Orientalism and Indian Art

Orientalism

• foundational theory of postcolonial studies

• seeds of orientalism planted in premodern times

  • occidental experience of the orient

• Silver plate by Greek metalworker, 6th-7thC

  • depicts a woman surrounded by animals -> tendency to feminise the oriental

• orientalism weaponised under colonialism

  • Christian ideology, Humanism, Romanticism, racial superiority

Indian Architecture

• Indian architecture

  • cave temples lend themselves to romanticism

  • Elephanta Caves

• Kailashnath Temple, carved out of solid rock pillar in 8th C

European Reaction

• Partha Mitter: Much Maligned Monsters: History of European Reactions to Indian Art

• ~36,000 deities under the umbrella of Hinduism

  • strange to travellers coming from monotheistic mindset

• lots of sexual imagery

• some gods, e.g. Hanuman, were part animal

• ‘putting European clothing on an Indian subject’

• John Mandeville -> India is a ‘Valley Perilous’

  • fictitious stories told about India

• Varthama claimed to have seen human sacrifice

• Ganesh ridiculed, caricatures

• Pale tree generic symbol of the East

• 2 sides to the European reaction

  • Indian art is irrational and horrific

  • Indian art is elegant and romantic, often claimed to have Greco-Roman roots via Alexander the Great

• Humanism of 16th-17thC travellers shifted into Romanticism of 18th-19thC

  • lenses of Picturesque and Sublime

Later Reactions

• British fascination with ghats of the Ganges in Varanasi 

  • 60s hippy obsession

• Gandhara art seen as offshoot of Greco-Roman traditions

• Alexander Cunningham founded Archeological Survey of India

  • origins of Indian art history and archaeology in colonial project

• Indian nationalists leaned into romanticism

• scholars refused to classify Indian art as fine art