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MARG is happy to reproduce the substance

of an interview which Dr. Stella Kramrisch gave
to the American writer and connossieur, Doro-
thy Norman, because this exposition of her vieuJs
on Indian art is important /or the future develop -
ment of research in the history of our art tradi-
tions and the creation of aesthetic values /or judg-
ing it.
Marg does not necessarily agree with the
metaphysical postulates of Dr. Kramrisch' s aes-
thetics, but reproduces her interview sa that it
can receive respectful attention. We will present
other points of view on the fundamental questions
of art criticism and evaluation in future numbers.
1Dr. Stella Kramrisch is visiting professor on
the art of South Asia at the University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A., since
1950. 8he is professor of Indian Art in the Uni -
versity of Calcutta and editor of the ] ournal of
the Indian Society of Oriental Art. She was ed-u -
cated in. Vienna University and was lecturer in
the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of
I
London, 1937-40.
Her publications are: ,.....,Principles of Indian
Art, 1924; Vishnudharmottara, 1924; History of
Panel at the entrance to Indian Art, 1929; Indian Sculpture 1932; Asio.n
the Mandapa , Rajiva
Locana Temple , Rajim, Miniature Painting, 1932 ; A Survey of Painting
7th century. in the Deccan, 1937; Indian T errocottas, 1939;
Kantha, 1939; The Hindu Temple, 1946; Arts
& Crafts of Travancore, 1948; Lingaraja, 1950.
 Stella l(ranuisch is that rare phenomenon, phases ·which have stemmed from different cycles
a European, :w hose profound insight into the of consciousness and artistic maturity have been
great traditional art of India has made her one gone through.
of the ·world's foremost authorities on the subject.
"Indian art has gone through various cycles
Since so little of her writing is currently of development, just as does every art and ail
available, I decided to tall< to her while I was in organic life. It has produced, again and again,
India, so that I could get to know some of the t~e contained-form of the primitive, the full mani-
bacl<ground of her idea~ on Indian art. I put festation of the classical. with its sure mastery
do,"·n belovv some of the things she told me. of means, the exuberance of the baroque.
To tny questions about how she interprets "The symbols and shapes used are based
the essential meaning of the great periods of on the appearance of man, now as a puppet-like
•
Indian art, she replied: silhouette, again as a most subtle and colossal
super-human figure.
''Indian art may be said to be thinking in
images. Whatever is not within the form of the ·'There may be centuries between two such
art is non-existent as thought. What is in the extremes. Or they may exist side by side, pro-
thought is religious content. duced by different carriers, by primitives and
viliagers, or by the elite-corresponding to diffe-
"Indian art," she stated, "commands a set
rent levels of maturity at one and the same time.
of visual signs in which the predominating figures
are based on the shape of man. These figures. "Shapes other than the human body are.
ho"'·ever, do not represent the physical. but rather of course, also used. Together with their verbal
the subtle body of man. or conceptual meaning they determine the Rature
of the forms that result. ·
' 'But to visualise this subtle body one must
think of it as a combination of fluid, plastic shape
and linear rhythms, a trans-substantiated form.
created by the Indian artist, and based on th~
shape of man. For this shape in life is the plaCf~
of man's transformation. i\rt divests it of the
accidents of death, stagnation, labour and rest-
lessness, and remakes . it as a vessel that holds
self-absorption in an unending Hux of modelled
form and gliding line."
"Yoga discipline," she believes, "is as much
a pre-requisite for the Indian artist as was physical
discipline for the Greek.
"It is as though in Indian art the image is
embossed from within by the movement of breath,
or circulation, through the vital centres of the
living being, unimpeded by the gross matter of
the actual physical body.
"A plastic quality results that is as though
carried by the living breath \-\7 ith which the image
is filled; conducted by the smooth channels of
body and lin1bs. These smooth channels have a
pristine glo"'· and a continuity of outline as
thou.gh what they hold were an equivalent of
the breath of God.
· n.T ite use of such shapes and notions is
Varuna, Sw·yo Temple , Osia, Rajasthan; c:rca 8th- •

perennial in Indian art, even though different 9tf•. century.

3
 Buddhist stories: Copying stone of Barhut Stupa railing; 2nd
century B. C. (Courtesy: Indian Museum , Calcutta).
''Such is the case with the lotus. When
'continuity', as of a wave, is suggested in lotus
form, its rhizome carries it. When 'origin' is
to be expressed, its bulbous root-shape is used
from which • other shapes stem in turn. When
'total manifestation' is to be shown the open lotus
flower conveys it in the fullness of its circular
perimeter.
"Various formal concepts are synonymous
\vith bulbous or root-shapes: the vase, for
example, or the seed-pod with the over-blo""·n
drooping leaves of th~ lotus itself; or pot-bellied
figures or dwarfs, or the shape of the tortoise.
With respect to the principles of composition,
vertical symmetry ascending, or radiation from
the container, vase or root-shapes, follo\v
logically.
"There are, further, the animal components
of form, the active vigour of the lion-shape, the
assured power of the elephant,........,also the com-
b:natio:1 of these and other similarly expressive
forms. Their verbal symbolism, however. is
extremely complex.
"One could make a vast vocabulary of the
formal prototypes or visual concepts utilized, that
\\'ould help with the understanding of every
..
composition. For, in each. thought and the pro-
cess of thinking are laid h_are to the eye.
4
''Much about Indian art is preserved in the
written tradition indicating the highest level of
what was intended, and the methods of attain-
ment, \\'hereas, in a Hash, the work of art reveals
a cross-section of the total active life and contem -
plative thought, expressing itself in form, in an
immediate presence not attainable through the
written word.
.. -fhe rich texture of the living fabric of reali-
sation shown in Indian art has been looked down
upon by Indian sages who do not require an
external support for their meditation and imme ·
diate intuition, whereas, to outsiders, it conveys
the spirituality of India at any given moment.
When Indian art is no longer vital, however, it
becomes mere iconography and has its use in
the ritual of worship.
' 'The various cycles through which Indian
art .has passed have reached different levels of
realisation. Yet all the cycles have been promul-
gated with a single aim. There has not been
uniformity. But there has been coherence. The
level of the art depends upon the spiritual and
material, living personality of the particular
artists who have happened to function. Its quality
depends on the type of emotion conditioning the
life around the artists who have created.
 "If yqu consider \tV estern art, you
cannot fin'd one common denominator or
one point on high..-and in view of which
..-all statements, from the most humble
to the most sophisticated, are made . In
Indian art a common denominator is neve r
lost sight of. It is al"vays there, no matter in what
transformation it may sho"'· itself. But there is
nothing rigid about the art, and no monotony.
for "'rhatever the transformation or style in whid1
it is clothed, it shows its vitality in a peculiar
tension due to the simultaneous presence in the
creative aptitude or consciousness of the crafts-
man: of the fundamental pairs of opposites , of
life a nd death, of male and female . l 'he symbolic
form of this tension has found its balance in
perennial images such as that of Siva, Lord of
the cosmic dance of m&nifestation and dissolu-
tion of the "'·orld, or that of his bi-partite shape,
in "',. hich the male, right half. meets the female,
left half of his body, in the vertical axis of Ardha-
nares"'·ara, the Lord whose half is "''oman.
"The particular quality of form in an Indian
work of a rt is supported by the tension of th e
pairs of opposites represented. The seeming
immobility of a seated Buddha image, or of a
Vishnu image standing as straight as is the
\\l orld Pillar, carries compelling power in its
calmness b ecause of the b a lanced tension of line,
mass and '"·eight.
''Indian tradition h as allowed inHuence from
other traditions to enter into it and to b e trans-
formed by it. New forms have thus been creat-
ed. New shoots have sprung up.
' 'We tend to underrate the nomadic cur~
rents in Indian art. Before Christ, and long
before the Muslim invasion, the integration of
nomadic a rt into Indian art \vas but one of a
number of related integrations.
"Th e realism of W estern classical art was
a lso absorbed by Indian art, as eviden ced b y
Gupta art. And Mogul art "''as chieHy a n e"''
integration of \\/ estern art, trimmed with Persia n
adjectives, but carried on by the uninterrupted
current of Indian art itself. "
____________ __________..___
~lithuno figure /rom the 1-1 u cch.appa ~lat/1 . Ail1ole ;
7t/1.-8t/1 century.

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;)
 Buddhist Stories: Copying stone of Barhut Stupa railing; 2nd
century B.C. (Courtesy: Indian Museum, Calcutta).

Mythological animals, circa 18th century A.D. (Mathura Museum).