Luminous Harmony Indian Art and Culture

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

About the Book Luminous Harmony: Indian Art and Culture reveals the universal resonance in Indian art and culture, covering the grand Indian heritage by providing an overview of both the visual and performing arts. Votive traditions are also taken up, followed by an inquiry into traditions and rituals. The impact of Islam on Indian art and culture; cultural linkages with Central, South and Southeast Asia; India's festivals; the sociology of Indian music and cinema; the role of mathematics in arts are among the other topics covered in this well-researched book.

About the Author Dr Utpal K Banerjee has been an adviser on Management and Information Technology for thirty-five years, after having studied on a doctoral programme in the UK as a Commonwealth Scholar from 1968-1972. He has an abiding interest in Indian art and culture. His formal exposure to the visual and performing arts of the world was through courses conducted at the Extra-Mural Department, University of Manchester, UK. He has been National Project Director for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) relating to the UNDP project on Multimedia Database for Art and Culture Documentation and Computerisation from 1991-1993. In the nineties, Dr Banerjee gave lectures on Indian art and culture, organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), in Canada and South America. He was also invited by the Kala Bharati Foundation of Canada to speak on the same subject. He has been writing on the arts and culture in several newspapers and journals and is a regular contributor on cultural and professional programmes to London BBC, All India Radio and Indian television. He has also written 33 books, including Hindu Joy of Life (Niyogi Books, Delhi, 2006), which has gone into a second edition. Dr Banerjee was awarded the Padma Shri 'in recognition of distinguished service in literature and education' in 2009.

Foreword India today is at the cusp of an ebullient economic growth, after some years of a tardy development pattern. Its voice is now respectfully heard in the world comity of nations. And, together with the advantage of a burgeoning population, it has earned a decisive voice in the area of international commerce. It is a voice of a resurgent country reflecting the power of an unbroken continuity of culture, which has seen countless upheavals and yet has endured owing to its innate resilience that calls for an urgent recognition. It is the power of a hoary tradition that, despite the passage of frosty years, is evergreen and has the enviable capacity to offer a message of inner peace and harmony to the wide open world. The Indian cultural tradition is one of the most rich and varied in the entire world and, despite all the invasions and holocaust to which we were subjected, has survived intact down to the present day. Indian art and culture has a very special ambience and many books have been written on various aspects of our artistic heritage. In this book, Utpal Banerjee has presented an impressive conspectus of our pluralistic cultural heritage from the classical period down to the present day. The author has had an interesting career in the field of management, information technology, cultural relations and publishing. This book will be of great interest to lovers of Indian culture around the world. I commend this book, which will be welcomed by scholar and layman alike.

Preface There is more than a grain of truth in the statement that India is in addition to possessing a population asset and a fast growing economy-an indisputable 'soft power', arising from its age-old heritage and its new manifestations in a technological era. Its only parallel, in all three respects, is China. China's economic prowess and population advantage are already clearly visible to the world; its soft power of cultural supremacy has recently begun making waves through its sixty Confucius Institutes in the USA and several others in the west. In contrast, India's 'cultural diplomacy' despite a head start nearly three millennia ago that covered the Buddhist East, including China-has seemingly not found its rightful voice yet. The laudable exception is the coming up of the existing and the new thirty-plus Nehru Centres, dotting the east and the west, under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). This book is an effort to project India's soft power, which has developed in multiple dimensions, in a reader-friendly manner. To this end, I have divided it into five well-defined parts: The first part, "Enduring Heritage', lays the foundation of the universal resonance of India's legacy vibrant till today; the cornerstones of its visual arts-paintings, sculpture, architecture and handicrafts; and the milestones of its performing arts-music, dance, theatre and puppetry. Part Two, 'Votive Traditions', recapitulates the immensely powerful underpinning of spirituality that holds together the Indian mindset-through visualisation of the mother goddess Devi; the primordial triumvirate of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; the endearing conceptualisation of Ganesha and Krishna; the votive rubric of tradition and rituals; the literary and musical filigree provided to the common masses by the medieval saint-poets; and the unifying role played by the classic pastoral drama Gita Govinda 'Other Interfaces', in Part Three, traces the extraordinary influence that Islam exercised on India's cultural fabric, and the footprints of India in some detail-on Central Asia in the west and on Asia-Pacific in the east. Part Four, 'Arts and Society', delineates the vital role of arts and aesthetics in the common man's everyday life and his countless festivals. It looks at the sociology of Indian music and cinema, rarely seen from this perspective. It also reserves some special attention for the growing importance of mainstream cinema. The arts do not exist without their patrons, so this aspect is dilated upon. The concluding section, 'Overarching Vision', throws a new light on mathematics always dear to Indian hearts-in relation to the arts. It leads the reader into the unchartered dimensions of a Renaissance mind in the Indian context. If the book achieves even partially its stated purpose, my efforts will have been amply rewarded.

Acknowledgements The seeds of this multifaceted study were sown in my exposure to the west's visual and performing arts through very systemic, extra-mural courses conducted in the University of Manchester, UK, in 1968-1972. The sharing of the Indian experience began in a lecture at the Shastri Institute of Montreal. Canada, in 1990. The Kala Bharati Foundation of Canada-ranked among the best of NRI culture-bodies in that part of the world-organised a celebration of the two hundred-and-fiftieth year of the foundation of Montreal city in 1992. On this occasion, a series of nine lectures were delivered by me at the Hindu Cultural Centre and the redoubtable Universities of McGill and Concordia-at their departments of sociology, religion and cinema. Here, a large ground chartered in this book was covered. In 1998, another lecture tour took me to the University of Merida, Venezuela; the two Contemporary Art Museums in Caracas, Venezuela and Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the Indian ambassador's residential gathering in Lima, Peru. The Kala Bharati Foundation again invited me in 1995 for lectures at other cultural organisations. The 'World Dance Alliance-Global Summit' in Brisbane, Australia, gave me the opportunity to interact with others on Indian dance-heritage. I have been regularly invited by the ICCR to address its visiting international delegates and the annual induction programmes of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) probationers to lecture on Indian art and culture. I have also presented a paper on 'Central Asian Linkages' at the International Seminar on Central Asia at the National Museum, Delhi: made a presentation on 'Renaissance Mind' at the Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts (IGNCA), Delhi and given regular talks to the Afro-Asian diplomats at the Foreign Services Institute, Delhi, on Indian art and culture.