A moment of grace

UNESCO Courier, Dec, 1996 by Stephen P. Huyler

"In nature around us, beauty is fleeting; it has no permanence. Droplets of morning dew on a leaf, the billowing shapes of clouds, the dancing movements of a bird, the soft eyes of a calf, the smile of a young child - these all change quickly. They are not frozen in time. Why should art be frozen, be still? So much of our art here is made only for the moment. It is beautiful right now. The artist knows it, and the gods surely know it. The earth just for this moment is more beautiful because of it. What more is needed? It changes as we change, as the day changes, until again we make something of beauty."

These words, spoken many years ago by the famous Indian dancer Rukmini Devi, give insight into one of the fundaments of Indian creativity: the ephemeral. In India all existence is believed to be in constant transition. Everything is in a cyclical state of creation and destruction, of birth, death, and rebirth. There is no permanence - all is thought to be in balance with its opposite. In a country where the present is layered and infused with untold generations of the past, history is viewed by most as irrelevant.

Aside from the Indian concern for social and cultural traditions, the documentation and preservation of the ancient is primarily a Western invention. Even the most substantial of structures, temples and palaces built and carved of stone were deserted in the centuries before the modern era when their original purposes were no longer deemed pertinent. Tradition is important only as a means for coping with the present, not as a way to canonize the past. The maintenance of inherited traditions enables the observer to ensure balance and harmony in his or her life.

Most traditional art is in some way tied to ritual. The central motivation of many Hindu rituals is darshan, literally translated as "viewing" or "eye contact". Darshan is that sacred moment in which the devotee experiences direct contact with the deity. In Hinduism, darshan is achieved through the spiritual presence of a god or goddess who is believed to manifest materially within a natural or man-made object. Divine spirit may be invoked to enter any purified container - a sacred tree or rock, a sculpture of stone or bronze, or even, in some cases, the body of a priest or supplicant. To facilitate this process, both object and devotee must undergo preparation.

An ornately carved sculpture that has been in worship for a thousand years will be adorned each day with fresh milk and butter, honey, sandal paste and ash and dressed anew in clean garments and strings of heady-scented blossoms. The store rooms and treasuries of major temples are filled with magnificent textiles and jewellery in order to provide the appropriate change of appearance to fit each day. In this way even the most permanent of objects is inseparably tied to the transitory. Each time it is viewed, its presence is different.

The very material of many sacred sculptures is ephemeral. The most basic of elements, clay, is considered sacred in India. Hindu legends abound with descriptions of the magical properties of clay (mitti). From earth all creation is fashioned and to earth it eventually returns. Mitti is the body of the Mother Goddess, the Sustainer of Life. It is easily procured and sculpted and, when purified by fire or other sacred elements, it becomes an appropriate vessel for facilitating darshan with the gods.

Once each year for special festivals in eastern India, potters apply clay to structures of straw and sticks to create large and elaborate sculptures of the gods that become the principal images in community shrines. On festival day all the sculptures are carried in procession to a nearby river and allowed to dissolve in the current. The deity has been honoured, the devotees have received their darshan, the god is requested to return to the heavens, and the sculptures no longer have any value. Ephemeral images of the gods are created for specific festivals and rituals throughout India.

Protection from evil spirits

Most Indian society and ritual is centred on the home. The deity that protects the home and all of its inhabitants is generally viewed as feminine, most often the Goddess Lakshmi, who governs household activities and ensures the health and welfare of each family member. Her worship, usually conducted by women, is considered essential to the maintenance of harmony and prosperity. Throughout India women regularly paint their homes with decorative designs sacred to the goddess. They begin by covering the surface with a new layer of wet clay mixed with cow dung. Upon this "canvas", they paint designs handed down from mother to daughter through countless generations. Almost all of them create a sacred decoration at least once a year, but some paint a new one every single day!

The style and form of decoration is governed by the traditions of each subculture. In most areas the painting is applied to the front of the house on or around the main entrance. The door is considered the means of entry into the home for good and evil spirits as well as household members. Consequently, the front door must be protected with symbols auspicious to Lakshmi and prohibitive to negative energy. The women of some areas paint only their doors; others just the threshold; some paint the exterior walls facing the street; while elsewhere they paint the ground in front of the house. Each painting is a private invocation by a woman to her deity. Although often very beautiful, its artistic merit is usually considered of secondary importance. Certainly it would never be signed. It is a form of personal communication, valuable only for the moment of its creation. After that, it is left to crumble or to be rubbed away, its full function complete.