Sadanga or The Six Limbs of Painting

According to the Hindu Shilpa or the Code of Art the fundamental rules of painting are:-

Rupabhedah pramani bhava-lavnay-yojanam |

Sadrishyam varnakabhangam iti chitram shadakam ||

'Rupa' is ‘form’, visual as well as mental and ‘Bheda’ means ‘difference’, such as the difference between forms instinct with life and beauty and the forms which have no beauty, no life. The study and practice of Rupabheda enable us to see and depict things as they are and as they appear visually.

From our birth to the day of our death, we live with Rupa (Form), seeing it with our eyes, touching it with the five organs of our senses, and feeling it with our mind. 'Jyoti Pasyati Rupani' - it is the light which sees (and shows) forms, light waves from the planets, as well as the inner light of our soul, reveal Form to us, diversely shaped, differently moulded and coloured.

In the Mahabharata, Santiparva, Mokshadharma chapter 184, Verses 33-34, Rupa is defined as follows:- ‘Harsva’ short or stunted, ‘Dirgha’ long or lean, ‘Sthula’ material, corpulent or bulky, ‘chaturasra’ square or angular, ‘Anuvrittyam’ rounded or circular, ‘Sukla’ clean, pure and white, ‘Krishna’ black or sombre, ‘Rakta’ red or radiant, ‘Pita’ yellow and pallid. ‘Nilaruna’ purple (also of mixed colours), 'Kathina' hard and severe. ‘Chikkana’ sleek, glossy and smooth, ‘Slakna’ slim, fine delicate and small, ‘Picchila’ slimy, gliding or feathery, and spreading like a peacock’s tail, ‘Mridu’ soft and tender, ‘Daruna’ rough and woody, stony and terrible.

Endless and varied are the forms which our senses feel, perceive and observe. Rupabheda means the analysis and synthesis of forms given to us by our five senses and our soul, or mind.

When we approach Rupa merely with our senses, it is only the differences of visual things, or the outward form of things which we catch; it is either short or long, circular or angular, big or small, dark or fair, rigid or the reverse. So there cannot be much difference between my seeing, you’re seeing or his seeing. I see a woman, you see her the same, and he sees her exactly as you or I do. Whether I or you draw her form on paper, or his photographer does it on his sensitive late, the result will be only a woman in every case, even if she is depicted from three different points of view-front, back, or profile-or even if she is shown differently engaged-fetching water, doing up her hair or nursing a child. Let us assume that three women pose for us in these three attitudes, it is still only three women and nothing more; because it cannot be said for certain that this is a mother, this is a servant, and this is the daughter, unless we have written the words ‘mother’, ‘daughter’ and ‘servant’ below our pictures. We cannot say that the woman feeding the baby is a mother, this is a servant, and this is the daughter of the house will sometimes fetch water from the well. Perhaps by depicting one woman in rags, and the other in fine clothes, you will try to express that this is the serving maid and this is the mistress, but what will you do in the case of the mother? Simply by joining a child form to a female form you cannot establish the identity of a mother, or by pointing two girls in close embrace you cannot definitely say that they are sisters and not neighbours. Besides, you women in rags-why should she be a servant at all? We can easily call her the mistress of a poor household. It is clear then that mere sense of sight will never lead you further than women differently dressed and differently occupied, old or young or middle ages, fat or thin, fair or dark. Sight will never give you the spirit, the soul in dwelling the form, it will always parade before you a number of dressed up puppets posing and simulating a mother or a servant, a queen or a sweeper: it will never give the true mother, or the true queen, but always the actress, a wooden toy amusing, sometimes amazing, to look at. The difference that exists between outer forms gives us only the variety and not the verity which underlies all Rupa.

Only the knowledge of appearances gained through our inner sight will enable us to see and show the real difference of forms.

‘Nanu Jnanani bhidanti’ it is ‘Jnan’ the perceiving faculty of our mind, which gives real diversity to forms. The same womanly form to me appears as mother, to my uncles as sister, to my father as wife, to someone else as daughter, and to many others as friend or neighbour. If we copy such a form merely with the help of the eyes, it will remain only a woman and nothing more; but to paint a mother, or a sister, our mind-the creator of true differences-must act on the form, change its appearance and impart to it the essential qualities of motherhood, sisterhood etc.

Our mind grows in true knowledge of forms (Rupabheda) through many experiences. To ignore this mind, and to depend chiefly on the power of sight, is to see and depict the insignificant side of Rupa. In fact, forms in this external sense are without beauty and without ugliness. Only when our mind has come into contact with them do they appear as either beautiful or ugly or us. There is such, a thing as ‘Ruchi’ in every Rupa (Form). ‘Ruchi’ literally means a ‘beam of light’ or the luster of loveliness.’ Mind, as well as everything that stands before the mind, is shining with this quality of ‘Ruchi’. When the ‘Ruchi’ that is within us, and the ‘Ruchi’ that is within us, and the ‘Ruchi which is in the objects without us, have come to an agreement and harmony, then and only then has a thing appeared to us beautiful or pleasing; the reversal of this order creates the sensation of ugliness or displeasure.

It is commonly said that-‘Two in disagreement will always appear to each other limping’- the same thing happens in the case of agreement or disagreement of ‘Ruchis.’ As soon as a form is presented to our sight, the search-light of our ‘Ruchi’ throws its beam on the object, and the object, whatever it may be-inanimate or animate-will throw its own ‘Ruchi’ on our mind’s reflector. It is well and good of both the ‘Ruchis’ agree. Otherwise we turn away, searching for some other form or object, and form or object goes its own way or remains waiting for another ‘Ruchi’ agreeable to that of its own. This agreement or disagreement of ‘Ruchis’ makes us see beauty or ugliness in things. Truly speaking there is nowhere such a thing as beauty and ugliness except in our mind. Nature has only forms to show us-the form of a peacock or the form of a crow, it is only the ‘Ruchi’ and its agreement or disagreement which makes us say - this is beauty, this is the beast. Forms may be crooked or bent, straight or tall, and not necessarily ugly or beautiful, but the beam of Ruchi which is in us may differ from each other it may be dull or weak in one, bright or strong in the other, and in consequence of their action and reaction onformsbothvisual and mental, they create the sense of difference, beauty and ugliness for the sheer and the seen.

To light all forms with the ‘Ruchi’ of our mind, and to receive enlightenment from the ‘Ruchi’ emanating from the visible and the invisible, is to gain the true knowledge of Rupa. The practice of Rupabheda in art is for the enhancement of the light-giving and light-absorbing power of the mind. To see not merely with the sight or to paint not with our eyes only, but to see all objects in the light of ‘Ruchi’ and to paint them with its enlightening touches-this is the law, and this is the lesson of Rupabheda. Mind enlightened with ‘Ruchi’ is the best guide for discerning and depicting forms. When drawing forms it will be well to remember what Sukracharya, our great art authority, has said about the making of images-“by no other way, not even by the way of Sight.”

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