KEY IDEAS

• Indian Art stresses the interconnectiveness of all the arts: architecture, painting, and sculpture.

• Buddhist and Hindu philosophies form a background to Indian artistic thought.

• A blend of various people who invaded India create the unique culture.

BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHIES

• Teaches individuals how to cope in the world full or misery.

• Buddha, Siddhartha, when he was a prince first, rejected worldly concerns and courtly life and decided to live in the country.

• Believes in reincarnation, a cycle of birth and rebirth.

• Enlightenment, or reaching Nirvana, ends the cycle, through good deeds and living a devotional life to charities, religious fervor, and love of all.

COMMON THEMES OF BUDDISM

• The Lion = Buddha's initial royalty

• The Wheel (chakra) = Buddha's law

• The Lotus = Buddha's pure nature

• Columns surrounds by a wheel = Buddha's teachings

• Empty throne, umbrella, footsteps, lone wheel, Bodhi tree = Buddha

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HINDU PHILOSOPHIES

• Many different sects of Hinduism

• Belief in the infinite variety of the divine: nature, gods, humans

• Orthodox Hindus accept the Vedic (ancient Sanskrit)  texts as divine (sacred scriptures)

• Vedic texts assign Brahmins (a caste of ritual specialists)

• Enlightenment, or reaching Nirvana, ends the cycle, through good deeds and living a devotional life to charities, religious fervor, and love of all.