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<title>Intuition and Inspiration in Art</title>
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<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><font size="4">Intuition and Inspiration in Art</font></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>As intuition plays the
major role in one kind of art, even so inspiration in another. Two kinds of
beauty have sprung into existence from these two faculties. Why speak of the
artist alone – all powerful creators, in fact all human beings, differ in their
individual nature, but they may be broadly classified under these two heads.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Knowledge
is quite evidently the principle in one, life-energy in the other. Steadiness
is the mark of the one, speed of the other. One has wideness, the other depth. One
is comprehensive, the other penetrative. One gives forth light, the other heat.
One is illumined, the other dynamic.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Intuition
is inner seeing, inspiration inner hearing. Poetry breaks out of the former,
music of the later. We find a considerable influence of inspiration in poetry
where music looms large; e.g. in lyrics. Likewise a poetic form can often be found
to a large extent in music – Wagner is an immortal instance. Inspiration is the
fount of the lyric, intuition of the epic.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Forms
of beauty and truth come into existence through the creator's intuition, and
the rhythm, the gesture of truth and beauty through his inspiration. &quot;The
thing in itself,&quot; the substance, shines clear and lucid in intuition,
while its character or &quot;nature&quot; reveals itself poignant and intimate
through inspiration. One is the formative force, the other the kinetic or
executive.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
following line of Kalidasa is an embodied figure of truth and beauty:</p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
12.0pt;'>Page – 76 
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The fir
trees shiver in the sprays cast by the descending torrents of the Bhagirathi.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
While these lines of Shakespeare – </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
shard-bone beetle with his drowsy hum<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Hath rung
night's yawning peal...<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>bring before our mind the sportive dance of truth and
beauty.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.05pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
rhythmic swinging movement as described by Kalidasa more dearly reveals and
fixes a static form; the picture that floats on the horizon of our mind through
the lines of Shakespeare seems to fling far the waves of a dynamic movement.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In
a way, the creators of the East seem to proceed more by intuition, while the
creators of the West by inspiration. And it is here that we get some
explanation for the charge that the East is inert and conservative in contrast
to the dynamic and progressive West. The East is after beautiful static forms
in her creations and the West is fond of sprightly flow.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>One
may say that inspiration reigns supreme in the West; and yet currents of
intuition are found there side by side with it. The genius of the Latin is
replete with intuition and that of the Celtic, the Slav, the Teuton with
inspiration. If Shakespeare, Ibsen and Dostoevsky belong to the latter
category, Virgil, Petrarch and Racine represent the former.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Intuition
and inspiration do not limit themselves, however, to particular countries or
races, but the two appear in all ideological schools and even through social
customs. The Classical and the Romantic can be differentiated by these two
principles. The Classical is motivated by intuition, the Romantic by
inspiration.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:9.8pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Again
the same difference is apparent between the ancient and the modern. <st1:City><st1:place>Sparks</st1:place></st1:City>
of intuition are scattered all over<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;
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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 77 
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>the ancient arts, and
inspiration marks the modern. The Renaissance of Europe failed in its attempt,
however sincere, at imitating the intuition of Homer and Virgil of the remote
past and unwittingly managed to usher in the epoch of inspiration. Dante was
the harbinger of the spirit of this new age, while Shakespeare of the English
and Ronsard of the French developed and exampled it in the comity of cultures.
Again the glimpses of intuition that we come across in the inspiration of
Dante, Shakespeare and Ronsard have further diminished in Shelley, Byron and
Hugo. Finally, inspiration has become all in all among the modern and the ultra-modern
artists including the Symbolists and the Impressionists of whom Paul Verlaine
at one time was a leader.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>It
may be said that to a great extent in the East the whole of Sanskrit literature
was founded on intuition. In the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana and even
in the Mahabharata, very often we find instances where the rein of knowledge
has prevented the emotion and the zeal of the heart from running riot. In fact
the speciality of Indian art does not lie so much in the play of colours as in
the drawing of lines. Colour gives the tinge of the vital urge, while it is the
lines that create here the real beauty by circumscribing or delimiting the
object in view. Indian sculpture and architecture embody, the quintessential
spirit and gracefulness of intuition.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Perhaps
in <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region> the
Vaishnavas or the followers of the path of devotion have replaced intuition by
inspiration. It is by their influence and at their hands that literature based
on inspiration has become so rich, eloquent and intense. Western scholars say
that the Aryans were mostly intellectual, principally guided by reason; it is
the non-Aryans, the Dravidians, who have introduced the element of emotion
into Indian culture. The Aryans generally followed the path of knowledge and
the South Indians were predominantly devotional. Perhaps there is some truth
in this saying. The Buddhists were also to some extent responsible for the</p>
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solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 78 </span>
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>change in the even and
tranquil tenor of Aryan culture. In<b> </b>the beginning the Buddhists, like
the Vedic Aryans, laid the greatest stress on knowledge. Later on, when
Mahayana, the Great Path, came into vogue, there commenced the worship of the
Buddha. When the compassion of the Buddha was recognised as the principal trait
of Buddhism we moved away from intuition and resorted to inspiration.¹<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><st1:place>Bengal</st1:place>
is chiefly the field of inspiration. It<b> </b>is inspiration that dominates
the field of action, the art and religion of <st1:place>Bengal</st1:place>.
Scholars hold that the Bengalees are three-fourths Buddhists in their culture
and education and as a race they are Dravidians to the same degree. No wonder
that by the union of these two currents <st1:place>Bengal</st1:place> has
become the holy confluence of inspiration like <i>Prayag, </i>the place of
pilgrimage, where the <st1:place>Ganga</st1:place> and the Jamuna have met.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Now,
in the creation nothing can remain itself and unaltered for good. Difference
and polarity are the inviolable laws of nature. Therefore it is not that we do
not find glimpses of pure intuition here and there among the Bengalees.
Chandidas, the pioneer poet of <st1:place>Bengal</st1:place>, represents an
unalloyed, pure inspiration and Vidyapati reflects glimpses of intuition. When
a feeling of emotion tingled through the blood of Chandidas he turned deep
within and sang to himself with his eyes closed, in trance as it were:<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Sister, who has sung first
the sweet name of the Lord<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:216.45pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><st1:place>Krishna</st1:place>?<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:216.45pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>On the other hand, the
self-poised Vidyapati with his eyes wide open sang:<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Childhood
and youth fuse together.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:8.6pt;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:212.6pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>¹ <span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>A
similar event seems to have taken place in </span><st1:place><span
 style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>Europe</span></st1:place><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'> with the advent of
Christianity. The Graeco-Latin culture was predominantly based on reason and
knowledge like that of the Indian Aryans. But Christ appeared on the. scene
with the emotional gift of the psychic being.</span><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Arial Narrow"'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;border:medium none;
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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 79 </span>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:.2in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Again, if in Rabindranath we get at the
fountainhead of some of the deepest, purest inspiration, we see on the other
hand an effort and aspiration for intuition in Madhusudan.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Intuition
and inspiration do not necessarily mean the same thing always and everywhere.
Both differ in kind and degree – ranging from the subtlest to the grossest, from
the highest to the lowest. If<b> </b>we want to make a differentiation between
them, we have to look to the source from where they originate; otherwise by
itself neither can claim superiority.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Besides,
we must not forget that after all – even as the Vedic ‘all-gods’ – intuition
and inspiration exist together and overlap each other. At places one takes the
lead and comes to the fore and the other is subordinate and remains in the
background.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>To
be sure, there is no such gulf between the two as we may imagine and construct
in order to understand and distinguish them clearly and logically by our mind,
which cannot grasp anything except by division.</p>
<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:11.75pt;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
12.0pt;'>Page – 80<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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