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ART<br />
The art which has evolved out of tantrism reveals an abundant<br />
variety of forms, varied inflections of tone and colours, graphic<br />
patterns, powerful symbols with personal and universal<br />
significance. It is specially intended to convey a knowledge<br />
evoking a higher level of perception, and taps dormant sources of<br />
our awareness. This form of expression is not pursued like<br />
detached speculation to achieve aesthetic delight, but has a deeper<br />
meaning. Apart from aesthetic value, its real significance lies in its<br />
content, the meaning it conveys, the philosophy of life it unravels,<br />
the world-view it represents. In this sense tantra art is visual<br />
metaphysics.<br />
Unity<br />
The foundations of tantra art are based on the spiritual values<br />
which surround Indian art in general. Though it projects visual<br />
imagery in its own special manner, tantra art shares a common<br />
heritage. According to age-old tradition, the beautiful and the<br />
spiritual form an inseparable whole. Beauty is a symbol of the<br />
divine. A striking enunciation of this principle can be found in<br />
Samyutta Nikaya (V.2): Ananda, the beloved disciple of the<br />
Buddha said to the Master, 'Half of the holy life, O Lord, is<br />
friendship with the beautiful, association with the beautiful,<br />
communion with the beautiful.' 'It is not so, Ananda, it is not so,'<br />
said the Master; 'It is not half of the holy life; it is the whole of the<br />
holy life.' If beauty reflects divinity, conversely and by implication<br />
reality must be made visible in terms no less than the highest ideals<br />
of beauty conceived by man whatever the nature of the semblance<br />
- by means of a symbol, a pattern, or an anthropomorphic form.<br />
Admittedly, this approach aspires to a transcendent vision, arising<br />
principally from untutored vision of 'closed-eye perception'. An<br />
act of creation becomes, as it were, a contemplative process, an<br />
orchestral symphony in which both the seer and the seen become<br />
Om, the Primal Sound as the<br />
monosyllabic mantra, is the basis of<br />
cosmic evolution. On the left the<br />
tantric Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu<br />
and Siva, with the Sakti on the<br />
right. Manuscript page, Rajasthan,<br />
18th century. Gouache on paper.<br />
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