Home » Mythology » What does this mean? “This is indeed the note of Bengali literature and the one high thing it has gained from a close acquaintance with European models. The hideous grotesques of old Hindu Art, the monkey-rabble of Ram and the ten heads of Ravan, are henceforth impossible to it.”Sri Aurobindo has spoken highly of Valmiki’s aesthetics.. then what does this “hideous-grotesque” refer to here?🏹☀️🌳🐒

What does this mean? “This is indeed the note of Bengali literature and the one high thing it has gained from a close acquaintance with European models. The hideous grotesques of old Hindu Art, the monkey-rabble of Ram and the ten heads of Ravan, are henceforth impossible to it.”Sri Aurobindo has spoken highly of Valmiki’s aesthetics.. then what does this “hideous-grotesque” refer to here?🏹☀️🌳🐒

My feeling is that it refers to ‘vital’ imagery.

Here he is mainly referring to Bankim’s imagery in which Sri Aurobindo finds ‘beauty, terseness, strength and sweetness’. The hideousness is not about Valmiki’s Ramayana. It is simply a literal portrayal of Ravan which is often done quite grotesquely as a purely vital image as we find in the film Adipurush. He is referring to contemporary literature during the time of Bankim not a judgment on the literary style and the Rasa flowing through Valimiki whom he ranks among the three greatest of all times in Indian literature, the other two being Vyasa and Kalidasa.

Affectionately,

Alok Da

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My feeling is that it refers to ‘vital’ imagery.

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