Ritual art of India

The splendour and diversity of India's ritual arts are, as Ajit Mookerjee explains, a door to a new dimension of existence. The great gods and goddess of India 'Siva and Krishna, Durga and Lakshmi, and the countless local deities and forces worshipped in the countryside, all have their icons and symbols, their ceremonies and rites. Each thing that is offered, each object used for a ritual, must be the finest and purest of its kind. Forms and colours are not arbitrary, but a distillation or concentration of meaning. That ritual art is an art of revelation is clear from village wall-paintings and wayside shrines, just as from classical icons with their complex and sophisticated iconography. The ritual art of India has deep historical roots, as the author demonstrates, but above all it is a living tradition. Underlying all Indian ritual art, there is a unifying purpose. It represents a quest for harmony and wholeness, for an awareness of the "oneness" of the universe.