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The Reflection of Religion

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On a warm Thursday night, a group of intellectual people from a large variety of backgrounds gathered at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, curious to learn about the history of Indian culture and how the evolution of art reflected the changing times of the Civilization. As part of a 12-part lecture series hosted by the Crow Collection, Dr. Lisa Owen, a renowned South Asian art Professor at the University of North Texas, stands at the podium and rolls through a slideshow of the artifacts that the Crow Collection, as well as several other Art Collections, have accumulated over the years, while providing a description of the context and features of the various sculptures. Owen’s challenge to condense the millennia long history of India into an hour and a half long lecture was immense.

She traversed the complex development of the religions present in India. The popularity of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam all wavered throughout history and each religion constantly evolved to match the progression of society. Religion has dominated the themes that is reflected in the art, and connects the art based on the region and time of creation. The figure of Buddha has been prevalent across both Buddhism and Hinduism since the religions’ expansions.

One of the more interesting sculptures that Dr. Owen presented was the statue of the emaciated Buddha. Whenever we think of Buddha, we think of a joyful, obese Chinese man sitting cross legged, hands in his lap, surrounded by luscious trees, in a truly meditative state. This is how Buddha has most popularly been represented in his portrayals. In reality, his constant fasting and starvation would have left him skinny and bony. As this representation does not coincide with the esteem of Buddha and presents him as inhuman, it was quickly rejected by Indian artists and is rarely found in Buddhist culture.

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The elaborate detail of Indian art with the limited tools and techniques available reflects the remarkable ability of artists’ precision and creative vision. They did adopt several methods for crafting their artwork. One such being the use of animal parts as relative comparisons for the parts of the human body. The chest of a man reflected the head of a bull. An arm reflected an elephant’s trunk. The calf of a leg reflected a fish. Hinduism and Buddhism both held high regard for other animals, often encouraging a strictly vegetarian diet. The Indian’s believed that human beings’ composition of animals connects them to their evolutionary cousins.

India’s rich history has created an abundant modern culture with a variety of religions, languages, foods, and rituals. While many similar features have persisted throughout history, the art of India has had a significant evolution in style and expression. The marvelousness of the artifacts at the Crow Collection centralizes the reflections of life in India. Dr. Owen’s lecture certainly provoked all of the art and history connoisseurs in the audience. As for me, I was slightly occupied trying to get my head around the post.

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