The Writings of Stella Kramrisch With the reference of the book ‘The presence of Shiva’ (The object, Method and language within the great narrative.)

1. The Writings of Stella Kramrisch
With the reference of the book ‘The presence of Shiva’
(The object, Method and language within the great narrative.)
Jeevan Lal P N
University of Kerala
Art History and Aesthetics
RRV Center of Excellence For Visual Arts
Maveikkara, Kerala.

2. Stella Kramrisch (1896-1993) was
an American art historian, who was well
known as a specialist in Indian
art and Hinduism. She enrolled at
the University ofVienna, studying Indian art,
Sanskrit, anthropology and Indian philosophy,
and earned her doctorate in 1919.[3]
As a teacher, lecturer, curator and prolific
writer, Dr. Stella Kramrisch devoted nearly 70
years to the study and appreciation of Indian
art.
She served as the curator of Indian art at
the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1954
until her death in 1993.

3. “Studying the object using a metaphysical approach and employing distinctly
non-western concepts in her history writing.”
While a student, she was influenced by Kandinsky's art theory
and the theosophy of Rudolf Steiner (whom she knew
personally). In India, she converted to Hinduism and amassed a
significant collection of South Asian art objects which she
ultimately sold or willed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
She came across a translation of the ’Bhagavadgeetha’
"I was so impressed it took my breath away.“
She had found what she wanted to do in her life.
She enrolled at the University ofVienna studying Indian art,
Sanskrit, anthropology and Indian philosophy,
and earned her doctorate in 1919.

4. Her brief stint at teachingWestern art at Santiniketan in 1921,
at the invitation of RabindranathTagore, followed by her tenure as
Professor (1924-1950) at the invitation of Asutosh Mukhopadhyay,
the thenVice Chancellor.
And as joint editor of the Journal of the Indian Society of
Oriental Art with Abanindranath Tagore (1933-50), had drawn her
into the evolving Orientalist and nationalist discourse, generating
alongside an interest in collecting Indian fine and folk art.

5. Stella used talk about the mythology and
purana as well as the shiva concept.The shiva
and the essence and presence she noted as pre
vedic and today.
Who is Siva? the author asks.
Stella Kramrisch ponders the metaphysics,
ontology,and myths of Siva from the
Vedas and the Puranas.

6. Who is this god whose being comprises and
transcends everything?
From the dawn of creation, the Wild God,
the GreatYogi, the sum of all opposites, has
been guardian of the absolute.
By retelling and interweaving the many
myths that keep Siva alive in India today, Kramrisch
reveals the paradoxes in Siva's nature and thus in
the nature of consciousness itself.

7. The magnificent sculptures at Elephanta,
illustrated at the end of the book,
capture in another medium the
presence of the god.

8. Apart from teaching and writing, she was highly
regarded as an exhibition organizer.
She produced a show, "Manifestations of Siva,"
for the Philadelphia Museum in 1981.

9. The large exhibition was curated by stella in 1980 with the hard work
of ten years of Indian livehood. She used to display the objects illustrating
the diverse manifestations of the hindu deities. Shiva illustrated as well as
the possibility for manifesting underlying cultural structures in the
display of museum objects.

10. Kramrisch chose to weave objects together
using display structures of that civilization

11. Kramrish Illustrating the diverse manifestations of the Hindu deity
‘Shiva’ illustrated as well the possibility for manifesting underlying
cultural structures in the display of museum objects.
She moved this exhibition steps beyond the pedagogic, historical, display
structures common for such major museum exhibitions.
The public who came moved through a world of subliminal.

12. According to stell kramrish, In the life of India.That year she traveled to
London in 1919 with a university delegation to give three lectures at Oxford.
RabindranathTagore heard her speak and invited her to come to India
and teach at theVisva-Bharati University in Santiniketan in 1922.
She was appointed professor of Indian art at the University of Calcutta
in 1924, where she taught until 1950.

13. In The Presence of Siva, Stella Kramrisch describes this transition inVedic
mythology,A curious by-product of Kramrisch’s output is the idea thatVedic
myths encode like astronomical events, and that Hindu gods represent
astronomical objects.
One of the three Great Gods of Hinduism, Siva is a living god.The
most sacred and most ancient book of India, the RgVeda, evokes his
presence in its hymns.Vedic myths, ritual, and even astronomy testify to his
existence from the dawn of time.
Siva, whose being comprises and transcends everything? None of the
pairs of opposites, nor the sum of his uncounted names, defines him. From
the down of creation, the Wild God, whose ancient name is Rudra, is
Consciousness. He is the GreatYogi, the guardian of the absolute. His actions
are the themes of the myths in which his nature unfolds

14. One cannot prove mythology like a theorem, nor
ascertain the true origin of theVedas with any authority.
Save their own, for the authors of theVedas forego any
certainty about their cosmological knowledge. In one of
the highest paeans to scepticism that can be found in
world literature, placing creation before gods (like the
Big Bang before the birth of stars)

15. Life and works
Professor Kramrisch earned a doctorate of philosophy inVienna in 1919.
When she became the first professor of Indian art at the University of Calcutta in
1923 and published "Principles of Indian Art" in 1924, Professor Kramrisch laid
the foundations for the systematic study of Indian art. She personified that
systematic study in the series of books that followed:"Indian Sculpture" (1932),
"A Survey of Painting in the Deccan" (1937), "IndianTerracottas" (1939),
"The HinduTemple" (1946) and "Arts and Crafts ofTravancore" (1948).

16. Thank you
pn.jeevanart@gmail.com