The Indian culture is rooted with deep spiritual emphasis. Hinduism, which originated in Indian, is the third largest religion in the world and one of the oldest religions in history. The history of Hinduism is believed to date back to as early as 1500 B.C.E. Unlike most religions, Hinduism focuses on the oneness of the universe and everything in it. Buddhism is also a major religion that originated in India. Both of these religions are similar and focus on the transmission of the soul, called samsara. Indian art is most commonly reflective of the spiritual and religious beliefs, unlike other civilizations that focus in superficial beauty and adoration for humans.
Indian art is elegant, beautiful, elaborate, inspirational, and very unique. The Indian arts, including poetry, have themes of devotion to the gods and love for the earth.
The Gate of the Great Stupa is elaborately decorated with the laws of Buddha, stories of his life, and tales of animal incarnation.
It is over 30 feet tall with beautiful depicted elephants, peacocks, and protective female earth spirits.
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This seated Buddha with its calm expression, plain clothing, and pose is reflective of the Buddhist religion and their ways of life.
Hinduism is such an ancient religion and yet never suffered a collapse, in fact it still remains the major religion in India. I bet there is a sociological reason behind that in the history of Indian philosophy as polytheistic religions tends to give way to monotheistic ones throughout every major subcontinent. I feel that this single religion through out their history has contributed to such a unique style of art that continued all the way to the founding of Buddhism.
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Since learning about the Buddhists, I’ve often thought that it might be kind of nice to be one. In the chaos of the world we live in, it can be very hard to deal with all of the pressures of society. True Buddhists seem to still be very focused on obtaining peace, and oneness as their religion represents. The art of meditation is one that I think everyone should learn to practice (myself included) because stress is such a huge part of almost everyone’s lives today, and if we don’t find a true release for it, it just stays with us all of the time, and that isn’t healthy. The Buddhist religion seems to truly promote overall well-being and offers rewards for that. Now if only everything were that way.
ReplyDeleteI think saying that other religions are focused on superficial beauty and adoration of humans without specifying which religions makes it sound like you are making a blanket statement against all other religions. It simply isn’t the case. I don’t think Islam and Christianity fall in those two categories at all. They both focus on serving god and doing right. As a matter of fact, I think it is consider idolatrous to worship beauty in both religions. While Christianity and Islam adore Jesus and Mohammed, both are not just merely humans according to both religions and I wouldn’t consider it adoration of humans.
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