Chitra (art)
Chitra, also spelled as Citra, is an Indian genre of art that includes painting, sketch and any art form of delineation. The earliest mention of the term "Chitra" in the context of painting or picture is found in some of the ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism and Pali texts of Buddhism. Nomenclature. "Chitra" (IAST: "Citra", चित्र) is a Sanskrit word that appears in the Vedic texts such as hymns 1.71.1 and 6.65.2 of the "Rigveda". There, and other texts such as "Vajasaneyi Samhita", "Taittiriya Samhita", "Satapatha Brahmana" and "Tandya Brahmana", "Chitra" means "excellent, clear, bright, colored, anything brightly  colored that strikes the eye, brilliantly ornamented, extraordinary that evokes wonder". In the "Mahabharata" and the "Harivamsa", it means "picture, sktech, dilineation", and is presented as a genre of "kala" (arts). Many texts generally dated to the post-4th-century BCE period, use the term "Chitra" in the sense of painting, and "Chitrakara" as a painter. For example, the Sanskrit grammarian Panini in verse 3.2.21 of his "Astadhyayi" highlights the word "chitrakara" in this sense. Halls and public spaces to display paintings are called "chitrasalas", and the earliest known mention of these are found in the "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata". A  few Indian regional texts such as "Kasyapa silpa" refer to painting by others words. For example, "abhasa" – which literally means "semblance, shining forth", is used in "Kasyapa-shilpa" to mean as a broader category of painting, of which "chitra" is one of three types. The verses in section 4.4 of the "Kasyapa-silpa" state that there are three types of images – those which are immovable (walls, floor, terracota, stucco), movable, and those which are both movable-immovable (stone, wood, gems). In each of these three, states "Kasyapa-shipa", are three classes of expression – "ardhacitra, citra, and citra-abhasa". "Ardhacitra" is  an art form where a high relief is combined with painting and parts of the body is not seen (it appears to be emerging out of the canvas). The "Citra" is the form of picture artwork where the whole is represented with or without integrating a relief. "Citrabhasha" is the form where an image is represented on a canvas or wall with colors (painting). However, states Commaraswamy, the word "Abhasa" has other meanings depending on the context. For example, in Hindu texts on philosophy, it implies the "field of objective experience" in the sense of the intellectual image internalized by  a person during a reading of a subject (such as an epic, tale or fiction), or one during a meditative spiritual experience. In some Buddhist and Hindu texts on methods to prepare a manuscript (palm leaf) or a composition on a cloth, the terms "lekhya" and "alekhya" are also used in the context of a "chitra". More specifically, "alekhya" is the space left while writing a manuscript leaf or cloth, where the artist aims to add a picture or painting to illustrate the text. History. The earliest explicit reference to painting in an Indian text is found in verse 4.2  of the "Maitri Upanishad" where it uses the phrase "citrabhittir" or "like a painted wall". The Indian art of painting is also mention in a number of Buddhist Pali "suttas", but with the modified spelling of "Citta". This term is found in the context of either a painting, or painter, or painted-hall ("citta-gara") in Majjhima Nikaya 1.127, Samyutta Nikaya 2.101 and 3.152, Vinaya 4.289 and others. Among the Jain texts, it is mentioned in Book 2 of the "Acaranga Sutra" as it explains that Jaina monk should not indulge in the pleasures of watching a painting. The "Kamasutra , broadly accepted to have been complete by about the 4th-century CE, recommends that the young man should surprise the girl he courts with gifts of color boxes and painted scrolls. The Viddhasalabhanjika" – another Hindu "kama"- and "kavya"–text uses chitra-simile in verse 1.16, as "pictures painted by the god of love, with the brush of the mind and the canvas of the heart". The nature of a "chitra" (painting), how the viewer's mind projects a two dimensional artwork into a three dimensional representation, is used by Asanga in "Mahayana Sutralamkara" – a 3rd to 5th-century Sanskrit text of  the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, to explain "non-existent imagination" as follows: According to Yoko Taniguchi and Michiyo Mori, the art of painting the caves at the "c." 6th-century Buddhas of Bamiyan site in Afghanistan, destroyed by the Taliban Muslims in the late 1990s, were likely introduced to this region from India along with the literature on early Buddhism. Texts. There are many important dedicated Indian treatises on "chitra". Some of these are chapters within a larger encyclopedia-like text. These include: These and other texts on "chitra" not only discuss the theory and practice of painting, some of them  include discussions on how to become a painter, the diversity and the impact of a "chitra" on viewers, of aesthetics, how the art of painting relates to other arts ("kala"), methods of preparing the canvas or wall, methods and recipes to make color pigments. For example, the 10th-century "Chitra Kaladruma" presents recipe for making red color paint from the resin of lac insects. Other colors for the historic frescoes found in India, such as those in the Ajanta Caves, were obtained from nature. They mention earthy and mineral (inorganic) colorants such as yellow and red ochre, orpigment, green celadonite  and ultramarine blue (lapis lazuli). The use of organic colorants prepared per a recipe in these texts have been confirmed through residue analysis and modern chromatographic techniques. Theory. The Indian concepts of painting are described in a range of texts called the "shilpa shastras". These typically begin by attributing this art to divine sources such as Vishvakarma and ancient "rishis" (sages) such as Narayana and Nagnajit, weaving some mythology, highlighting "chitra" as a means to express ideas and beauty along with other universal aspects, then proceed to discuss the theory and practice of painting, sketching and other related arts. Manuscripts  of many these texts are found in India, while some are known to be lost but are found outside India such as in Tibet and Nepal. Among these are the "Citrasutras" in the 6th-century "Visnudharmottara Purana" manuscripts discovered in India, and the "Citralaksana" manuscript discovered in Tibet (lost in India). This theory include early Indian ideas on how to prepare a canvas or substrate, measurement, proportion, stance, color, shade, projection, the painting's interaction with light, the viewer, how to captivate the mind, and other ideas. According to the historic Indian tradition, a successful and impactful painting and painter  requires a knowledge of the subject – either mythology or real life, as well as a keen sense of observation and knowledge of nature, human behavior, dance, music, song and other arts. For example, section 3.2 of "Visnudharmottara Purana" discusses these requirements and the contextual knowledge needed in "chitra" and the artist who produces it. The "Chitrasutras" in the "Vishnudharmottara Purana" state that the sculpture and painting arts are related, with the phrase "as in Natya, so in Citra". This relationship links them in "rasa" (aesthetics) and as forms of expression. The painting. A "chitra" is a form of expression and  communication. According to "Aparajitaprccha" – a 12th-century text on arts and architecture, just like the water reflects the moon, a "chitra" reflects the world. It is a "rupa" (form) of how the painter sees or what the painter wants the viewer to observe or feel or experience. A good painting is one that is alive, breathing, draws in and affects the viewer. It captivates the minds of viewers, despite their diversity. Installed in a "sala" (hall or room), it enlivens the space. The ornaments of a painting are its lines, shading, decoration and colors, states the 6th-century "Visnudharmottara Purana . It states that there are eight gunas" (merits, features) of a "chitra" that the artist must focus on: (1) posture; (2) proportion; (3) the use of the plumb line; (4) charm; (5) detail (how much and where); (6) verisimilitude; (7) "kshaya" (loss, foreshortening) and; (8) "vrddhi" (gain). Among the "dosas" (demerits, faults) of a painting and related arts, states "Chitrasutra", are lines that are weak or thick, absence of variety, errors in scale (oversized eyes, lips, cheeks), inconsistency across the canvas, deviations from the rules of proportion, improper posture or sentiment, and non-merging of colors. Two historical sets called  chitra anga, or "limbs of painting" are found in Indian texts. According to the "Samarangana Sutradhara" – an 11th-century Sanskrit text on Hindu architecture and arts, a painting has eight limbs: According to Yashodhara's "Jayamangala", a Sanskrit commentary on "Kamasutra", there are "sadanga" (six limbs) in the art of "alekhyam" and "chitra" (drawing and painting): These six limbs are arranged stylistically in two ways. First as a set of compound (Rupa-bhedah and Varnika-bhanda), a set of joining (middle two yojnam), and a set of single words (Pramanani and Sadrsyam). Second, states Victor Mair, the six limbs in  this Hindu text are paired in a set of differentiation skills (first two), then a pair of aesthetic skills, and finally a pair of technical skills. These limbs parallel the 12th-century Six principles of Chinese painting of Xie He.