Creating Metaphor
The basic concept of this aphorism is that artists must discover the nearest form of a specific object from nature or anywhere as a metaphor that will establish the equivalence and represent that more artistically. In other words, the author reported the metaphorical similarity of an object that is hidden anywhere in nature in an imperceptible way. The meaning of SADDRESSAM (Fifth Aphorism) is to find out the resemblance (direct or indirect) between two separate objects from surrounding nature.
From the very far past, Indian and Asian artists have consistently tried to accept any object through their own perceptions and meditative emotions. We can see many examples of these words if we look deeply at ancient Indian and oriental paintings and cave paintings of Ajanta, Elora, Vaja, and more. By following this tradition, it is pretty easy to understand why Indian artists rejected materialism and why they rejected coarseness. It is the actual starting point of freedom of an artist. They were always happy to express their emotions, feelings, and other humanistic values in their creation by simplifying the form and maintaining the continence in color.
In contrast, they denied every restriction of maintaining the visible form of an object that encumbers the composition. Because it limited their artistic vision, it bounds their freedom. There is no liberty to express them. It is a fact that the human mind has inventive power by nature, and it induces the reveal of the hidden beauty of an object through profound observation with an artistic inner vision. Thus, it helps to create an intuition in the inner mind of an artist regarding the surrounding nature. It also gives the imaginative force to the artist's mind and encourages enjoying the flavor of life.
I am just surprised to see this innovative concept had been operating in the third century or earlier. In the far past of the third century, the author not only made the emancipation of the contemporary art world from the restriction of the realistic form but also guided artists in opening the windows of their artistic vision. The author precepted to artists,- "To follow my advice, you have to concentrate your mind on my words and have to realize it. You will never be able to open your windows until you want to destroy his type of committed environment.
When the author started finding metaphors for the shapes of several parts of the human figure, he was inspired by our surrounding nature, as we noticed when composing new music scales for the first time. At that time, ancient sages got the ideas of musical quality from the voices of peacocks, elephants, horses, doves, and more. I hashed out about it in detail in my previous articles regarding musical paintings. Below is an example of finding a metaphor for the male figure that is supposed to be similar to the shape of a cow's face.
Please bear in mind that in modern art and music platforms, all artists acquire those concepts respectfully and consider them to be the best. I said in the past that the spiritual trend of that era mainly inspired the author; therefore, when he started reforming the shape of a human frame, he turned over the throne of God to men. We noticed the formulation of this concept when we observed old Indian paintings or carvings where artists depicted a portrait of the baron larger than other figures in the composition. It looks odd, but their ambition was to draw attention to that eligible person, and they also wanted to represent someone similar to God. An example of the JATAK series performed as the former birth of Lord Buddha painted in the Ajanta cave where Lord Buddha is begging on the street, and people are watching him curiously. In that painting, the figure of Lord Buddha is portrayed as more extensive than other people of the same place and distance. Grammatically, it looks odd, but it is right in the expressive mode. I found this painting enclosed on the right side where Rahul (son of the Lord) and Yashodhara (wife of the Lord) give something to Lord Buddha at the time of his begging.
It's a masterpiece painting of Ajanta that represents a highly emotional environment. Rahul had no idea about his father and asked his mom curiously who the beggar was. However, the mom did not answer this question; instead, she politely asked her son to give the beggar some rice. Buddha knew very well that the little boy was his son. But according to the law of Buddhist mendicants, he never introduced himself. Just think about this heartbreaking situation.
Granting to the imagination regarding the glamor of the Goddess, the author has brought the example of a streak of lighting; however, to find out the metaphor of her facial expression, he imagined the moonlight. When he was going to narrate about the neck of a man, he found the resemblance in the bull. The waist of a man would be similar to a lion. To describe female lips, the author gave the example of the color of the rising sun. Eyebrow came from the idea of a bow. Eyes are defined as the eyes of wagtail birds or dodoe's eyes. A metaphor for the female breast comes from a round-shaped earthen water jar. The petal of the lotus represents the female feet. The idea of the female thigh has come from the plantain tree. In a few places, I found the description of the elephant's trunk as a metaphor for the female thigh, but the plantain tree was the most popular. There are numerous unique descriptions regarding human figures in that book, composed by the oldest sages—all of those examples they have taken from nature and animals. When describing any noble person, the author described their eyes as stretching up to the ear. It was the primary identification of a god-like person.
The above painting is an example of applying the said aphorism, depicted by the most honorable Indian artist, Jamini Roy, by following the Indian traditional concept. Here, we can see the eyes stretched out of the face.
Art, poetry, and literature are several branches of a tree of artistry. The idea of the metaphor was not only applicable to painting; from that era, it was accordingly performed in all the said platforms, and it was a trend to discover a new metaphor to prove talent. This trend has also helped artists increase their power of exploration. They were not only artists but also discoverers.
They probably loved nature and its elements very much and confessed nature as their teacher.
Now, we will find out the gist of the above discussion.
1. What is the meaning of SUDDRESSAM?
The meaning of SADDRESSAM is to find the resemblance (direct or indirect) artistically between two separate objects from surrounding nature.
2. How do we discover the resemblance or metaphor of our surrounding nature?
It depends on the artistic intuition that comes from practice.
3. What's the utility of a metaphor?
It would be more artistic or poetic to describe a subject using a metaphor that helps you say a lot in a few words.
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