Art and Architecture In India

The concept of Original Artistic Intent is difficult to apply to Tibetan thangkas. Thangkas are composite objects produced by painters and tailors with differing intents, skills and training. Iconographic specifications, regional and doctrinal differences in style, changes in form from harsh treatment and altered mountings all complicate the issue. 2008

In colonial historiography, architecture in South Asia is stylistically classified as Neoclassical, Gothic, and Indo-Saracenic. The debates on style in South Asia were closely tied to the nationalistic battles between proponents of the Neoclassical and Gothic styles in Britain. In the South Asian colonial context, the debate over an appropriate style hinged on how architectural styles should represent Britain’s status as the imperial ruler of South Asia—whether colonial architecture in South Asia should be built in styles that were prevalent in Britain or in Indic indigenous styles. After the mutiny when the British crown took over the governance of India, the quest for an appropriate assimilationist indigenous style led to the development of the Indo-Saracenic style as a modernized native style. It drew its aesthetic expression from a synthetic reconfiguring of regional indigenous architectures, which were combined with modern functional planning and engineering. The term “Saracenic” referred to Islamic architecture in nineteenth century India. G.H.R. Tillotson locates the Indo-Saracenic style in a larger global context to argue that it was a South Asian iteration of the global developments that were taking place in reconstituting Neoclassical and Gothic architectural styles with modern technologies and spatial planning. Indo-Saracenic architecture can thus be understood as part of a synchronic global revivalist phenomenon in the mid to late nineteenth century along the colonial networks of the Empire.

G wendolyn Wright's work first demonstrated how the colonies and the metropole were intertwined in the shaping of paradigms of modernist architecture and urbanism through her analysis of French colonies—Indochina, Morocco, and Madagascar—as " champs d'expérience " or sites of experimentation , where modernist ideas were tested for their efficacy before they were implemented in the metropole. 1 Wright's book was crucial in recognizing the omission of the colonies in modernist architectural histories, but did not unearth the agency of the colonized in shaping architectural and urban discourses. Recent histories of indigenous modernities, in the case of Asian architecture and urbanism, such as Jyoti Hosagrahar's Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and Urba-nism have proven how colonized subjects were dynamic actors in the domestication of metropolitan architecture and planning ideals. 2 Through the lens of philanthropic architectural projects in Bom-bay (now Mumbai), Preeti Chopra demonstrates how colonialism was a collaborative enterprise in which the mercantile elite and colonial agencies formed ad-hoc alliances, which illuminate how the categories of the colonizer and colonized are not as distinctly delineated as we imagine them to be. 3 Swati Chattopadhyay's scholarship on Calcutta and Rebecca Brown's history of Patna destabilize the " white town/black town " model of the colonial city. 4 Brenda Yeoh's work on Singapore documents how resistance to urbanism as a spatial tool for regulating cities validates how the colonized were never passive subjects of modernity. 5 Recent scholarship such as Vikramaditya Prakash's Chandigarh's Le Corbusier: The Struggle for Modernity in Postcolonial India and Sanjeev Vidyarthi's book on Jaipur One Idea, Many Plans: An American City Design Concept in Independent India, reveal how citizens of newly formed nation-states were active agents in translating and transforming top-down modernist architecture and planning ideals. 6 Duanfang Lu's work has decentred modernist architectural and

Citation: Morve Roshan K., and Rajjan Dwivedi. (March 2017) “Haunting the History and Modern Art of Paintings in India.” Social Justice and Emancipation. National Conference. Modernization in Society and Upcoming Trends, Vol. I. Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. 18th - 20th March 2017

Art was always an inspiration to works in architecture. Architects have always rifled around looking for inspiration from art around us and tried to integrate it with building designs. The Husain-Doshi Gufa renamed, as Amdavad Gufa, a unique art gallery was designed by the architect B.V.Doshi and housed works of his friend a famous artist M.F.Husain in city of Ahmedabad, India. It was designed as an underground gallery with structure consisting of domes, curvilinear walls, tree shaped columns, contoured floors and snouts on domes for light source.  The gallery enchanted the people with the surreal sensation of being in a cave. The wall of the gallery has acted as a canvas on which the artist Husain doodled paintings similar to the art in Palaeolithic caves. The entire structure was conceptualized on the confluence of sustainable and vernacular practises alongside the theme drawn from organic architecture.  Turtle shell, domes, mountains, and Buddha caves of Ajanta & Ellora inspired the form of the building. The gallery was built underground with china mosaic finish on the top of the domes in order to encounter the harsh heat of the city. The gallery has stood out against the conventional dictum of white cube ideology and opened the dialogue between art and architecture and their mutual dependence. The gallery has brought a distinctive confluence of art in architecture, where the architecture is piece of art itself showcasing art works. But the bold approach in the design of gallery worked for the artist rather complemented his style of artwork. The same designed may not have worked for other artist or for a gallery space exhibiting works of various artists.

In this paper, I aim to explore the meaning and context of the Nataraja image (See Figure 1) by examining an eleventh century bronze, which was produced during the reign of the mighty Chola dynasty of Tamilnadu in southern India. The paper aims to examine the Tamil bhakti or devotional traditions and Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy to provide a deeper understanding of Nataraja’s art and iconography. The paper then concludes with a brief comment on the paradoxical nature of the theology embedded in the visual representation of Shiva Nataraja.

Jahangir's Tomb is located in Shahdara Lahore, Pakistan. This tomb marks the transitional phase of inlay decoration in the sub-continent. Inlay work on the sarcophagus of Jahangir's tomb is noteworthy in its expression and decorative vocabulary. The rhythmic beauty of designs and technique achieved such a height of appreciation and acknowledgement that it has been considered as one the finest surface decoration among the world's best architectural surface decorations. It is debatable among the scholars for the origin of pietra dura technique. This article aims at tracing out the origin of this technique and to prove it with evidences that it was not purely the European technique but an amalgamation of Islamic and European influences. "The technique developed quite separately in India and is usually characterized by a unique distinct style". (Tillotson, 1990, p. 58) This article provides references to solve the ambiguity of the origin of pietra dura technique especially with reference to the Indian Sub-continent. It facilitates in tracing different influences involved in the formation of decorative designs. This article explores the philosophy and purpose of the ornamental patterns used on the sarcophagus of Jahangir's Tomb and highlights the importance of the local artisans who contributed in the development of this technique.

According to a report prepared by Habitat International Coalition, nomadic communities constitute to approximately 7% of the overall population in India1.
Political, geographical, social and cultural reasons force these communities to stop moving and settle in cities. Many of these “Static Nomads” struggle to integrate into a sedentary lifestyle.
The following Thesis illustrates the sphere of knowledge required to approach a previously nomad settlement in Agra and apply an architectural proposal that allows development to the ac- companiment of self-sufficiency.
The aim is to Test the model for a culturally sensitive proposal that complies closely within the philosophy behind Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources.
Once the Architectural proposal has been applied in one situation, the result will be analyzed and further tested in two other previously nomadic settlements or tribes in two other cities of In- dia, Delhi and Mumbai. The aim is to figure out the problems, some common to all sites and some that are not, and then proclaim architectural solutions to facilitate integration. The Thesis will investigate how a common architectural language or typology can be applied and sometimes slightly reconfigured depending on the required needs.

This article proposes that the film Slumdog Millionaire depicts a key moment in the history of India — the transformation during the 1990s of Bombay into Mumbai. In the film, the life trajectories of Jamal Malik (its Muslim protagonist), his Hindu love Latika, and his older brother Salim play out against the metamorphosis of the city from conditions of modernity to postmodernity. Recent scholarship has suggested this transformation involves the erasure of Bombay's former cosmopolitanism. The article argues that Slumdog Millionaire constructs an urban narrative that spatializes and critiques this change, and that is built on two tropes. First is the erasure of Bombay's complex local histories to facilitate its reinvention as monocultural, neoliberal Mumbai. This is expressed through the use of settings where the city's former architectural palimpsest is being razed to create homogenized redevelopment areas. Second is the increasing exclusion of the poor from public space — a point the film makes through its selective use (and avoidance) of traditionally emblematic public spaces. Overall, the film narrates Bombay/Mumbai's recent urban history as a class war between what Rahul Mehrotra has called the " kinetic " and the " static " cities. The article also builds on Nezar AlSayyad's argument that cinematic representations frequently draw on urban discourses in narrative construction — and, conversely, that cinema may serve as a lens through which to examine the cultural foundations upon which these discourses are built. In this regard, Slumdog Millionaire refers to three urban/ architectural spaces invested with specific ideological meaning: Dharavi, an organic settlement of vernacular architectures used to represent old Bombay; Lake Castle, an apartment building used to depict Bombay's neoliberal transformation into Mumbai; and Victoria Terminus, the Gothic Revival train station which serves as a site of contestation between those who would preserve the city's multiple histories and those who would overwrite them.

This work sets out to explore the role played by Pierre Jeanneret in the design and construction of the city of Chandigarh between 1951-65. In the enormous task of anchoring the Chandigarh project Jeanneret played the role as faithful executioner of Le Corbusier’s visions both for the Capitol complex and the wider city.

Jeanneret was an innovative bricoleur leaving a trail of his furniture and architecture across the city. The paper begins to explore the dynamics between Jeanneret as the anchor to Le Corbusier’s architectural acrobatics.One must  hold  up a Corb shaped filter to try and find Pierre in the half light behind the glare of Le Corbusier’s persona. Pierre quietly floats by on a car tire in the sea of architectural  literature fixated on Le Corbusier. Although there is currently little architectural writing directly focused on Pierre Jeanneret, he was never far from the thoughts of Charlotte Perriand or Le Corbusier, who respectively left to posterity an autobiography and copious archives of correspondence from which much can be deduced. This text aims to uncover something of the complex relationship between the Jeanneret cousins and the individuality of Pierre Jeanneret’s work.

Jeanneret’s career is a case of  hiding in plain sight,  his contribution to the success of Le Corbusier’s life time corpus  has largely been obscured by the passage of time, by his reserved personality and the endlessly propelled Le Corbusier’s mythology. Perriand, Xenakis and Wogensky also never managed to fully escape the Corbusian event horizon.Drawing on direct observation of the multitude of built work in Chandigarh executed by the cousins the text examines something of the humanity of both protagonists, and acts as is an introduction to their lost time zone.

According to existing literature, the design culture is prominently dominated by two different approaches – ‘non-rhetoric design’ and ‘story-telling design’. This paper discusses the latter, with focus on craft and narrative (the analysis of narrative is an important branch of semiotics). Craft has the potential of becoming a strong narrative barometer for Design (here, Interior-Architecture). Narrative Barometer refers to a medium that has a potential to measure; create; carry forward and deliver narratives or Narrativity. Moreover, every craft has a narrative framework and a narrative structure (grammar) underlying it that contributes to design semantics and visual language in Interior-Architecture. It is simpler to study the narrative framework and structure in the literary narratives. But, in the non-literary narratives like paintings, relief works, sculptures, folk performances, crafts; it is difficult to do study the same. This research focuses on the non-literary narratives, specifically stone crafts in the religious buildings of India. Very few efforts have been made to study the narrative framework and narrative structure within crafts and design. This paper is an attempt to translate various models and codes deduced from different theoretical perspectives into Interior Architecture, with narratives being the centre and stone crafts being the medium. It aims to contribute to an inter-disciplinary research on Narratives, Narratology, Craft, Design, and Interior-Architecture.
Keywords: Design, Interior-Architecture, Craft, Stone Crafts, Narrative, Narrative Barometer, Narrative Structure, Religious Buildings, India

According to the existing research and discourses, Art and Architecture have been considered two most crucial things that reflect upon a country and its people. In Indian context, understanding them holds special significance. The word “Indian” comes with a heavy baggage of traditions, culture and ethos, which is unique and adds divinity to almost every act of life. Both art and architecture are narratives of this unique Indian baggage. There are significant examples of art works in the history of architecture. Built environments in
India were designed or constructed by ‘shilpis’ (master masons), artists and guilds of craftspersons till the advent of the modern era. The modern discipline of architecture is, therefore, relatively young. This paper attempts to study the role and significance of art works in Interior-Architecture with specific reference to City Palace Udaipur. The palace is very famous for the use of glass, mirror and mosaic work. The use of such arts and crafts in Mewar was observed from around the late 18th century through Mughal and European influence. The most prominent example of this is the Sheesh Mahal, or Palace of Mirrors, in the City Palace Udaipur. Apart from Rajasthan; Gujarat, Agra, Delhi, and Tanjore (Tamil Nadu) have also extensively used mirror work in space making. Lot of examples of the same age as Udaipur are also available in Orccha, Indore and Mathura regions. There are many examples of mirror work
in temples of Ahmedabad and other regions all over Gujarat as well. Many Jain temples have mirror work. Harij, beyond Mehsana and Patan, has a glass decorated temple. The
Borij Jain temple, located near Gandhinagar town, also has beautiful mirror work. Kanch Mandir, Indore, is a Jain Temple. Built in the 20th century, it is basically constructed from
glass cuttings. The glass is coloured and displays rare originality and splendour. Significant amount of thematic art work (paintings) can also be seen in many other parts of this palace
like Chitram ki Burj. It is important to understand the significance (historical and cultural) of Art works in Interior
Architecture; document exemplary illustrations like City Palace Udaipur; study the role of art in space making; and publish reports, monographs as pedagogical tools for the students
and teachers of architecture that could be used by designers, artisans, craftspersons and professionals as well.

Keywords: Arts, Interior-Architecture, Inter-Relationship, City Palace, Udaipur, India, Ethos

Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) have demonstrated the urgent need for architecture in the tropics to be resilient to tropical cyclones, storms, sea surges and floods. Yet, in architectural historiography, tropical architecture has been viewed as a colonial construct acting in response to disease and discomfort – factors that needed to be conquered, overcome, and tackled.
For example: in Triumph in the Tropics: An Historical Sketch of Queensland (1959), the Australian medical practitioner Raphael Cilento (1893–1985) linked the advancement of tropical Australia to the conquest of
disease and attainment of comfort by the European settler, both realized through domestic design and urban planning. Despite a long history and frequent occurrence of flood, tropical storms, and cyclones – causal attributes long identified in colonial discourses as limiting the development potential of tropical regions—floods and hurricanes have begun to
dominate tropical architectural discourses only recently. The correlation between anthropogenic climate change and the increasing intensity of hurricanes and sea level rise has led to the dominance of the trope of disaster in contemporary tropical architectural discourses. In addition, as it became apparent that buildings, as one of the key consumers of fossil
fuels contribute significantly to climate change; the relationship between architecture and climate has gone through a paradigmatic shift—from one in which climate was a determinant of architectural metrics, to
one in which architecture is seen as an active agent in the transformation of global climatic systems. As a consequence, tropical architecture, which began as discourse founded on the relationship between architecture and climate to ensure the well-being of the human body in a localised context, is now seen as a discourse where the production and operation of
architecture have global planetary impact.

"Il tema scelto per la sesta edizione: Agire o non-agire? Strategie di pensiero/azione in Oriente e Occidente; vuole porre l’attenzione sulla complessa tematica dell’agire  - intesa in tutte le sue sfaccettature: etica, pratica, politica, artistica, religiosa – in una logica comparata, che analizzi con uguale intensità, le tradizioni d’Oriente e d’Occidente.
Per fare questo, oltre alle due lectio magistralis tenute da due importanti studiosi del pensiero orientale, saranno attivati due laboratori che saranno animati da interventi di giovani ricercatori italiani.
Il primo sarà dedicato al tema dell’agire nel pensiero occidentale e il secondo, al pensiero orientale. Il laboratorio mira alla partecipazione attiva, allo scambio di idee e di prospettive, al confronto appassionato e diretto.
In un mondo globalizzato che affida all’agire il suo sviluppo tecnologico, una riflessione profonda sulle motivazioni che inducono all’azione, diventa assolutamente necessaria per comprendere le radici culturali e le possibilità future di un pianeta sempre più a rischio.
Il Seminario vuole rappresentare un punto di riferimento importante per quanti sono intenzionati a riflettere approfonditamente sulla possibilità di un incontro tra le culture.
"

Digging in the Dirt
An Indian Habitacle*:
Mud and moisture in the bricks of Bihar.

The thesis aims to unlock the tacit knowledge of an archaic building tradition to discover the pulse of a Bihar village, knowing of flash flood , earth shake and drought in north eastern India, ‘and he said to me once that while his work so far had been a counterpoint to nature, he now realized that he had to have  a pact with nature.’1 The work attempts experiment with mud brick by means of large scale pencil drawings and material assemblages that build an architecture from responses to local custom, climate and materiality. ‘Before the problem of the creative artist analysis must, alas, lay down its arms.’2
Reflective parables tackle the boundaries between the real, the imagined and the symbolic in response to ‘Mud, Hair and Dirt’3 Plato’s ingredients for the body of the world, ‘what matters is not ideas as such but their resonances and suggestions.’4






                                      1. Balkrishna Doshi on Le Corbusier,
                                        in interview with Carmen Kagal, 1986.
2. Sigmund Freud, Dostoevsky and Parricide,
Collected Papers, vol v. 1928.
3 . Timaeus, Plato, circa 360BC.
4.Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, 1962.
* Habitacle, from the latin habitaculum ; a dwelling place.

In Putli Ganju’s Sohrai painting, two peacocks try to chase a hungry iguana away from their eggs. Sohrai is a form of mural painting from the villages in the plains and hills of the Hazaribagh plateau. As part of an ongoing research collaboration with the Sanskriti Museum, Hazaribagh, our Collection Curator, Ben Cartwright, visited Putli’s village in April.

The presentation introduces a test model for a culturally sensitive proposal that complies closely within the philosophy behind "Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources". Once the Architectural proposal has been applied in one situation, the result could be analyzed and further tested in two other previously nomadic settlements or tribes in two other cities of India, Delhi and Mumbai. The architectural research to figure out the problems, some common to all sites and some that are not, and then proclaim architectural solutions to facilitate integration. The presentation will investigate how a common architectural language or typology can be applied and sometimes slightly reconfigured depending on the required needs. The aim of this presentation is to put forward a test proposal for an architectural language and building types that addresses a particular community’s needs. The research was a development gathered from the understanding of their existing cultural, economic and religious attitudes. The architecture will reflect the cultural and climatic building language of the region and at the same time consider the lack of resources. The main body of the study was composed from field research that took place in a settlement in Agra, India. The study concentrated on a specific type of community, a previously nomadic settlement which has settled in an urban environment.

During the Chola period, Rajendra Chola (11CE) after his visit to Pala country brought many elements of Eastern Indian art and religious mode into far south. Simultaneously, scholars from Kashmir were also invited to spread Kashmir Shaivism in South and many of the scholars settled in pilgrimage centres like Chidambaram ,Thiruvidaimarudur and Srirangam.
Many new concepts of philosophy and religious rites were introduced and already prevailing  practices were modified. Lithic records of that period speak about the reforms done by one Ganguli from East.
The paper deals with one such activity in Thillai Kali temple in Chidambaram

The archaeological site of Kamakhya is a living temple of Goddess Kamakhya who is worshipped in a non-anthropomorphic form as a yoni (vulva) with no physical manifestation along with the Dashamahavidyas. The present study has attempted to understand the evolution of the archaeological site of Kamakhya temple with the help of material evidence left on the site in the form of its art and architecture. Understanding the context behind the material evidence can help us in understanding the process of site selection and settlement patterns. Further, making this evidence a readable text, which is easy to decipher, offers access to understanding past settlements and their way of life. The present study has used three theoretical approaches, Landscape archaeology, Sacred geography and Contextual approach to answering the following questions: 1) The prime factors behind the development of the site; 2) type of archaeological records created during the 1516 years of habitational history of the site; 3) the processes through which such archaeological records were created. We have used the archaeological survey methods and scientific methods (XRD, Thin Section Petrography, FE-SEM, EDX and Micro-optical analysis) for studying the archaeological site of Kamakhya temple. From the study, we have successfully identified five different phases of temple building activity from the 5th century A.D. to the 21st century. On the basis of architectural fragments of kalasha, urushringa and amalaka scattered across the site, the first stone temples were built in Nagara Hindu temple architecture style with prominent curvilinear sikhara (tower) and urushringa (subsidiary sikhara). Evidence of the brick temples constructed on the already existing stone ‘adhisthana’ marked the evolution of a hybrid form of architecture known as Nilachala temple architecture famous for its bulbous polygonal dome with minarets or small side domes inspired by the Bengali temple architecture. We also found through sculptural documentation that the majority of the Kamakhya sculptures belong to the Medieval Kamarupa School of Art. Further, three types of stone used for making sculptures and temples have been identified on the site. They are a) Granite, b) Sandstone and c) Basalt. The results of the present study can be utilized as a reference base for understanding the temporal changes in the archaeological site of Kamakhya and its art and architecture.

The Lives in Paint blog series is an attempt to understand the paintings and prints in the South Asia Collection by understanding the artists behind them. Many of these images are of a type that we may feel we know at first glance. But it is often the case that the half-familiar obscures what are often fascinating stories and messages bound up in paint at the moment these works of art were created.

According to existing literature, the design culture is prominently dominated by two different approaches—‘non-rhetoric design’ and ‘story-telling design’. This paper discusses the latter, with focus on craft and narrative (the analysis of narrative is an important branch of semiotics). Craft has the potential of becoming a strong narrative barometer for Design (here, Interior-Architecture). Narrative Barometer refers to a medium that has a potential to measure; create; carry forward and deliver narratives or Narrativity. Moreover, every craft has a narrative framework and a narrative structure (grammar) underlying it that contributes to design semantics and visual language in Interior-Architecture. It is simpler to study the narrative framework and structure in the literary narratives. But, in the non-literary narratives like paintings, relief works, sculptures, folk performances, crafts; it is difficult to do study the same. This research focuses on the non-literary narratives, specifically stone crafts in the religious buildings of India. Very few efforts have been made to study the narrative framework and narrative structure within crafts and design. This paper is an attempt to translate various models and codes deduced from different theoretical perspectives into Interior Architecture, with narratives being the centre and stone crafts being the medium. It aims to contribute to an inter-disciplinary research on Narratives, Narratology, Craft, Design, and Interior-Architecture.

The Lives in Paint blog series is an attempt to understand the paintings and prints in the South Asia Collection by understanding the artists behind them. Many of these images are of a type that we may feel we know at first glance. But it is often the case that the half-familiar obscures what are often fascinating stories and messages bound up in paint at the moment these works of art were created.

In this paper, I present an understanding of art and visual culture education in India in a framework that employs Deleuze and Guattari’s theories. I place this research study in context of contemporary trends in education policy and political climates in India. I suggest that research on understanding art education practices in emerging geographies be conducted with a view to gain a cohesive social understanding, rather that isolated views on curriculum and pedagogy, with pre-determined understandings of what art education is, and what it does. The paper is structured in the following manner: After setting a context for this paper, I provide an overview of the study itself. I then describe the development of my own study exploring the identity of Indian art education and art educators using a hybrid lens of Vedanta philosophy and Deleuze and Guattari’s theories of rhizome and assemblage. Explaining these concepts, I illustrate an application of this theoretical lens towards reading art education practices both of my research participants, as well as of developments of art education in contemporary India. This paper thus offers a strategy to conduct research in art education employing a rhizomatic approach to structuring research, and analyzing data using the concept of assemblage. I make these suggestions in order to make multiple experiences and voices within the research relevant and respected, especially when read in international and global contexts.

Everything that exists on this globe comes out of action, but action only achieves its fruits if it is aline with your inner world. Adverse situations in life will happen despite all the precautions and safeguards we put in place, in an attempt to prevent or at best avoid their effects. In this, people must concentrate on how to react and control the emotions in this situation. How to overcome negative thinking with the positive one? Positive thinking simply means that you approach adverse situation in a more positive way. Visual Art can be a refuge for intense emotions and illness in adverse situations. Visual art draws folk's attention to minutiae and the environment, which distracts from day-today thoughts. No matter whether people chose visual arts to create for ourselves or simply observe or enjoy it.

The print of Bheem Ke Udar belongs to a collection of images made by James Baillie Fraser on his travels through the Himalayan Hill States in 1815. The sketches he made and coloured using watercolour paint, were later sent to England and turned in to a collection of aquatint prints, titled: Views of the Himala Mountains, in 1820. Eight of these prints are currently on display in the Old Skating Rink Gallery as part of our newly opened Fraser's India exhibition.

The Lives in Paint blog series is an attempt to understand the paintings and prints in the South Asia Collection by understanding the artists behind them. Many of these images are of a type that we may feel we know at first glance. But it is often the case that the half-familiar obscures what are often fascinating stories and messages bound up in paint at the moment these works of art were created.