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.
- ISBN10 0500280584
- ISBN13 9780500280584
- Publish Date 12 October 1998 (first published 1 September 1998)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 June 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 176
- Language English