The Use Of Traditional Sources In Contemporary Indian Sculpture Art

The first sculptures in the Indian subcontinent date back to the Indus Valley Civilization, nearly5000years where stone carvings and bronze have been discovered. This is one of the earliest instances of sculpture in the world. In the domain of visual art India is best known for its wonderful sculptures from the Indus Valley civilization Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism developed further, India produced some of the most intricate bronzes in the world, as well’as unrivaled temple carvings. Some huge shrines, such as the one at Ellora caves were not actually constructed using blocks, but instead carved out of rock, making them perhaps the largest and most intricate sculptures in the world. During the2nd to1st century BCE in far northern India, in what is now southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan sculptures became more explicit, representing episodes of the Buddha’s life and teachings. Although India had a long sculptural tradition and a mastery of rich iconography, the Buddha was never represented in human form before this time, but only through some of his symbols.. Meanwhile, elsewhere in India, less anatomically accurate styles of human representation evolved, leading to the classical art that the world is now familiar with and contributing to Buddhist and Hindu sculpture throughout Asia. Thus we see that Indian religious traditional life was the main subject of Indian art, Indian sculpture art.This streaming tradition of sculpture creation got almost suspended in the medieval period as the Mughal Emperors were against idol worshiping, though painting and architecture reached a high esthetical paramount. However, practice of sculpting as an art was revived in the colonial period, where western academic style of art was significantly dominant before the beginning of twentieth century." School of Industrial Art " was established in1854and western academic art was much emphasized in the curriculum. On the other side affluent local inhabitants took pride in placing European paintings and statues in their houses or gardens, which was a part of western style of living. Consequently, the European style was adopted by a number of local sculptors such as Rohinikanta Nag (1868-1895), Kashinath Khatera (1876-1949), Fanindranath Bose (1888-1926), Pramathanath Mullick (1894-1983), Binayak Pandurang Karmakar (1891-1967) and Hiranmoy Roychowdhury (1884-1962). After independence [1947], till now Indian modern and contemporary art always been inspired by rich Indian traditions and its sources. Here we will discuss that how these traditional sources are being used in sculpture art by modern contemporary artists.