ABSTRACT
Three arts have in Indian history been the handmaids of religion: architecture; image-making; painting. Around all these a vast body of technical literature early grew up. Lavanya Yojanam may be rendered as the infusion of grace, charm, beauty, or artistic quality into a painting. Varnika-bhanga is the law relating to the artistic use of implements and materials and the proper mixing of pigments. The chapter explains the place of Yoga-contemplation in the scheme of Hindu religious ritual, and describes both the principle and the process of that ritual in order to give a more coherent view of the highly important practice of Yoga by Hindu artists. The kind of mental state designed to be secured through the practice of Yoga can be cultivated by the artisan through tuning up the functions of the body and the mind into a perfect obedience to the faculty of intuition and through the deliberate invocation of dreams or reveries.
