentury, encouraged this form of art, and so didroyal patrons in other parts of India.

Another school of miniature painting isknown as Apbrahmsa School which flourishedin western India, particularly in Gujarat. In theearlier phase palm-leaf manuscripts were usedbut in the later phase paper was introduced.

66 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Jain manuscripts were illustrated in a slightlylarger format. When paper was subsequentlyintroduced, the manuscripts continued to behorizontal in shape retaining the format of theoriginal palm leaf manuscripts. The themeswere derived from Jain sacred texts, but alsotouched Vaishnava subjects depicting love suchas Git Govinda.

Chola Series

The magnificent Chola series of paintings inthe Brihadesvara temple illustrate the fight ofShiva with the Tipuras, the almost invincibledemons, the story of Sundaramurti, the celestialdancers, Shiva watching the dance, Rajaraja andhis spiritual guru, all masterpieces of 1000 AD.

Hoysala Paintings

This painting is represented by a rarecollection of illustrated palm leaf manuscripts.They are indeed so delicate and charming andso colourful that they form a class of their own.

Vijayanagara Painting

Vijayanagara painting is illustrated by amagnificent series at Hampi of the 15th centuryAD wherein the spiritual preceptor Vidyaranayais shown moving in a palanquin in a procession.There are other scenes from the Puranas likeBhikshatana and Mohini effectively portrayedhere as well as at Chidambaram. In theVirupaksha Temple, there is TripurantakaMadanataka, the marriage of Arjuna and otherthemes effectively painted.

Chera Paintings

In Kerala, the Chera paintings fromTirunandikkarai constitute an importantlandmark though it is the late ones of the 17th-18th centuries from Mathancheri palace,Padmanabhapuram palace, the temples likeTiruvanjikulam, Ettumanur and other that giveeffective and adequate examples showing acolourful galaxy of over decorated formdeveloped from the norm of the late Chalukyasand Hysalas.

It was not until the second half of the 16thcentury that a truly creative style of miniaturepainting developed in India, and this was theresult of fusion between India and Persianstyles. The new style developed in the court ofAkbar, who successfully blended Hindu andIslamic elements to create the style that we nowcall Mughal, in architecture, art andadministration. Akbar established workshopsor Karkhanas for painters at his court atFatehpuri Sikri, near Agra. Under the guidanceof a Persian artist named Mir Sayyid Ali, anda talented calligrapher named Abdus Salam,about a hundred promising young artists of allcastes and creeds were trained in the art ofminiature paining and in the equally importantart calligraphy. Some of them became renownedartists and their names reflected their variedorigins, and the fact that they included bothHindus and Muslims. Mansur, for example wasMuslim; Govardhan, Basawan and Daswarthwere Hindus. They had one thing in common.They excelled and developed under theEmperor’s unbiased patronage, and producedsome of the finest miniature paintings that haveever been made.

Mughal miniatures defy traditional westernclassification. They are not always on paper.Not all of them are of a standard size. In factsome of them are far from miniature in size,being as large as English watercolours. And, notall of them were made as illustrations for books.Some are individual paintings gathered in albumscalled Muraqqa. Despite the variation, however,they comprise a distinct recognizable style interms of treatment and the materials used.Akbar’s religious tolerance is well known. Hewas particularly interested in religion and in thestudy of religious scriptures. Among themanuscripts written and illustrated under hisdirection were the Baburnama and theAkbarnama. Both these were done on paperand illustrated with a large number of beautifulpaintings. Artists in Akbar’s reign used ochre,kaolin, terra verde, carbon black, malachite andazurite, and later lead white, madder lake,indigo and peori, yellow substance extractedfrom the urine of cows fed on mango leaves.They also used gold, silver and lapis lazuli, the

Indian Culture 67

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

latter imported from Afghanistan. Every bit ofthe paintings is finely worked and entire scenesof battle and court life come alive in fascinatingdetails. Artists used delicate brushes made ofsquirrel’s hair to achieve these effects.

The paintings done in Akbar’s timeestablished new patterns of art. The Persianinfluence was marked, and yet the court artistswere able to convey something of theenvironment in which the paintings were made.

If Akbar established a new idiom in the fieldof painting, his son, Jahangir brought it to itsparamount, for the miniatures produced underhis patronage are the best of those in theMughal style. Although he was not as great aruler as his father, Jahangir had an interest infauna and flora that led to a large number oflovely paintings of animals, birds and plantsbeing done.

The illustrations of important manuscriptscontinued during Jahangir’s reign, but he alsoput in train a large number of individualpaintings. These portraits of all kinds of people,and paintings of single birds and animals, aredistinctly different from the crowded scenesthat substrate the senses of Akbar’s reign.Jahangir’s paintings are also characterized byfine brushwork and shading. Optical perspectivewas meticulously maintained, and the landscapewas integrated with the best of the compositions.

After Jahangir’s reign, Mughal paintingdeclined in quality and originality. Jahangir’sson and successor, Shahjahan’s, the builder ofthe Taj Mahal, was more interested inarchitecture than painting. Under his rule,Mughal architecture reached a pinnacle ofexcellence, but painting suffered from lack ofroyal interest. And, when Shahjahan’spuritanical son Aurangzeb became Emperor inthe second half of 17th century, Mughal painting,more or less, came to an end, although craftsmencontinued to produce works of art fordiminishing market.

Many of the artists trained in the MughalKarkhanas and their apprentices flocked to thecourts of smaller Hindu states in Rajasthan, inplace such as Bundi, Kotah, Jaipur, Jodhpurand Bikaner, and to the northern hill states of the

Punjab, such as Kangra, Kulu, Nurpur, Chamba,Basohli and Guler. The rulers of Rajasthani stateshad always encouraged painting, even in theheyday of Mughal art and now they became themajor patrons of this form of art. The paintingproduced in these states drew upon the localartistic and religious traditions as well as thoseestablished by the Mughal School. Literary workssuch as Gita Govinda, which tells of passionatelove between the god Krishna and Radha, andother works such as the Bhagawata Purana andRasikpriya all provided themes that were rich inimagery and symbolism.

The artists of the Rajasthani schools did notattempt to follow the rules of perspective.Instead, they relied on hands of colour to createa feeling of depth. They did not employ theMughal techniques of highlighting certainsections of the painting. Light is distributeduniformly over the entire scheme.

Rajput painting is the painting of Rajputanaand Bundelkhand, and the Punjab Himalayas.The known examples reigning from the laterpart of the sixteenth into the nineteenth centuryfall into two main groups, Rajasthani (Rajputanaand Bundelkhand), and Pahari. Latter group isagain divisible into Jammu School, with referenceto all the hill states west of the Satluj, andKangra School, with reference to all the hillstates of the Jalandhar group, east of the sameriver. Sikh painting, mainly done in Lahore andAmritsar in the time of Ranjit Singh, is animmediate derivative of Kangra School.

One of the oldest Rajput paintings has probablythe Krishna Lila theme, which, in style, lyricaltheme and the presentation, and in the languageof superscription shows a relation to the Gujaratipainting of the fifteenth century. Most typical arethe several series of Ragmala pictures dated in thelater part of the sixteenth century. These representthe purest Rajput style in its most vigorous form.Their most obvious features are the great vitalityof the drawing and colour.

Rajasthani School of Painting

The Rajasthani school of painting developedaround the same time as the Mughal school, asa direct natural evolution from the western

68 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Indian style. Till the 17th century, they remainedunaffected by the mughal style. The subjectmatter was essentially Hindu. The main themewas Raagmla or garland of songs. They depictragas and raginis in their emotive setting. Besides,Radha-Krishna myth, Purana, Ramayan,Mahabharata, Barahmasa, Nayika bheda etc.also form major themes. The main regionalschools or styles were:

1. Kishangarh School: Kishangarh, nearJaipur is an important centre of the vallabh sect.The school achieved its peak during the reign ofRaja Sawant Singh (1748-68), who was alsocalled Kavi Nagari Das. The main theme ofpainting of this school and his painting ‘BaniThani’ has been called ‘Indian Monalisa’. Hedeveloped the mannerist style. The paintings ofthis school are lyrical and sensuous. The femalesin the painting have slender curves, almondeyes and lyrical fingers. They reflect the amoroussentiment or Sringara Rasa. Nature is depictedin green colour. Other noted painters of thisschool were Surdhwaj, Amir Chand, Dhanna,etc.

2. Jaipur School: It developed in the 16thcentury. During Aurangzeb’s period, there wasa flight of painters from his court as the latterdiscouraged painting. Hence the painters flockedto Jaipur. This is why this school has mughalinfluence. The school achieved its peak duringRaja Jai Singh. Its prominent feature was theuse of lead in painting. The themes of paintingincluded Raag Ragini, Barahmasa, Durgapath,war scenes, Radha Krishna, birds and animalsetc. The prominent painters of this school wereSahib Ram, Mohammad Sur, Chitra, Gopal,Jeevan etc. The Jaipur style murals were called‘Arayash’.

3. Marwar School: Jodhpur was theprincipal seat of this school which developedpictorial art on its own lines. The themes ofpainting included raagmala, Barahmasa, Dholamaru, folk deities like pabuji, Dungji, portraits

etc. Equestrian Portraits of royal household andnobility, folk dances, family sense were alsomade. The males in the paintings had broadeyes, beard, moustache, head gear, sword andshield. The females had rounded hair, lotuseyes, long arms and supported bindi, Mehendi,bangles etc. The animals depicted were camel,horse and dogs. The prominent painters of thisschool were Shivdas Bhatti, Kishandas Bhatti,Devadas Bhatti etc.

4. Bundi School: This school was famousfor painting of animals and the use of black andblue colour. The important paintings of animalsand birds include- elephants under black clouds,line of cranes, chetak, mayor etc. Besides animalsand birds, the other themes were Raag Ragini,inking water. Season also formed an importanttheme. The males in the paintings sportedbundled head gear, dupatta, pyjama and hada healthy face and round forehead. The notedpainters of this school were Surjan, Ahmad Ali,Shri Krishna and Ram Lal.

5. Bikaner School: This school of paintingdeveloped fully by 1680. It was influenced bythe Mughal and Kangra Schools. The themes ofpainting included Raagmala, Barahmasa, Geeta,Krishna Lila etc. Its distinctive feature was ustakala perfected by Hamiduddin usta. It waspainting done on camel hide, ivory, stones etc.Ruknuddin was the foremost painter of thisschool.

6. Mewar School: It was a mixture of Jainand Gujarati style. It was patronized by rulerslike Amar Singh, Sangram Singh and BhimSingh. It attained highest development duringthe rule of Jagat Singh. The themes of this schoolof painting included Krishna Lila, Padmavalisof Surdas, Ramayan etc. Its prominent featurewas the use of red and blue colour. The foremostpainters of this school were Nitharuddin,Manohar and Sahibuddin.

���

Indian Culture 69

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

MEDIACHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

The Post-Independence India has witnessedan explosion in the field of mass media likenewspapers, magazines, books, radio, TV andfilms. After the British left India the Indianmedia could be used to serve the interests of thepeople and the nation, according to the newvisions, policies, and national goals set by thenew architects of the nation, the media owners,and the experts. Communication network wasstrengthened to preserve the Unity and integrityof Indian and secure the active cooperation ofpeople in the era of planned development andreconstruction.

Print Media

India is the second largest publisher innewspaper producing more than 20,758newspapers with a circulation of about 55.4millions. Of these 1,423 are dailies, 6,123 weekliesand 13,105 periodicals besides bi-weeklies andtri-weeklies. India is the largest book producerin the Third World and ranks among the firstten in the whole world. It is also the third largestproducer of books in English. However titles onNatural Sciences, Medical Sciences andTechnology trail behind.

India has four news agencies– Press Trustof India (PTI), United News of India (UNI),Samachar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar.PTI was set up on August 27, 1947. It took overfrom the Associated Press of India (API) andReuters. It has around 124 news bureau in thecountry. UNI was registered as a company in1854 and started news operation in 1961. In1982 it launched its Hindi news services‘Univarta’. It operates a news service to themedia in four Gulf countries.

Television

At 6 P.M. on September 15, 1959, Pratima

Puri read out the programmes, the first telecastin India. In the beginning, the TV programmeswere telecast only twice a week for only onehour. From 1959 till 1966 the TV programmeswere telecast live but in 1966 for the first timea programme was recorded on astronaut YuriGagarin. A film processing plant was alsoinstalled. Meanwhile the telecast of the featurefilm started but each film was shown in twoparts on two consecutive Sundays. Graduallytransmission was extended to four days.

In 1966 a play was shown every week. G.D.Shukul’s play Aisa Bhi Hota Ha was telecast in106 episodes and was very popular with theviewers. Also 10 episodes of Sara Akash weretelecast, in which Kulbhushan Kharbandaplayed a key role.

In 1971 along with the “School ofTelevision”, a programme on news and currentaffairs was started, like News Perspective Weeklyin English and Desh Videsh and Aamne Saamnein Hindi. A programme for the common manwas also introduced in which the then PrimeMinister late Mrs. Indira Gandhi was invited.Many people of different sections of societyattended the live programme as this was thefirst time that the Prime Minister was having aword with the people on T.V. In the year 1972,apart from Delhi, centres were opened inAmritsar, Srinagar and Bombay and thetransmission time increased to three and halfhours.

In 1975, eminent scientist Vikram Sarabhaimooted the idea of educating and entertainingpeople with the help of ‘satellite’. Soontransmissions to this effect began throughA.T.S.F. 6 at NASA. In 1973, a productioncentre was set up at Vigyan Bhawan. After thatsimilar centres were opened at Calcutta, Madrasand Lucknow.

70 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

The development of television was gradualuntil the microwave technique came. With it theINSAT-1A was availed and in July 1982, thenational programme on TV started. In thebeginning the duration of the nationalprogramme was one and a half hour every day.On August 15, 1982 New Delhi, Jalandhar,Srinagar, Lucknow, Calcutta, Madras andBombay were linked to the microwave. At firstthe national network programmes were telecastfrom 8.30 to 10.30 which were changed from 9to 10.45. But from August 11, 1985 the nationalprogrammes were held from 8.40 P.M. AllKendras telecast the Hindi news bulletin but ona request from the Government of Tamil Nadu,the Madras centre stopped this bulletin.

The idea of national telecast was mooted atthe time of Asian Games in November 1982. ShivShankar Sharma, then a Kendra Director, wasbrought to Delhi from Calcutta and was giventhe responsibility for the telecast of the AsianGames. The Government was a little apprehensiveabout the success of the venture and the planswere afoot to give the responsibility to BBC. ButDoordarshan decided to shoulder theresponsibility alone. All the people in Doordarshanworked as a team covering 22 sports disciplinestaking place at 18 different stadia in the threemetros. The telecast received kudos from allcentres of the world. This telecast ushered in anew chapter in the history of Doordarshan. Thecoverage of CHOGM and NAM were the otherfeathers in Doordarshan’s cap.

In 1984 with the serial Humlog began the eraof sponsored soap operas. In 1984-85,Doordarshan’s earnings through its commercialservice were 31.44 crore which went up in thefollowing 1985-87, 136.30 crore in 1987-88, 161.31crore in 1988-89 and 210 crore in 1989-90.

On December 20, 1989 even the swearing inceremony of the new Cabinet of Ministers and thePresident’s address to the joint session of Parliamentwas brought live. The year 1989 is also significantbecause the information and news were includedirectly (live in the national bulletins during thegeneral elections on November.

In February 1989 the Central ProductionCentre at Delhi came into operation. In 1991 thewinter session of Parliament was recorded andaired after some cuts. It was not put live due tosome technical reasons.

Today, there are heaps of proposals forsponsored programmes and serials with anumber of committees and sub-committees totake decisions. Serials on Ramayana,Mahabharata, Vishwamitra, BahadurshahZafar, Tipu Sultan and Chankya have beentelecast.

Today there are more than 550 transmittersoperating in the country. TV course 82 per centof population and 67.6 per cent of the area. Thefirst indigenous Black and White TV receiverwas produced in India in 1969. The number hasgone up to 45.6 million by 1992.

Radio

Though T.V. has made inroads into radio’saudience, this audio media is still very popularwith the people, particularly among lower andmiddle class income group. Radio is less costlyand easy to handle and care. Channels are morein Radio than in T.V. And one can do one’s usualwork with radio playing in the background. Invillages, people still rely more on B.B.C than onT.V. news. Besides, most of the villages in Indiahave no electricity. Thus, TV can be watchedonly with the help of battery and that is a costlyaffairs. So, Radio is still the most conveniententertainment as well as news medium.

In 1927, Bombay and Calcutta witnessedthe installation of two privately ownedtransmitters. But in real sense the revolutionstarted with the establishment of the IndianBroadcasting Service when the above twotransmitters were taken over by the Governmentof India. The name Indian Broadcasting Servicewas changed to All India Radio (AIR) in 1936,which was again changed to Akashvani in1957. Besides Akashvani Delhi, every state capitalhas its own radio station. Gradually, importantdistrict towns were gifted with a regional radiocentre of their own.

In the initial days, the programmes wereinformation oriented. Music relayed was often,classical Debates and discussion on currentsocio-economic and political scenario could beheard quite often on radio. The only interest ofcommon people it could cater to was throughrelaying live commentary of cricket and hockeymatches. Otherwise, the programmes were

Indian Culture 71

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

stereo-typed. One could listen to Hindi songs onRadio Sri Lanka, thus attracting Indian sponsors.The programmes recorded in India, particularlyin Bombay, were sent to Sri Lanka. BinacaGeetmala, a package of Hindi songs from latestfilms broadcast from 8 P.M. on Wednesday wasan instant hit. People waited breathlessly tohear the rank of their favorite songs. The rankwas decided by the sale of the cassettes and therequests from the Radio Shrota Sangha.

For News, people, even in the remotestvillages, listened to BBC Hindi Service. Theyrelied heavily on its news about India. On May18, 1988, a National Radio Channel was born.The transmission originated in Delhi and thenbeamed all over the country through a 1000 kWtransmitter at Nagpur. National Channel startedat 11 P.M. and continued till early morning.The programmes included Hindi songs, Englishsongs, classical music and even regional songs.

The Vividh Bhrati Service, an exclusiveentertainment channel was the only respite forthe common people. But it lacked the range ofRadio Sri lanka Broadcasting and songs playedwere always oldies. Technically speaking, twohigh power short wave transmitters in Madrasand Bombay carried the transmissions. Therewere 32 Commercial Broadcasting centers.

Of late, the programmes on Vividh Bharatihave gained in both, range and quality. RadioSrilanka has lost its place to indigenous, moreclear, Vividh Bharati. From forgotten melodiesto the latest pop can be heard on this channel.Sponsored programmes have been bringing inrevenue too. Film previews can also be heard.Hawa Mahal is popular for the humorousdramas. Chhaya Geet, heard at 10 P.M. everynight, is a package of Hindi songs based on aparticular them. At 10.45 P.M. this channelcloses its transmission.

Yuvavani is for the youth. Mehfil (Hindisongs) and Play it Cool (English songs) are verypopular among students. A student is invited toplay the records of his/her choice for theaudience in case of above programmes. Youthbased topics are also discussed on Yuvavani.

Satellite Invasion

Towards the end of 1991 STAR TV, then alittle known Hong Kong company acquired a

transponder and began beaming spectrum ofshows to the Indian subcontinent. Ted Turner’sCable News Network (CNN) International hasalready provided Indians with the first taste ofthe dazzling satellite technology.

Then surfaced on the scene, the illegal, butenterprising cable TV operators. This helpedSTAR to invade Indian homes with vengeance.The responses to STARS TV in India has beenstaggering; from 4.12 lakh urban households inJanuary, the number has zoomed to 12.82 lakh,an increase of 211 per cent. At present STAR isrelaying on five channels viz, Star Plus, MTV,Prime Sports, BBC and Zee TV.

But, STAR’s audience in Indian is only afraction of Doordarshan’s total reach a staggering125 million people in urban settlements, plus apossible 75 million more in the countryside.Doordarshan’s national network and sevenregional networks are serviced by scores of groundbased transmitters linked to two INSAT satellites.More regional networks are planned in the nextfew years. But Doordarshn’s greatest indictmentcomes from STAR’S success. Viewers have to paycable operators for the satellite channels andmost of the programmes are unrelated to theirlives yet STAR is spreading into city slums andinto the countryside.

To counter STAR’s success, Mandi Housestarted Metro Channel loaded with programmesrelated to films. Though this channel’s popularityhas increased tremendously, some say D.D. hasbecome a poor man’s version of the Hindicinema. Films, variations of Chitrahaar andinterviews with film stars have become theorder of the day.

DD, till recently, was also placed atdisadvantage because it was transmitting onlyterrestrially, and viewers had to disconnect thecable- TV Line to switch on Doordarshan. Assuch DD’s latest move of transmitting its MetroChannel via INSAT seems to be the first seriousstep on the part of the government to fight thecompetition from STAR et al. For transmissionof Metro Channel, DD is using INSAT 1D andINSAT -2A transponders. The TV signals fromthese transponders can be received only throughdish antennae, which are so highly priced as tobe unaffordable to the common viewer.

���

72 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

INDIAN CINEMACHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Before Independence, film making wasessentially a middle class pursuit geared towardsproviding alternative entertainment of theatre.The emotional aspirations of wide majority ofmasses were well-reflected in many mythologicalcostumes dramas, social comedies, musicals andcrime thrillers churned out by the “dreamfactories” of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.Patriotic films like Bhuli Nai (Bengali), VeerPandya Kattabomman (Tamil), Pehla Admi(Hindi) etc. were manifestations of a culturalupsurge inspired by the struggle against a foreignruler.

When the British left India, cinema acquireda different class Character. The petty bourgeoisieemerged as the key manipulators with sundrytraders, money lenders, smugglers and thenouveau riche semiliterate taking over from themiddle class. Together, they addressed themselvesto a fast expanding working class who becamethe basic audience for this mode of entertainment.

The tradition was complete by the early1950s. Mehboob, Bimal Roy and Guru Dutt roseup as invincible Titans of the celluloid world,guiding the passion of millions. While all theirfilms –beginning with Andaaz, Do Bighaa Zaminand Udayer Pathey, onwards to Pyaasa andMother India –reflect varying degrees of socialconcern, each one also served as star vehicles forlesser mortals like Balraj Sahni, K.L Saigal, DilipKumar, Raj Kapoor, Meena Kumari and Nargis.Raj Kapoor left his mark on Indian cinema witha blend of art and showmanship as not onlywere his films relevant but commerciallysuccessful also. His films became internationalsuccess also especially in the USSR, Central Asiaand Eastern Europe.

Popular cinema also generated certain mythsin terms of plot structures, creation of archetypes,introduction of music and dance, sensuality andviolence… all measured to conform to a well-

tried box office formula. From a medium ofartistic expression, cinema turned into a cut-throat competitive business by the end of sixties.

For those who believed in thedemocratization of cinema, this evoked peculiarresponses. Ritwik Ghatak trusted more on hiswide angle lenses, avoided close-ups anddemolished the archetypal screen hero. Themid-fifties also saw Satyajit Ray and othersexperimenting with a brand of “neo-realism”that sought to raise the collective intelligence ofaudiences. Together with Ritwik Ghatak andMrinal Sen he was responsible for introducinga “parallel cinema” with it peculiar angularitiesand a distinct set of codes and myths. Moreover,with the Brechtian format they brought cinemaso close to theatre, that Ray had to concede in1980 “My aim is to release cinema fromtheatricality”.

Satyajit Ray: He is regarded as one of thegreatest auteur of 20th century cinema. Ray’sfirst film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleveninternational prizes, including Best HumanDocument at the Cannes film festival. Numerousawards were bestowed on Ray throughout hislifetime, including 32 National Film Awards bythe Government of India, in addition to awardsat international film festivals. At the Berlin FilmFestival, he was one of only three filmmakers towin the Silver Bear for Best Director more thanonce and holds the record for the most numberof Golden Bear nominations, with seven. At theVenice Film Festival, where he had previouslywon a Golden Lion for Aparajito (1956), he wasawarded the Golden Lion Honorary Award in1982. That same year, he received an honorary“Hommage à Satyajit Ray” award at the 1982Cannes Film Festival.

Ray is the second film personality afterChaplin to have been awarded honorarydoctorates by Oxford University. He was

Indian Culture 73

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985and the Legion of Honor by the President ofFrance in 1987. The Government of Indiaawarded him the highest civilian honour, BharatRatna shortly before his death. The Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Rayan honorary Oscar in 1992 for LifetimeAchievement.

Neo realism: World cinema was particularlyinfluenced by neo realistic cinema of Italy whichwas a response to Second World War andresultant frustration among artists due toviolence and large destruction of not onlyphysical damage and casualties but also ofhuman values. It was particularly influenced byexistential philosophy and it later resulted in todevelopment of what is popularly known as“parallel cinema” today. Few great auteurs ofworld cinema then were Vittorio De Sica,Federico Fellini, Rossellini, Akira Kurosawa,Jean Renoir and Ingmar Bergmann.

Indigenous Productions

V. Shantaram sprang a surprise with JhanakJhank Payal Baaje- the first colour film madewholly by an Indian crew. This was followed byMohan Segal’s Adhikaar, Raj Kappor’s Shree420, Guru Dutt’s Mr. And Mrs. Bimal andDevendra Goel’s Vachan, Bimal Roy’s Naukriand Satyen Bose’s Bandish. Bimal Roy alsoproduced a documentary (for Films Division)Gautama the Buddha, which won a top nationalaward as well as a special mention at Cannes.

During this period Hrishikesh Mukherjeeused cinema as medium to portray commonman and middle class ethos in his films whichtotally deglamourized the hero and presentedhim as person next door. He also rejuvenatedand redefined comedy as he used his protagonistinstead of mimes (professional comedians) tocreate humour out of everyday situations.

Meanwhile, Mrinal Sen emerged of thescene with Raat Bhor (1956). Progressinggradually from the dull mediocrity of Punascha(1961), the half-baked comedy of Abasheshe(1962) and a French-inspired Akash Kusum(1965) to the sudden brilliance of Matira Manisha(1967) sustained by Ek Adhuri Kahani (1971)and the masterpiece of Oka Oorie Katha (1977)

immediately followed by the wild improvisationsof Parashuram (1978), he finally straightenedout in Ek Din Prati Din (1983) and then Genesis(1986).

In retrospect, Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969)can well be regarded as the turning point ofIndian cinema, when the “new wave” first hitthe shores. The film made on an unsecured loangranted by the then film finance corporation,became a trend setter, inspiring the likes ofShyam Benegal (Ankur), P. Reddy (Samskara),Girish Karnad (Kaddu), B.V. Karanth (Godhuli),Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Swayamvaram), M.S.Sathyu (Garma Hawa), Awtar Kaul (27 Down),G.V. lyer (Hamsa Geethe), G. Aravindan(Uttarayanam) and many others.

Of them Shyam Benegal has proved to bethe most prolific with an impressive track recordof 15 full-length features and 38 documentariesmade in less than twelve years. Like hiscontemporaries, he began on an angry notequestioning the fundamentals of feudalrelationships (Nishant, Aarohan, Susman), onlyto step back in time as a silent observer of history(Junoon/Nehru/Trikaal). He reached his apogeein 1977 with Bhumika a momentousbiographical on a Marathi stage artist whichwon lead actress Smita Patil her first NationalAward.

Role of NFDC

The National Film Development Corporation(NFDC) was established in 1980 and the situationbrightened a bit. Theater construction activitystepped up, loans were granted to deservingfilm-makers, avenues for exports explored,participation in foreign festivals improved andfilm weeks organized all in a bid to spread themessage of good cinema around. The majorbeneficiaries of the schemes were, of course, theyoung enterprising film graduates from theFilms and Television Institute of India in Pune,who would otherwise have never found anaudience for themselves.

An analysis of the NFDC films producedwould however, present a different picture.Technically perfect, they all lacked in thethematic spontaneity and freshness. By andlarge, each film appeared a distilled version of

74 Indian Culture

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

R

CH

RO

NIC

LE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

ON

ICLE

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

IA

S ACADEM

Y

Ghatak, Ray or Benegal – so strong is theirinfluence on the present generation. GovindNihalani made many films including Aakrosh(1979) and Vijeta (1982): each one on the themeof individual vs. the establishment. Whether itcentered on the idealism of a young lawyerobtaining justice, the predicament of an airforce cadet making a career, or the internalconflicts of a police officer, a budding poet ortrade unionist, the presentation is the same. AsBenegal’s cameraman, his style tends to bewarped, if not repetitive. Even in casting,Nihalani continues to bank on the same oldtrusted faces, without any inclination to change.

Among Ghatak’s successors, only KumarShahani (Tarang) and Nirad Mohapatra (MayaMiriga) could display the courage to develop astyle to the level of an epic. The other Mohapatra-Manmohan (Klanta Aparanha) – continues tolanguish in faithful emulation of his master.Ketan Mehta tried to achieve the epic form inHoli and now Kartoos, only that the influenceof French impressionists is much stronger.Prakash Jha (Daamul) with swinging cameramovements and long takes could successfullysuppress his deficiencies.

Ray’s Bandwagon

As for Ray, the most ardent followers canbe found in the South especially in Karnatakafrom the makers of Samshara, Ghattasraddha,Grahana and Phaniyamma. RabindraDharamraj’s Chakra made a real effort to imitateRay, though the impact was lost in a diffusedpresentation of slum dwelling have-nots.Utpalendu Chakraborty was more faithful inMoina Tadanta, Chokh and Debshishu whichshowed the same flashes of anger and remorselike Gautam Ghosh (Ma Bhoomi, Dakhal andPaar) and Buddhadev Dasgupta (Dooratwaand Andhi Gali). All these films have certaininnocence, a sense of awe in the presence ofunknown humanity that should flatter Ray. Hisstamp is strikingly visible.

Then there are those like Kundan Shah(Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron) and Saeed Mirza (AlbertPinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai?) who refusedto jump into any bandwagon and progressivelyevolved their own brand of wry humour – andawesome mix of Brechtian irony and black

comedy. On a serious level, Mr. S. Sathyu’spreoccupation with aesthetics led to the creationof Garam Hawa and Sookha- again, refreshinglyhonest and unpretentious. A glorious extensionof the form appears in G.V. lyer’s AdiShankaracharya – the first Indian Sanskrit film,incidentally, wholly financed by the NFDC.

Aravindan’s ‘Poetic’ Cinema

With G. Aravindan, cinema acquired apoetic quality- near magical product of nature.His films seem to be made without a camera orcrew, but created directly by the laws ofcinematography. In Thampu, the palpability ofhis itinerant circus performers in overwhelming;in Pokkuveyil, he weaves a shimmering web outof the insane interaction of sensitive mind withthe lights and colors of the earth, merging withthe softy shining bodies of characters. InChidambaram, nature is revealed like the wordof God. Man is seen as a projection of nature.

The other outstanding director from Kerala,Adoor Gopala Krishnan could not be moredifferent. He builds tension out of a powerfulmix of idea and fact, equally sensitive to mindand body, to noise and to silence. His growthfrom the understated descriptions of his earlyfilms of the complex orchestrations of his recentworks (Elippathayam and Mukhamukham)makes his achievements remarkable and hispromise even greater.

Contemporary Cinema

In 20th century cinema portrayed upper-middle class ethos and consumerist attitude dueto development of multiplex culture. Similarlyexpanding business in other countries led todevelopment of a particular genre of NRI movies.

Parallel cinema however has foundexpression among new breed of prolific femaledirectors which include Deepa Mehta, MiraNiar, Kalpana Lajmi, Aparna sen and others.

Similarly Anurag Kashyap, Ram GopalVarma, Mani Ratnam, Prakash Jha, Mani Kaul,Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani,Sudhir Mishra, Jahnu Barua and RitoparnoGhosh are new faces of socially sensitive andrelevant cinema.

���

Indian Culture 1

1. Consider the following:I. Kuchipudi is one of the classical dance

forms of the South India and derives itsname from the Kuchipudi village of AndhraPradesh.

II. Carrying a fine combination of Natya,Nritta and Nritya, Kuchipudi was never asolo affair and required a number of per-formers.

III. In modern times the Kuchipudi dance isconsiderably different than it originallyused to be. Most of the performances aresolo, done by female dancers.

Select the correct answer code from below:(a) Only I and II are correct

(b) Only I and III are correct

(c) Only II and III are correct

(d) All I, II and III are correct

2. Consider the following statements:I. Tanjore painting is an important form of

classical South Indian painting native to thetown of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu.

II. These paintings are known for their el-egance, rich colours, and attention to de-tail. The themes for most of these paintingsare Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and scenesfrom Buddhism mythology.

Select the correct answer code from the below:(a) Only I is correct

(b) Only II is correct

(c) Both I and II are correct

(d) Neither I nor II are correct

3. Heikru Hitongba festival, a festival of joy withlittle religious significance, is celebrated in themonth of September every year. Long narrowboats are used to accommodate a large numberof rowers. Idol of Lord Vishnu is installed beforethe commencement of the race. Heikru Hitongbafestival belongs to -------------

(a) Manipur

(b) Sikkim

(c) Andaman & Nicobar

(d) Assam

4. Which of the following statements related tothe classical dance Mohiniattam are true?

I. Mohiniattam is a solo female dance (in asingle costume), where musical melody andthe rhythmical swaying of the dancer fromside to side and the smooth and unbrokenflow of the body movement is the strikingfeature.

II. The credit for reviving the Mohiniattamdance in the nineteenth century goes toSwati Tirunal.

III. The performers of Mohiniattam dance usu-ally wear a brown colored sari with silverborders.

Codes:(a) Only I and II are correct

(b) Only II and III are correct

(c) Only I and III are correct

(d) All I, II and III are correct

5. Consider the following statements:I. Koodiyattam, the Malayalam theatre tradi-

tion of Kerala, India has been declared asamong the 'Masterpiece of the Oral andIntangible Heritage of Humanity' byUNESCO.

II. It is for the first time that UNESCO hasselected art forms from across the world tobestow recognition as part of its effort tosafeguard expressions of oral heritage andtraditional culture.

Select the answer from the code given below:(a) Only I is correct

(b) Only II is correct

(c) Both I and II are correct

(d) Both I and II are incorrect

INDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULTURETURETURETURETURE

SAMPLE QUESTIONSSAMPLE QUESTIONSSAMPLE QUESTIONSSAMPLE QUESTIONSSAMPLE QUESTIONS

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Indian Culture

CHRO

NICLE

IAS A

CADEM

Y

2

6. Which of the following instruments is NOT apercussion instrument?(a) Ghatam (b) Kanjeera

(c) Khol (d) Sarod

7. Veeranatyam, which means the "Dance of theBrave", is a traditional form of dance. The maincharacteristic features of this dance pattern arethe dexterous movements of hands and otherskillful steps. Veeranatyam belongs to which ofthe following states?(a) Kerala (b) Puducherry

(c) Andhra Pradesh (d) Tamil Nadu

8. Consider the following statements:

I. Kathakali is the only Indian dance form inwhich the entire body, both skeleton andmuscles, down to even the smallest facial muscleare used to portray emotion.

II. The Hastha Lakshandeepika is a classical textand forms the basis of hands and armsmovement in Kathakali.

Select the correct answer code from the below:(a) Only I is correct

(b) Only II is correct

(c) Both I and II are correct

(d) Neither I nor II are correct

9. Out of the many beautiful forms of handicrafts,Kalamkari has always been the favourite withthe art and craft lovers. The Kalamkari craftinvolves the art of printing and painting offabrics. This is a rare kind of art, which uses aKalam or quill, from which it has earned itsname and vegetable dyes. The Kalamkari craftbelongs to …..

(a) Andhra Pradesh

(b) Tamil Nadu

(c) Uttar Pradesh(d) West Bengal

10. Consider the following statements in the contextof Dravida temple architecture:

1. The chief feature of the Dravida style is theVimana or the storey.

2. Chola temples are famous for their richlyornamented gateways called the gopurams.

Which of the above statements are correct?(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

11. Which of the following pair of Dances and re-spective states is NOT matched correctly?

(a) Dhimsa dance------------- Andhra Pradesh

(b) Bagurumba -------------Assam

(c) Puli Kali -------------Kerala

(d) Baryi song -------------Odisha

12. Consider the following statements:

1. The Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar and theJagannath temple at Puri are examples of theNagara style of temple architecture.

2. The Kendariya Mahadev temple of Khajurahoand the Dilwara temples of Mount Abu areexamples of the Vesara style of templearchitecture.

Which of the above statements are true?(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

13. Mughal painting reached its Zenith under(a) Humayun

(b) Akbar

(c) Jahangir

(d) Sahjahan

14. The Ajanta paintings are the finest specimen of(a) Indian cave paintings.

(b) Rajasthani miniature painting.

(c) Rock engraving.

(d) Indo-Persian painting.

15. The chief feature of the Hindu temples of theSouth is(a) Slender pillars.

(b) Multiple terraces.

(c) Multiple umbrella shapes on the spires.

(d) Gopuram

Indian Culture 3

16. The 'painted grey ware' is associated with(a) Paleolithic age

(b) Neolithic age

(c) Bronze age

(d) Iron age

17. The Mathura School of Art was influenced by:(a) Amravati School of Art.

(b) Gandhara School of Art.

(c) Roman School of Art.

(d) Both Roman and Gandhara School of Art.

18. The famous Hazara Temple is said to be one ofthe most perfect specimens of Hindu templearchitecture in existence. It was built duringthe reign of:(a) Bukka I

(b) Deva Raya II

(c) Krishnadeva Raya

(d) Achyuta Raya

19. Which of the following places is not associatedwith the growth of art?(a) Mahabalipuram (b) Amarnath

(c) Ajanta (d) Ellora

20. The structures at Khajuraho represent amagnificent example of(a) Massive rock-cut temples.

(b) Lavishly decorated structural temples.

(c) Intricate cave temples.

(d) 10th century Buddhist monastries.

21. The Chaitya Cave at which of the followingplaces is regradd as the finest specimen ofsculptures?(a) Bhaja (b) Bedsa

(c) Karle (d) Nasik

22. Some of the rock-cut temples, known as theseven Pagodas, were built by the(a) Cholas (b) Chalukyas

(c) Pallavas (d) Rashtrakutas

23. Which of the chronological order for theconstruction of the following is correct?1. Taj Mahal

2. Qutab Minar

3. Fatehpur Sikri

4. Agra Fort

(a) 2, 4, 3, 1 (b) 2, 4, 1, 3

(c) 1, 2, 3, 4 (d) 2, 3, 4, 1

24. Which of these is not related to the GandharaSchool of art?(a) Ellora (b) Ajanta

(c) Khajuraho (d) Elephanta

25. Which one of the following popular dances onthe common people was known as Kolattam inSouth India?(a) Puppet shows

(b) Sanke-dance

(c) Stick play by women

(d) Dances by devadasis

���

Indian Culture

CHRO

NICLE

IAS A

CADEM

Y

1 (d)

2 (a)

3 (a)

4 (a)

5 (b)

6 (d)

7 (c)

8 (a)

9 (b)

10 (c)

11 (d)

12 (a)

13 (c)

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

INDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULTURETURETURETURETURE(ANSWERS)

14 (a)

15 (d)

16 (b)

17 (d)

18 (c)

19 (b)

20 (b)

21 (c)

22 (c)

23 (a)

24 (c)

25 (c)

���

Indian Culture 1

CHRO

NICLE

IAS A

CADEM

Y

1. Bimbavati Devi is a well-known dancer ofwhich type of dance?(a) Manipuri

(b) Bharat Natyam

(c) Kuchipudi

(d) Odissi

2. Near which one of the following cities arePalitana Temples located?(a) Bhavnagar (b) Mount Abu

(c) Nasik (d) Ujjain

3. What is the number of spokes in the Dharmachakra in the National Flag of India?(a) 16 (b) 18

(c) 22 (d) 24

4. The manuscripts of which one of the followinghave been included in the UNESCO’s Memoryof World Register?(a) Abhidhamma Pitaka

(b) Mahabharta

(c) Ramayana

(d) Rig-Veda

5. Consider the following statements :1. The National School of Drama was set up

by Sangeet Natak Akademi 1959.

2. The highest honour conferred by the SathiyaAkademi on a writer is by electing him itsfollow.

Which of the statement given above is /arecorrect?(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

6. For outstanding contribution to which one ofthe following fields is Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar

INDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULTURETURETURETURETURE

UPSC QUESTIONSUPSC QUESTIONSUPSC QUESTIONSUPSC QUESTIONSUPSC QUESTIONS

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

Prize given?(a) Literature

(b) Performing Arts

(c) Science

(d) Social service

7. The brothers Umakant and Ramakant Gundechare:(a) Dhrupad vocalists

(b) Kathat Dancers

(c) Sarod maestros

(d) Tabla players

8. Match list I with list II and select the correctanswer using the code given below the lists:

List I List II

(Famous Person) (Well- Known for)

(A) Mandakini Amte (1) Theatre direction

(B) Neelam Mansingh (2) Social service and

Chowdhry community leadership

(C) Romila Thapar (3) Dance

(D) Vanashree Rao (4) History Writing

Codes:A B C D

(a) 2 1 4 3

(b) 2 4 1 3

(c) 3 1 4 2

(d) 1 2 3 4

9. With reference to Stree Shakti Puraskar forwhich one of the following is “Devi Ahilya BaiHolkar Award” given?(a) Administrative skills

(b) Achievements in Scientific Research

(c) Achievements in sports and Games

(d) Courage and valour

Indian Culture

CHRO

NICLE

IAS A

CADEM

Y

2

10. Who of the following is the author of the book“The Audacity of Hope”?(a) Al Gore

(b) Barack Obama

(c) Bill Clinton

(d) Hillary Clinton

11. Match List I with List II and select the correctanswer using the code given below the lists :

List I List II

(Famous Temple) (State)

(A) Vidyashankara (1) Andhra Pradesh

(B) Rajarani Temple (2) Karnataka

(C) Kandariya (3) Madhya Pradesh

Mahadeo Temple

(D) Bhimesvara (4) Orissa

Temple

Codes : A B C D

(a) 2 4 3 1

(b) 2 3 4 1

(c) 1 4 3 2

(d) 1 3 4 2

12. Mahamastakabhisheka, a great religious event isassociated with and for who of the following?(a) Bahubali

(b) Buddha

(c) Mahavir

(d) Nataraja

13. Consider the following pairs:Tradition State

(1) Gatka, a traditional martial art : Kerala

(2) Madhubani, a traditional : Bihar

Painting

(3) Singhey Khababs, Sindhu : J & K

Darshan Festival

Which of the pairs given above is/are correctlymatched?(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

14. Match List I with List II and select the correctanswer using the code given below the lists :

List I List II

(Famous person) (Well- known as)

(A) Amrita Sher-Girl (1) Dancer(B) Bhimsen Joshi (2) Painter(C) Rukmini Devi (3) Poet

Arundale(D) Suryakant Tripathi (4) Singer

Nirala

Codes :A B C D

(a) 2 1 4 3

(b) 2 4 1 3

(c) 3 1 4 2

(d) 3 4 1 2

15. Which one of the following was included in theUNESCO’s World Heritage list?(a) Dilwara Temple

(b) Kalka-Shimla Railway

(c) Bhiterkanika Mangrove Area

(d) Visakhapatnam to Araku valley Railwayline

16. Where is the famous Virupaksha temple located?(a) Bhadrachalam

(b) Chidambaram

(c) Hampi

(d) Srikalahasti

17. Who of the following is the author of a collec-tion of poems called “Golden Threshold”?(a) Aruna Asaf Ali

(b) Annie Bosant

(c) Sarojini Naidu

(d) Vijayalakshmi

18. Anekantavada is a core theory and philosophyof which one of the following?(a) Buddhism (b) Jainism

(c) Sikhism (d) Vaishnavism

19. India maintained its early cultural contacts andtrade links with Southeast Asia across the Bayof Bengal. For this pre-eminence of early mari-time history of Bay of Bengal, which of thefollowing could be the most convincing .expla-nation/explanations?

Indian Culture 3

CHRO

NICLE

IAS A

CADEM

Y

(a) As compared to other countries, India hada better ship-building technology in ancientand medieval times

(b) The rulers of southern India always patron-ized traders, brahmin priests and buddhistmonks in this context

(c) Monsoon winds across the Bay of Bengalfacilitated sea voyages

(d) Both (a) and (b) are convincing explana-tions in this context

20. The Nagara, the Dravida and the Vesara arethe:(a) Three main racial groups of the Indian

subcontinent

(b) Three main linguistic divisions into whichthe language of India can be classified

(c) Three main styles of Indian temple archi-tecture

(d) Three main musical Gharanas prevalent inIndia

21. With reference to Dhrupad, one of the Majortraditions of India that has been kept alive forcenturies, which of the following statements arecorrect?1. Dhrupad originated and developed in the

Rajput kingdoms during the Mughal pe-riod.

2. Dhrupad is primarily a devotional andspiritual music.

3. Dhrupad Alap uses Sanskrit syllables fromMantras.

Select the correct answer using the codesgiven below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1, 2 and 3

(d) None of the above is correct

22. How do you distinguish between Kuchipudiand Bharatanatyam dances?1. Dancers occasionally speaking dialogues is

found in Kuchipudi dance but not inBharatanatyam.

2. Dancing on the brass plate by keeping thefeet on its edges is a feature ofBharatanatyam but Kuchipudi dance doesnot have such a form of movements.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only (b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

23. In the context of cultural hinstory of india, apose in dance and dramatics called ‘Tribhaga’has been a favorite of indian artists from an-cient time till today. Which one of the foloowingstatement best describes the pose?(a) One leg is bent and body is slightly but

oppositely curved at waist and neck.

(b) Facial expressions, hand gestures and make-up are combined to symbolize certain epicsor historic characters

(c) Movement of body, face and hands areused to express oneself or to tell a story

(d) A little smile, slightly curved waist andcertain hand gestures are emphasised toexpress the feeling of love and or eroticism

24. In which state is the Buddhist site Tabomonastry located?(a) Arunachal Pradesh

(b) Himachal Pradesh

(c) Silkkim

(d) Uttrakhand

���

Indian Culture

CHRO

NICLE

IAS A

CADEM

Y

1. (a)

2. (a)

3. (d)

4. (d)

5. (c)

6. (c)

7. (a)

8. (a)

9. (d)

10. (b)

11. (a)

12. (a)

13. (c)

14. (b)

15. (b)

16. (c)

17. (c)

CHRONICLEIAS ACADEMYA CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE

INDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULINDIAN CULTURETURETURETURETURE(UPSC ANSWERS)

18. (b)

19. (b)

20. (c)

21. (b)

Exp: Origin from Sama Veda. The lyrics, some ofwhich were written in Sanskrit centuriesago, Dhrupad music is primarily devotionalin theme and content.

22. (a)

Exp: The dance form spread further during theBhakti movement between 11th and the 13thcentury, when dance dramas set to devo-tional themes were performed by a cast ofall men in open-air theaters, with the menplaying both the male and female roles. Thedramas were usually opened by the narra-tor, or soothradhar accompanied by (musicand) the rhythms of the drums and cym-bals. As the audience watched with raptattention, the characters would introducethemselves, with the lead roles entering thestage behind a curtain. Dramatic elementswere used heavily throughout the perfor-mance, with the characters speaking out dia-logues to the audience during key moments.

23. (a)

24. (b)

���