This paper emphasises the fact that greater insights may be available into the study of Art and culture if such knowledge is related to our own psyche rather than the European one. This idea maybe further elaborated as follows:
The ‘normal’ way, whereby individuals and society perceives the universe – the historical process of recording human events – it appears as a continuous process, within the framework of time-space coordinates. These events are then located and expressed within specific culture-historical context. Whether the framework be one of a linear arrow of time, or that of a cyclical notion – within which linear time is included – the past, present, and the future are always taken as given, as actualities. These are the recorded memories, orally or otherwise, that form the tradition of events and situations. The distinction between personal and social memories are only operational categories since these arise out of each other in a feedback mechanism. At any rate, it all appears real, as if there is actually a time framework within which all of this did take place.
It is obvious that all such memories are really interpretations and re-interpretations of events and situations, from any contemporary viewpoint. But this simple fact is seldom noted in every day living, and even rare is it to notice that these records and memories are what constitute time – it is not a separate dimension. In any case, this is how societies and cultures place events – as history or mythology – origins, ancestry and so on within a conceptual chronological order. Similarly, if one notices, one places one’s personal history within the time-framework of bodily existence, e.g.,” when I was a child, adolescent, youth, middle aged, etc. etc. when this and that happened”. It all appears psychologically to be true as if it is happening in time.
From these notions of the study of the past, contemporary problems are examined and future projections made, in terms of the dreams, desires, wants or in terms of the supposedly ‘true’ evidence of previous memories, of ‘pain/pleasure’ notion. Not only are academic programmes subsumed under these notions, the researcher himself as social entity, as a product of his collective background, happens to function psychologically within his discipline as a fragmentary being, not holistically. Disciplines as Art, history, anthropology, archaeology and others dealing with society and culture and governed by this fragmentary approach, especially unconscious assumptions that govern one’s life. It is in this context that tradition and culture is studied by Paper painting intellectuals who today reflect the elite-urban sophisticated groups within the context of certain self-images that arise out of long standing personal and professional histories. At any rate, the basis of all action – activity – is this movement of the location of events in a past-present-future framework, at both the socio-psychological level. The movement of time is generally considered external, outside the body-brain mechanism; and, otherwise internally as a narrative dialogue within the mind-brain setup. Of course, the external-internal movement is not only closely linked but is in fact one movement. It is split because of the social system, within the space-time symbolic-semiotic languaging terms that makes up the framework of reference (Malik : 1989). Within an awareness of the holistic framework, which is an issue of introspection, to which we shall return later since it is important to view Indian Civilization as a whole and not to exclude other variables and dimensions which are available in India.
What is this ‘normal’ way of viewing the past, since it is not the ‘natural’ or obvious one; it is related to a specific background to which we turn the below.
I.HISTORI BACKGROUND OF THE MODERN ERA
In the context of a discussion on a knowledge of the past, it is important to note the specific historical-philosophical climate of Europe during the 16th-17th centuries, within which the Scientific Revolution took place. It is also worth while to recall some basic presuppositions, essentially Western, which dominate our times, summarised as follows:
a. The Universe
1. A mechanical machine, with no intention or purpose; not an organism having consciousness. In being so, it is indifferent to man – hence it needs to be conquered.
2. It is real to the extent it can be externalised, quantified, measured in terms of mass, dimensions of size, colour, taste, etc., characteristics that are ultimately not real.
3. The internal nature of man is subjective and different to the external which alone can be objective and true.
4. Matter precedes intelligence; the latter must be explained in terms of the former which may be dead though subject to purposeless forces.
5. Time is linear, sequential; and space essentially uniform. Energy is basically the same, not gross or subtle – though it may be more or less in quantity. Time, space and energy are only externally real, and are independent at the level of perceiving consciousness.
6. Importance is given to the causal notion, in terms of the evolution of complexity and intelligence.
b. Man
tribalartindia 