Arts & Architecture in Vedic period
Note: Vedic people were nomadic tribes so this period was devoid of any significant artistic development. There is little chance that any question will be framed from this period by UPSC. However, for the sake of completeness of the syllabus, go through this post.
Arts:
- The conjectural reconstruction of the art of this period is based on the many references to actual techniques and works of sculpture and architecture in the Vedic hymns, which were composed sometime between 1500 and 800 B.C.
- In northern India, some very early depictions of deities appear (e.g. Pashupati seal depicting proto shiva) in the art of the Indus Valley civilisation, but the following millennium, coinciding with the Indo–Aryan migration during the Vedic period, is devoid of such remains.
- It has been suggested that the early Vedic religion focused exclusively on the worship of purely “elementary forces of nature by means of elaborate sacrifices”, which did not lend themselves easily to anthropomorphological representations.
- Some examples of artistic expression appear in abstract pottery designs during the Black and red ware culture (1450–1200 BCE) or the Painted Grey Ware culture (1200–600 BCE).
- The people were fond of ornaments. Beads of terracotta, agate, jaspar, carnelian, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, glass and bone have been found. Two glass bangles were found at Hastinapura and copper bangles have been found at Jakhera. The terracotta objects comprise human (male and female) and animal (bull and horse) figurines, discs, balls, potter’s stamps, etc.
- In Rig Veda, we hear of the Niska or necklace made of gold pieces i.e. golden ornaments. Hiranyakara and Manikara are mentioned in Samveda.
- The Samaveda is the Veda of melodies and chants. The Indian classical music and dance is rooted in the sonic and musical dimensions of the Sama Veda. Its hymns are set to music. The Sam Veda has hymns meant for the priest only who sang them at the time of the performance of Yajnas. It tells us much about the music of ancient Aryans.
- The Samaveda, in addition to singing and chanting, mentions instruments. The rules and suggestions for playing various instruments form a separate compilation, called the Gandharva-Veda, and this Upaveda is attached to the Samaveda.
- The structure and theory of chants in the Samaveda have inspired the organizing principle for Indian classical arts and performances, and this root has been widely acknowledged by musicologists dealing with the history of Indian music.
- Working in Wood: In the Rigveda we have the carpenter e.g. the Taksan and Tastr (R. V., IX. 112. 1). In addition to the ordinary carpenter who was employed in making vessels of wood and household furniture, we have the Rathakara who made Rathas (chariots) and wagons. The Rathakara enjoyed a high social position, and is mentioned in many places in the Vedic literature. His importance was due to his work e.g. the chariot, which was important in connection with the warfare of those days. References to boats and ships pre-suppose the existence of boat- builders.
Architecture:
- Considering the background of these agricultural nomadic invaders, it is evident that the architecture of the Vedic Period was neither monumental nor permanent nor concentrated in urban development. With the disappearance of the Indus valley culture and its cities, the new Indo-Aryan population was largely distributed in small settlements located in the plains and forests. The building materials that they used were the ones most readily obtainable for constructing shelters like wood, bamboo, thatch, and, probably only later, brick. Buildings of this kind were expected from people without any kind of tradition of colossal architecture. The architecture of the Vedic period encompasses huts of round and square shape, and also some tower like structures.
- In the Vedas there is reference of fire alters and sacrificial halls. In the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata there are indication of shrines and assembly halls. It is significant to note that stone is only occasionally referred to as a building material.
- The Ramayana and the Mahabharata refers to big painted halls, so there might have been the convention of wall paintings in those times. Later features of Hindu and Buddhist architecture as the horseshoe-shaped chaitya arch presumably had their origin in the Vedic Period.
- One of the most important architectural developments of the Vedic Period was the layout of the Indo-Aryan village. This was the plan that, by reason both of its commodity and specific metaphysical implications, has survived in countless arrangements in the architecture of Hinduism and Buddhism.
- This characteristic plan was derived from the fortified camps of the Aryan invaders. It was a rectangle with its sides oriented to the four quarters and intersected by two avenues terminating in four gateways. The plan was intended as a kind of microcosm, with the five divisions of the village corresponding to the five elements of the universe and each of the gateways dedicated to one of the four Vedic deities typifying the positions of the sun in its course through the heavens.
- These village plans also included a broad path girdling the buildings within the outer walls which the householders circumambulated with recitations to ensure the favour of the gods.
- This feature, together with the metaphysical symbolism attached to the gateways, is perpetuated in the plan and ritual of the Buddhist Stupa.
- The regularity of these early plans, based on straight intersecting avenues, is possibly a survival of the systematic arrangements of the Indus cities adapted to the metaphysical and architectural needs of the new Aryan civilisation.
- In the southern part of India a number of rock- cut tombs found at Mennapuram and Kolikode in Malabar owe heir origin in the Vedic period. They have been described as hollow stupas, since they are domed chambers with a monolithic stone column at the centre. Intended for the burial of Aryan chieftains, these caves are presumably translations into stone of Vedic round huts of wood or thatch.
- The chief importance of the Vedic Period lies in the development of architecture as a science and the invention of types that survive in later Hindu and Buddhist architecture. Various remains of undetermined antiquity, generally classified as Neolithic or prehistoric, may belong to the Vedic Period, for example, the cromlechs found at Amrawati in southern India, erected around burial-places, and interesting as possible prototypes for the Buddhist railing or vedika.
- In later years the caves of Ajanta, much of Buddhist architecture, were directly influenced by the simple village structures of the Aryan villages. The remarkable part of the art during the Vedic period is that these masterpieces of world architecture evolved from people of nomadic background.
