Religion

Like many other countries in the world, each region in India has it's own dialect, dress code, culture and tradition. Yet they all share the same social systems, grounded on religious beliefs. Indian Art has developed within Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions, which share similar symbols and motifs. The statistics below shows the percentage of believers for each religion. 

Based on the 2001 census

Art in ancient India was a hereditary profession. Artists began as apprentices. Apprentices learnt by following instructions in art texts know as Shilpa Shastras. These texts were a starting point, and insured that a constant aesthetic was maintained. Artists were treated as paid workers, and belonged to the lowest caste (the hierarchical system), but paradoxically, had privlidged access to wealthy and influential patrons including the royal family. This also meant that many artists were anonymous and the accolades went to the patron who initiated the project.

The patronage of art was often inspired by spiritual merit. Indian belief systems (Buddhist, Jain, Hindu and Sikh) believe that humans are too impure to achieve closeness to the divine ina single life-time, and that’s why they believe in Karma, which states that deeds performed in this lifetime determine your future birth.  Indians believed that one certain way of achieving good karma was to support the construction of religious monuments and art.

In Hinduism, there are four steps to achieving enlightenment:

Dharma (Virtue, Righteousness)

Artha (Wealth)

Kama (Love, Sex, Desire)

Moksha (Salvation, Liberation)


We can see from the images below, that all three religions place the emphasis on their philosophical and religious concepts through a complex language of symbols and motifs. This explains why, even on religious monuments, opulent gods, curvaceous/sensuous women, and the themes of wealth and sex are present. 

Buddhist Art

Hindu Art

Jain Art