Indian art reflects Hindu period
University museum displays Eastern deities
By ERIC BENJAMIN SON
Of the Emerald
Recent years have spawned a
surge of American interest in
Eastern religions and cultures.
This acknowledgement is strong
enough to indicate that, contrary
to Kipling, the East has indeed
met the West.
In accordance with this new
spirit, the University Museum of
Art currently is showing a collec
tion of paintings and drawings en
titled "The Hindu Pantheon,” on
display in the students’ research
gallery on the museum’s lower
level.
The 14 tempera paintings and
one drawing are on loan to the
museum from the private collec
tion of Wayne and Vimala Begley
of Iowa. Begley is teaching at the
University this summer as the
Maude I. Kerns visiting professor
in Oriental Art.
"The area of Indian art and cul
ture is a neglected one," says
Begley, a specialist in Indian art
history. “The artworks of India are
important not only as art alone, but
are vital to an understanding of the
entire Indian civilization."
Each of the minutely detailed
scenes portrays one or more of
the many Hindu deities that form
the complex “pantheon” of Hindu
mythology, These numerous gods
often affect various roles and in
carnations, some depicted as be
1
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nevolents in human guise or as
horrific monsters in strange de
monic shapes.
But the mythological oddities
are not as exotic as they may
seem. For one thing, they’ve
been around; their history
stretches back 3000 continuous
years to 1200 B.C., when the an
cestors of the first Christians were
still puttering about in their bronze
age. For another, Hindu deities
have close parallels in Greek,
Roman and Teutonic mythology.
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Luckily for Indian art
aficionados, the climate for this re
ligious diversity was much warmer
in Asia than in Europe, where
wholesale purges of paganism
swept away not only the major
deities, but also hosts of minor
gods and godlings.
Multiple deities flourished in the
Indian tradition. The Hindu Panth
eon, says Begley, has always
been rather loosely organized.
“There is a god for everything in
Hinduism, even for smallpox,” he
remarks. Despite this complexity,
he says, the religious reality of the
Hindus is quite simple.
Most are monotheistic, believ
ing in one supreme God who is
i
responsible for the creation, pre
servation and destruction of the
universe and all that it contains.
The pantheon's confusion rep
resents to the Hindu an “allegory
on the complex nature of reality
itself.”
Nothing's too simple, and that
applies to Hinduism as well as
anything else. It would seem that
there are two major deities, Vish
nu and Siva, vying for the role of
Supreme Being. But there has
been a conspicuous lack of
human bloodshed over the ongo
ing controversy, and kudos for this
fact go to the synthesizing efforts
of the Hindu philosophers and the
theologians.
All of the paintings on display
date from the 17th and 18th Cen
turies, and were created by
anonymous artists of the Rajput
courts of Northern India. They
were generally commissioned to
serve as reminders of God’s in
terests and activities in the world,
Begley says.
Begley is concerned with the
works as an educational tool as
well as for their aesthetic value.
The exhibit was arranged in con
junction with his summer term
class on Indian painting.
The display continues through
August 13. The art museum is
open Tuesday through Saturday,
from noon until 5 p.m.
-i
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