Talk:Sacred Arts: Painting, Sculpting, Acting and Dancing

By Vishal Agarwal

Sacred arts like painting, sculpting, acting out, or dancing on themes related to Bhakti. The Gāndharva Veda, one of the four Upavedas, deals with acting and dancing along with music. A subset of it, the Nātya Shāstr, a of which an ancient compendium by Bharat Muni still exists, focuses on dramaturgy. It is believed that Bharat Muni carefully observed Bhagavān Shiva while he did the tāṇdava dance and noted down the details before he wrote his book. Rishi Nāra, too, wrote a book on music that is used even today.

Many Bhakta Sants were authors of Drama, for example, Shankardev of Assam. He also acted in these plays, and the audience thought that the saint got transported to an elevated spiritual state while he was enacting the roles of Krishna and other Deities. There is a very rich repertoire of plays written on religious themes, like Raghuvaṃsham of Kālidāsa, Kirātārjuneeyam of Bhāravi, and so on.

Dramatist Kālidāsa, the Bhakta of Kālī

Kālidāsa is regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. He is believed to have lived around the 5th century CE. Kālidāsa was raised as an orphan by cowherds. He was very dull-witted as a child and illiterate. But, he was deeply devoted to Mā Kālī’s mūrti in the local Mandir. Having lost his parents, he regarded her as the real Mother. He would dance to her and sing her praises. As a kid, he would often say to her, “Release me because I want to return to you, my Mother.” He would even sleep at the entrance of the Mandir because he did not want to be away from Her. Everyone made fun of him and thought of him as a stupid boy who would talk to a stone mūrti as if it were a living Devī. Kālīdāsa ignored their sarcasm and jokes because he was deeply devoted to Her.

He grew up to be a very handsome man but was uneducated and foolish. A princess of central India at that time was very learned and was a bit arrogant towards other scholars because she thought that they were not as learned as she was. Therefore, the scholars decided to teach her a lesson. She had declared that she would marry only that man who could defeat her in a debate on philosophy. Finding Kālidāsa to be a stupid man, they came up with a plan to fool the princess so that she marries him. They dressed him up as a scholar and told him to communicate only through sign language, without speaking a single word. Every time the Princess asked Kālidāsa a question, he responded by making meaningless gestures. The scholars who had come with Kālidāsa funnily interpreted these gestures, and the scholars then made up answers that impressed the Princess. Impressed with these ‘answers’ that the scholars gave, she accepted her defeat in the debate and married Kālidāsa. But soon after marriage, she found out what a fool her husband was. In a fit of anger, she insulted him and said, “Do not show me your face till you become a scholar.”

Kālidāsa was very hurt, and he left his home immediately with the vow that he would return to his wife only after he had become a learned scholar. He went to the Mandir, where he spent a lot of time in his childhood and worshipped Devi Kālī. One night, the Devī appeared to him in a dream and said, “Of all my bhaktas, you are the most devoted to Me. You do not mind facing the ridicule of others for My sake. Therefore, I will bless you with great wisdom and knowledge. You will become renowned and wealthy.” When Kālidāsa woke up, he was a transformed person. He studied hard under competent teachers and soon became extremely wise and could compose beautiful poetry due to the Devī’s boon and his hard work. Now, he felt confident to return to his wife. When she opened the door to him, she asked him in a Sanskrit sentence if he had returned as a scholar. To her utter surprise, Kālidāsa immediately composed a few verses, each of which started with one word of the sentence that she had spoken. She was now satisfied that her husband had become a great scholar.

In the next few years, Kālidāsa wrote several plays in Sanskrit. These plays became an instant hit in his lifetime. We have already read about his play on the life of Shakuntalā. The picture on the right shows a scene from this play, as painted by the famous Raja Ravi Verma of South Kerala (India). This king, famous for his paintings, lived from 1848 to 1906 CE. In fact, in the 18th century, his plays began to be translated into several European languages, like German and English. Soon, Kālīdāsa’s fame spread far and wide, and Emperor Vikramaditya of northern India, about whom we will read more later, invited him to be one of the ‘nine jewels’ (respected scholars) of his royal court. The Emperor showered Kālīdāsa with a lot of wealth to appreciate the wonderful plays that he wrote.

Unfortunately, after a while, success made Kālidāsa acquire very bad habits like drinking and watching dances all the time. Once, while he was on a tour of Sri Lanka, he fell in love with a dancer who was, in reality, a very conniving and jealous person. She eyed the wealth of Kālidāsa, and one day, she poisoned his food and drink. As Kālidāsa lay on his deathbed, his friend Kumāradāsa rushed to him and asked, “Dear friend, which of your plays, or which lines on your plays, do you regard as your best composition?” Kālidāsa looked at him in pain and said, “Towards the end of my play Abhijnāna Shākuntalam, the little prince Bharat says to his mother Shakuntalā, ‘Release me because I want to return to you, my Mother.’. This I consider to be my best line.” And then, Kālidāsa died, thinking of Mā Kālī.

Sacred Dance, Painting and Sculpture:

Dancers, down to modern times, have treated their sacred art as an offering to the Bhagavan. Again, Hindu classical dances like Kathak, Bharat Nātyam, Manipuri, Odishi, and so on are permeated with religious themes. The walls of Mandirs are studded with images and painted with frescos of dance postures, highlighting the importance of this art form in Bhakti. The same may be said of Painting and Sculpting. Above, we have discussed the example of Raskhan, who became a devotee of Krishna after seeing a picture of Him painted on a leaf. Paintings and images sculpted of different Deities are used extensively for worship by Hindus and Jains. Even Sikhs use paintings of Sikh Gurus.

In these times of digital media, one can see numerous Bhaktas display a new painting of their chosen Deity that they have created every day out of devotion. In numerous institutions in Rishikesh, Ayodhya, and many other holy cities, one sees 100s of paintings of religious themes hung on walls, created by devotees with great love over several years and offered to these institutions. A tour and sight of these galleries of paintings fills one with love for the Devta/Devi and admiration for the devotees who painted them.

Interfaith Perspectives: In the Islamic faith, except for calligraphy and geometric designs, sculpting, painting, or enacting any living creature or spiritual theme is prohibited on pain of death. The rule was, however, often flouted, and numerous Muslim rulers patronized painting, dance, and music even though the Islamic clergy never approved it. The Sufis, who constitute merely 1% or less of the Muslim society, greatly value music and dance in their religious practices, which are considered heretical by the mainstream Islamic population.