The Spirituality of Eastern Art
To understand and appreciate any phase of Eastern art, its underlying symbolism must always be kept in view. The Mughals and Hindus, like other Eastern nations, were interested in art and enjoyed beauty, not for its own sake but for the religious and other traditional ideas which it represented. This essentially religious outlook is so far removed from the self-conscious art of present-day Europe, which sets so much store on the individuality of the artist, that it is not surprising to find many English people to whom Eastern insight, as expressed in Indian art, is quite unintelligible and consequently uninteresting; and this misunderstanding has been one of the chief factors in the neglect and decay of Indian national crafts. The phrase 'art for art's sake' would be quite incomprehensible and meaningless to an Eastern craftsman- 'art for art's sake,' a catchword which curiously enough was often used, not so long ago, in connection with the then newly studied arts of China and Japan, showing how at first only the decorative value of these works appealed to Western people; the mere beauty or strangeness of the surface hiding their inner meaning, so that the motives which inspired their creation passed unnoticed.
