INDIA: ART AND LITERATURE

Early Indian art is highly influenced by religion, and it doesn’t matter whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, or Islam. In most historical religious art, stone (terracotta) and metal (gold, bronze) sculptures dominated. Animals were also important to Indian art. Many different types of animals have been depicted on rock art and rock carvings, and animals are often depicted as gods (as in the case of the Hindu god Ganesha which is seen as an elephant) or character traits. Some of the most famous rock carvings were of Hindu, Buddhist, and Greco-Buddhist art.  

But that’s not to say that sculpture was the only form of art during this time, either. There are many examples of paintings that have survived for many centuries. A large number of these paintings were normally iconographic depictions of gods and religiously influential people.  And surprisingly, a good number of these were found on the walls of caves. 

During the Medieval period, art moved to the temples. Temples began to be the main place where art was viewed, and in many cases, the temple was the art in and of itself. The Great Living Chola Temples, the Badami cave temples, Shore Temple, and the Khajuraho Temples were great examples of this during this time. After the Medieval period, Islam began clearly settling in India and eventually sultanates took their hold. A new style of painting emerged, and subject matter tended to be either religious-based or showed everyday life. The most iconic of all Indian architecture, the Taj Mahal, was built during this period. Bidriware is a special type of metal work developed during this time around the area of Bidar. It’s basically a blackened alloy of zinc that has been mixed with tin, copper, and lead, and then inlaid with silver, bronze, or gold. The first layer of metal is darkened in order to highlight the sheen of the inlay. It produces a very attractive effect. 

When the British arrived, one thing they did was set up art societies and art schools in the major cities. They introduced the leading styles and techniques from Europe to the Indian art students. Through a renewal of nationalism, these art students took what they learned and applied it to creating paintings depicting a new European-Indian art style. Some of the most influential names in visual arts and a promoter of the arts in general came from one family: Abanindranath Tagore is often referred as the Father of Modern Indian Art; Rabindranath Tagore made several contributions not only in painting, but in literature and music as well; Gaganendranath Tagore is a painter and cartoonist who is counted as one of India’s first modern artists. 

After independence, a movement toward progressive, modern, abstract art emerged in Bombay (now called Mumbai). Although this movement didn’t last very long, it left its mark. Today, a variety of styles graces the modern Indian art scene. Because of India’s history, many different art schools brought their own ideas and influences to the table. Indian art is as diverse as its people and their languages, and art is viewed as an expression of their mind and soul. 

Indian literature, which refers to literature from India after independence and of the entire Indian subcontinent prior to that mark, can be written in any of the 22 recognized languages of India. The earliest works of literature were written in Sanskrit. Other languages began to slowly emerge in written literature, mostly as religious and historical poetry. One of the earliest Hindu texts was The Vedas.

The Vedas

Sanskrit literature really ran the gamut on topics of the day: epic poetry, texts on mathematics and geometry, texts on grammar, plays, and of course, the Kama Sutra. The Pali Canon is a group of texts written in the Pali language and serves as the basis for many Buddhist studies. It’s divided into three sections and is often referred to as the Tripitaka. 

Each language had its own pioneers in Indian literature, and some were more influential than others. Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore was the 1913 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a leader for Indian Independence through non-violence and peace, Mahatma Gandhi wrote exclusively in Gujarati. Kannada writers have received an astounding eight Jnanpith Awards and forty-seven Sahitya Academy Awards (both are awards given to outstanding works of Indian literature). Many of India’s Muslims write in Urdu, and Telugu and Tamil literature is often used in films as well as numerous short stories and poems.

Salman Rushdie

English language literature is also quite abundant. There are a large number of Indians writing in English, especially among the younger generations (perhaps to fare better on the international market?). Among some of the more well-known names are Salman Rushdie (who won the 1981 Man Booker Prize as well as being named Booker of Bookers; he also made news because there was a fatwa placed on him in response to his 1988 book The Satanic Verses), Arundhati Roy (winner of the 1998 Man Booker Prize), Kiran Desai (winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize), and Aravind Adiga (winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize). 

Hindi is the largest spoken language in India, although I’m now finding it doesn’t necessarily mean that most of India’s literature is written in Hindi. Devaki Nandan Khatri’s Chandrakanta is often considered the pinnacle of Hindi literature. Yet Munshi Premchand is touted as the most prominent Hindi writer overall. However, these two authors have paved the way for other Hindi writers. 

The largest Indian newspaper

Journalism is a big deal in India. The first printing press was painstakingly brought over to this country in the mid-1500s by Jesuit priests and mostly used to print hymnals and texts. English language newspapers and newspapers in other languages began to pop up, and by the mid-1800s, there were hundreds of newspapers spread across the lands. Of course, the British tried to censor what was being written at that time, and the people revolted. Today, there are thousands of newspapers with a couple hundred English-language newspapers in the mix. 

The Indian Film Industry is one of the most watched cinemas in the world. Often referred to as Bollywood (the B named after Bombay), this term often encompasses Indian films on a whole (at least in the US). That’s not an accurate assumption because many other styles of cinema (such as Telugu cinema and Tamil cinema) are not Bollywood films and are their own genre. Most Indian films include several songs and dances, and they generally tend to be family-friendly films. Likewise, movie music is a huge industry, and A.R. Rahman is probably one of the most well-known names in movie music. I watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire when it first came out, and I just recently found Dhoom: 3 on Netflix. My husband and kids sat down and watched it with me, and all of us absolutely loved it. (I can’t get my kids to sit down and watch a 22-minute kids television show, but they sat through this nearly 3-hour long movie. Now, THAT’S impressive.) In fact, my kids have been begging me to watch Dhoom: 2 for the past couple of days. I’ve also been seeing the movie Ek Tha Tiger everywhere I look, so I may have to look into this one as well. 

Up next: music and dance

INDIA: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

In my 10-year-old Midwestern mind, India was the representation of the word “exotic.” Its dusty land, spicy food, and trippy music surrounded in a whirl of color and animals I only saw in the zoo were almost the opposite of rural Indiana. I remember pouring through old issues of National Geographic at my grandmother’s house, mesmerized at how other people live. (I was also confused at the word Indian: did it refer to Native Americans, or did it refer to people from India? How do you make that distinction?) As a music major in college, I would have to study about Indian classical music and realized what I called “trippy” because of its influences on psychedelic rock of the 1960s and 1970s, was actually a system of slightly complicated rules and different tuning methods. 

 

India was named after the word Indus, the Persian word for the area based on the Sanskrit word for the Indus River.  Indians themselves refer to their country as Bharat.  The name Hindustan often refers to northern India and Pakistan.

  

India is often mentioned as its own subcontinent in Asia. It’s a large peninsula surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the western side, the Laccadive Sea off the southern coast, and the Bay of Bengal on the eastern side. On the northern side of the country, India shares borders with Pakistan, China (Tibet), Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh as well as the Himalayan Mountains. This mountain range pretty much bars the cooler winds from northern Asia from reaching the Indian subcontinent, leaving this area warmer than other areas of the same latitude. The state of Jammu and Kashmir (which always reminds me of the Led Zeppelin song) has been disputed for many years among Pakistan, China, and India.  The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast tip of India and the Maldives, also an island nation, lie farther off the southwest corner. India also claims two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep island chain off the southwest coast, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands set pretty far off in the Andaman Sea. 

The Indian subcontinent is one of the oldest inhabited areas in the world, spanning back around 30,000 years. The Indus Valley Civilization is one of the oldest in the world, and just after this time, the implementation of the rigid and unfair caste system was put in place. At the same time, the most important Hindu work, the Vedas, were also composed. Buddhism was established during the 6^th century BCE as was Jainism. Indian civilization was booming with advancements in literature, medicine, science, mathematics, and astronomy. During the Medieval times, India underwent a massive urbanization: towns and cities were being developed, reorganized, and strengthened. India engaged in several skirmishes and fought off invasions from the Mongols and other regions in what is now India. The British East India Company set up its trading posts during the 18^th century, and eventually just took over the entire land. The British did introduce a variety of technological advances to the Indian people such as the railroad system (which are often depicted as being overcrowded -- definitely no "capacity" signs there) and the telegraph, but it wasn’t enough to quell the other problems with their occupation, and the Indians revolted. Eventually, the British East India Company was dissolved; however, the British remained in the picture until India completely gained independence in 1947, resulting in two states: India and Pakistan. These two countries would have several periods of unrest between themselves, and they are still in dispute, along with China, over territories in northern India. 

The India Gate, New Delhi

The capital of the country is New Delhi. As the center of India’s government, this bustling city has roughly 21.7 million people in the metro area. The capital lies in the midst of several fault lines, making it vulnerable to earthquakes, although most of them are fairly moderate. New Delhi suffers very hot summers with mild winters and is also susceptible to dust storms during the dry season. However, it typically ranks as one of the worst cities for air pollution, so if you’re asthmatic, you might want to head to the coast perhaps. New Delhi is every bit of a modern city, yet it has preserved many pieces of its ancient history throughout the city. Museums, restaurants (ranging from local, traditional food to world-class cuisine), shopping districts and markets, sports arenas, theatres, clubs, and parks dot the city, showing off the best of its culture. 

 

India has one of the world’s fastest growing economies. They have a large agricultural sector where major products include rice, cotton, wheat, potatoes, teas, sugarcane, jute, and oilseed. They also have highly-skilled industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, telecommunications, software, food processing, and other products and skilled industries. They also have the world’s second-fastest growing automobile industry.  And of course, India is known for its IT industry that includes creating popular websites and tech products as well as supplying call centers and help desks (the inspiration of the short-run sit-com Outsourced, and much chagrin to many people). India’s film industry produces some of the world’s most-watched cinematic films. Even Netflix has an entire section just for Indian films (available in streaming and in DVD format – we just watched the movie Dhoom: 3 tonight, and it was great!). However, there is still a very serious problem with income inequality in this country, especially along gender lines. India has more than a million people who are listed as millionaires, yet most people live off of less than $2/day. 

 

Four religions began in Indian lands: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.  Hinduism is the third largest religion, and Buddhism is the fourth largest one in the world. Because of India’s multicultural history, there are also followers of several other religions in India as well: Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Bahá’ís, atheists, and agnostics. 

Yes, yoga is a physical and mental practice with a basis in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

 

Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages in the world, stems from this area and is part of the basis of the Indo-European family of languages. Hindi, one of two official languages, is the most widely spoken language in India and is mutually intelligible with Urdu (which is spoken in Pakistan and northern India); English is the other official language. Because this country is very much a poly-linguistic society, there are several languages that are listed as regionally recognized languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Of these 22 major languages spoken in India, they are also written in 13 different scripts. It’s also estimated that there are between 720-2000 dialects spoken in this country alone.

India is the second-most populated country in the world with about 1.2 billion people, yet the land is only about 1/3 the size of the United States, making it also the largest democracy. Many Indians never eat with their left hand because the left hand is used for bathroom purposes. Cows are sacred in the Hindu religion because of the symbolism between cows and good fortune. They are therefore allowed to wander freely in many areas. Although India has the largest postal network in the world with over 150,000 post offices, it’s pretty common for a letter to take nearly two weeks to go 30 miles (I’ll stop complaining about the US postal system now). One of the world’s most iconic buildings, the Taj Mahal (not to be confused with the blues musician), is located in Agra. Chai tea originated in India and is one of the most popular beverages in India – and one of my favorites as well. I’ve already found my recipes and absolutely can’t wait to make these. In the meantime, I think I’ll go drink some chai and look through more Indian films.

Up next: art and literature