Indian Art: The Formative Phase Of Indian Art

In this paper I would like to discuss the formative phase of Indian art, which was derived from travelers account since the middle ages to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Indian Art specially Hindu visual art was puzzling and disturbing for Europeans basic understanding of art, hence they were getting fascinated about it. Something which is unknown to our mind always concern and puzzle it. This ignites a sense of enthrallment, which force our mind to solve the puzzle and also to understand this unknown phenomenon. Orients were one such unknown terrain for European which attracted them and also made them the one who represented it in the west. Hence, they shaped Orientals the way they perceived them, and in the process, they gradually

this was the formative phase in the reception of Indian art. For Mitter, Indian Art wasn't imitating or reproducing nature/mankind like that of western style, hence western standard can't judge it thoroughly. During this formative phase ideas about Indian art were derived from the travel accounts, but these travelers were really small in number as these travelers were mainly those who had the financial means or who had the opportunity to undertake long journeys to India. European's 'monster myth tradition' blurred and to a degree still blurs the western understanding and appreciation of Indian religious art particularly Hindu visual art culture. Western mind was trained according to their tradition and culture, which was a combination of classical ideas and Christian demonological tradition. Hence their idea and interpretation about Hindu art was drawn over those spectrums. Raymond Sahwab noted with regret one dark spot which stained the general picture. Virtually none of the Romantic admiration for all the different facets of Indian Culture had ever included an aesthetics appreciation of visual arts. And this further challenge the authenticity of western norms for appreciating not only Indian art, but any other non-western artistic tradition. These

Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) talks about Orientalism as an ideology discourse and body of knowledge created by westerners and then homogenizes the eastern world and its culture. Europeans were counting themselves as civilized people whose support was needed for the progress of orients. And all these accounts together points towards the legitimacy of the travel records written by the travelers because before visiting eastern land they already had an image which overshadowed what they were actually encountering. Here I think even these travel accounts were not the primary source because travelers were going through the earlier records prior to them and was imagining and forming their thoughts accordingly. Marco Polo, who was the first traveler to mention about Indian gods, in his travel account mentioned about the people of south India, he