GUNEETA CHADHA

 The quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality

 Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction.  Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.

 The experience of "beauty" often involves the interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this is a subjective experience, it is often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one's own existence.A subject of beauty is anything that resonates with personal meaning.

 The origin of the word is from the classical Greek language. The word Kallos is a noun for "beauty" and the adjective for "beautiful" was kalos in Greek. The Koine Greek word for beautiful was hōraios, an adjective etymologically coming from the word hōra, meaning "hour." In Koine Greek, beauty was thus associated with "being of one's hour.“ For eg. A ripe fruit (of its time) was considered beautiful, whereas a young woman trying to appear older or an older woman trying to appear younger would not be considered beautiful.

 Natural objects such as human beings, animals, landscapes and artificial objects like structures, objects, and works of art can be described as beautiful or ugly.

 The concept of beauty has originated with the philosophers and not with artists. The artist has been in love with his particular subject, he has never set out to achieve the beautiful in art. What then is Beauty?  Beauty is that which pleases the mind, the senses, the finer sensibilities of human beings. It involves an aesthetic experience. There is an aesthetic intuition on the part of the original artist or poet or creator.

 TWO THEORIES OF BEAUTY ARE POPULAR  WESTERN THEORY  ORIENTAL/ INDIAN THEORY  WESTERN THEORY:  In the western theory beauty is OBJECTIVE.  The Greek masters had great appreciation for physical beauty. The great masters of Renaissance valued beauty as one of the main objective in their works of art. Leonardo’s Monalisa, Michealangelo’s David and the Sistine ceilings, Rapheal’s school of Athens are all examples of the beautiful in art.

 INDIAN THEORY:  In the Indian theory beauty is SUBJECTIVE.  This concept can be understood as Satyam- Shivam-Sundram.  It means that truth is god and god is beauty and beauty is subjective. God was considered as the source of all knowledge, power and wisedom. He is beautiful. God as absolute beauty is one of the basic ideas of ancient Hindu culture.

 Discussions on beauty are found in Alankar Shastra and in Sanskrit poetry.  In Alankar Shastra the word ‘Saundriya’ is rarely used.  The term ‘Ramaniyata’ is generally used in the sense of beauty. That is Ramaniyata which arouses in the mind some joy. Thus a beautiful object arouses in the mind, a feeling of beauty.  The feeling of beauty is a particular state of mind. It is subjective and engendered by RASA.

 RASA IN THE EAST IS KNOWN AS BEAUTY IN THE WEST.  Rasa is the main base of the feeling of beauty and it is said to be the culmination of the feeling of beauty. So whatever is beautiful is because of the Rasa associated with it.  HOWEVER  There are no general principles of classification of beauty. For something that may seem beautiful to one person can be ugly to somebody else.

 1.Beauty is relative to an artist and later to critic’s taste. For an open minded critic can appreciate any work of quality, even if it is of any period or any style.  2.Beauty is an important element in a work of art.  3.BEAUTY IS NEITHER SUBJECTIVE NOR OBJECTIVE BUT A MIXTURE OF BOTH.  4.Emotions play a major role in aesthetic judgement.  5.Aesthetic consciousness is related to our senses and psychological understanding.  6.Beauty has its relation with pleasure more so ANANDA.

 Aristotle: “ Beauty or goodness depends upon the object, realisation of its form, purpose, essence, notion or idea in it.” Keats : “ A thing of beauty is joy forever”. Though this phase does not tell us anything about beauty, but this for sure that beauty gives us lasting pleasure. The Vedic Ananda leaves us with no conception of beauty except that it can give joy to its beholder. Socrates: “Everything is beautiful” for whatever purpose it serves well and everything is bad or ugly for what it does not serve its purpose well.