Abstract
THE exhibition of photographs illustrating Indian art and religion at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London, which was opened by Mr. L. S. Amery, H.M. Secretary of State for India, on November 13, will repay careful study. It does, in fact, convey a clearer view of Indian genius and mentality than many collections of a more spectacular and imposing character. As Mr. Amery pointed out in declaring the exhibition open, just as Europe in the Middle Ages had embodied its ideas and ideals in the cathedral, so in India Hinduism had attained the highest artistic expression of its religious conceptions in the temple; and ornamentation and decoration were the natural media in which both the artistic and the mental perceptions of India were illustrated. In order to understand India, Mr. Amery went on to say, it is necessary to have a perception of her architecture, her sculpture and her temple symbolism. The selection and grouping of the photographs in this exhibition, as well as the carefully prepared captions, are such as to give the visitor who examines them with attention, even if his previous knowledge of Indian art be slight, something more than a superficial view of the three aspects of Indian culture to which Mr. Amery referred; moreover, he will be impressed by the subtlety which pervades all Indian religious art, whether Hindu, Buddhist or Jain, and makes it in virtue of its all-pervading symbolism so remarkable a vehicle for conveying theological and philosophical concepts and ideas.
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Photographic Exhibitions of Indian Art and Religion. Nature 146, 680 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146680a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146680a0