Sadanga — the texts of Abanindranath and Sri Aurobindo read together illumine one another

From Ajanta to Nandalal Bose

Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER), Secretariat, Bharat Nivas, Auroville-605101. From the blurb The Hindu Tuesday, Aug 21, 2007

The book showcases the essential continuity of Indian painting by juxtaposing Ajanta and Nandalal Bose to convey the sense of unbroken tradition. The six limbs of painting, “Sadanga”, commented upon by Abanindranath Tagore is reproduced here. This is an ancient “Sastra” defining the principles of painting, an Indian tradition. The book notes that although it is true that the “Sadanga” contains universal principles which neither Leonardo da Vinci nor Poussin would have denied, Tagore, while reaffirming them, places them in the light of the Indian spirit and speaks of them as the guiding lights for an artist viewed as a Yogi.

As Sri Aurobindo said the characteristic of Indian painting and indeed all Indian art “appeals through the physical and the psychical to another spiritual vision from which the artist worked...”, extracts from Sri Aurobindo’s “The Foundations of Indian Culture” follow Sadanga — the texts of Abanindranath and Sri Aurobindo read together illumine one another.