Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization by Zimmer Heinrich Robert; Campbell Joseph;

Author:Zimmer, Heinrich Robert; Campbell, Joseph;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2015-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

2.

The Phenomenon of Expanding Form

BUT let us now consider, for a moment, the monument in which this mythological idea has been represented. (Figure 30.) Some years ago I paid a visit to the Musée Guimet in Paris to see this work of art which the museum had then just acquired. I was already familiar with its myth. And as I stood before it, suddenly there dawned on me an awareness of something which I immediately recognized as characteristic of other Hindu monuments and symbols—a particular phenomenon of style—an aesthetic effect which I have encountered nowhere except in certain of the most remarkable and significant Hindu creations. I should like to call it, “the phenomenon of the growing, or expanding, form.”

It is now quite clear to me that this particular monument was not intended to be regarded, deciphered, or understood, as something static, of abiding, concrete dimensions. Rather, it is to be read, in accordance with the suggestion of the tale, as something growing. The column is to be seen extending in length while the Brahmā-gander flies upward and the Vishnu-boar plunges down. This piece of sculpture might be said not merely to commemorate or signify a mythical event, but actually to exhibit the process of its taking place. While Brahmā and Vishnu speed in opposite directions, the substance of the stone correspondingly expands, outmeasuring their movement. The solid rock is apparently animated by an energy of growth. The niche-like split in its side seems actually to be widening, unfolding, to disclose the anthropomorphic apparition within. The solid, static mass of the stone, by a subtle artifice of the craftsman, has been converted into a dynamomorphic, multiple event. In this respect, this piece of sculpture is more like a motion picture than a painting.

The notion that there is nothing static, nothing abiding, but only the flow of a relentless process, with everything originating, growing, decaying, vanishing—this wholly dynamic view of life, of the individual and of the universe, is one of the fundamental conceptions (as we have already seen) of later Hinduism. We discovered it in the tale of the Ant Parade. It is of the essence of the conception of Māyā. We shall study it again in the cosmic Dance of Shiva, where all the features and creatures of the living world are interpreted as momentary flashes from the limbs of the Lord of the Dance. In the phenomenon of the growing or expanding form an effect of this typically Hindu “total dynamism” is imparted to a solid monument; the elusive element of time is woven, with its imperceptible flow, into the pattern and substance of a block of stone.

Once having become aware of the effect, we can rediscover it, again and again; for the Hindu craftsmen have freely employed their subtle artifice. Consider, for example, the celebrated relief from Bādāmi shown in Figure 31. This is a specimen of early Chalukya art, from the sixth century A.D., representing Vishnu in the form of his fifth avatar, as the pigmy who suddenly waxed into the cosmic giant.

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