ON THE SADANGA CANONS OF PAINTING

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The present work throws welcome light on an aspect of ancient Indian aesthetics related particularly to Painting. Sadanga signifies collectively the six limbs or constituents of citra that were taken to define, according to the age-old art aestheticians, the essential nature of a pictorial representation. This was the doctrine based on Indian classical criticism of painting in its traditional analyses of aesthetic understanding. According to this theory, Painting, like a living organism, consists in the composition of its Six Limbs, viz.

1. Differentiation of Form;
2. Proportion;
3. Sentiment;
4. Beauty;
5. Suchness, and
6. the Mannerism of Style regarding brush-work and colouring.

About the Author

Dr. P.K. Agrawala is a well-known scholar of Indology working as a University Professor in the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His special field of investigation is Ancient Indian Art, Iconography and Religious thought.

Select Bibliography
I. Introduction
II. The Antiquity and Main features of the Sadanga Painting-Theory
III. Early Development of Painting Aesthetics
IV. The Sadanga Canons