Illustration: Hindoo Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
Owen Jones started his chapter on Hindoo Ornament in his groundbreaking The Grammar of Ornament first published in 1856, with an apology for the poor record that Britain had of early Indian architectural and ornamental decoration. He surmised rightly, that at some point in the future the British would have as large a collection and more importantly, the same level of understanding of Indian art and design, as they were beginning to achieve with that of Ancient Egypt for example.
Although the British had been in India for well over a century before Jones book was published, ideas and examples of the earlier phases of the sub-continents history were sketchy to say the least. However, the rest of the nineteenth century produced a whole host of books by both British and Indian writers, on every aspect of India, from its history to its complex number of diverse and independent cultures, languages, peoples, and religions. Many were overcome by the sheer weight of the cultural knowledge that started to come out of India, and it was clear by the end of the century that the sub-continent was to be seen as one of the major initial development centres in the story of human history.
Illustration: Hindoo Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
The British were to have a complex cultural relationship with India. Although seeing their own culture as ultimately superior to that of the sub-continent giving them, at least in their own eyes, the right to rule over India, a number of individuals did start to feel that the continuity and complexity of the Indian cultural heritage made that of the British seem pale and adolescent by comparison.
Jones was well aware of the complexity of Indian history and culture and that the early phase of Indian architecture and decoration followed a whole set of ancient geometrical and defined rules of which he only had a small inkling from the scant literature available. Illustrative copies of ornamental work that he had seen at the East India Company's exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London, was used as part of the illustrative work for this chapter. Jones himself however, warned that these illustrations of Hindoo Ornament, were copies that had been produced by Europeans who would not have had an intrinsic understanding of the parameters of Indian architecture and ornamentation, therefore these illustrations could not necessarily be trusted to be seen as exact representations of the style, and for this, he gave his apologies.
Illustration: Hindoo Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
The Hindoo Ornament chapter was placed just over half way through Jones book, placed between the much larger chapters on later Indian, particularly Islamic Indian Ornament, of which the British had many more examples which were much more easily and readily available, and that of Chinese Ornament. The impression given by Jones at the unintentionally small nature of this particular chapter was one of frustration tempered by apology. He wanted to do a cultural decorative style the justice he thought that it so richly deserved. Jones saw this early Indian decoration as being of great historical and cultural value, not only to the people of the sub-continent but to both the British and the world in general. The fact that he found a larger and more informed chapter impossible due to the lack of relevant information and examples, though not of his doing, was deeply frustrating and ultimately disappointing.
Further reading links:The Grammar of Ornament: All 100 Color Plates from the Folio Edition of the Great Victorian Sourcebook of Historic Design (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
The Grammar of Ornament
Grammar of Ornament: A Monumental Work of Art
Indian Art
Indian Art (World of Art)
Masterpieces of Indian Art
Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization
The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, Second Edition
Hindu Art and Architecture (World of Art)
Sri Aurobindo on Indian Art
Buddhist Art and Architecture (World of Art)
Introduction to Indian Architecture (Periplus Asian Architecture Series)
Art and architecture of Indian temples (Kalpatharu Research Academy publication)
Encyclopaedia of Indian Art and Architecture
Concepts of Space in Traditional Indian Arch
An Imperial Vision: Indian Architecture and Britain's Raj
The Art of India: Traditions of Indian Sculpture, Painting and Architecture
Lord Siva and Sakri in Indian Art and Architecture
Decorative Arts of South Indian Temples
