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292 REYIEWS

ART : THE INTEGRAL VISION, A Volume of Essays in Felicitalion of

KapUa Valsyayan, ed: B.N.SARASWATI, S.C. MALIK, MADHU KHANNA,

New Delhi, 1994, pp. xii + 336, colour iliustrations 27, monochrome

photos 76, Rs. 1500/-.

Being as mullidimensional as are Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan’s concems, the gifts offered by her associales in this birthday celebration are also a reflection of a commonality of outlook. Many of us see Kapila as a kind of inexhaustible, inflorescent centre-cum- kundalinT śakti energy, ever in search of underlying integrating ąualities inherent in what she herself has termed the ‘cognate systems'.

The opening pages detail the phenomenal past and ongoing accomplishments of this gentle dynamo. In all of her diverse creations and activities, she has never allowed for a superficial or limited perspeclive, co-ordinating the multiplicities of manifestly distinct fields: literaturę, education, the arts, dance and musie, metaphysics, religious history. She is performer, choreographer, director of dance and drama, author, diplomat, administrator, and she fuses all these endeavours wilh a rare generosily of spirit. For her radial contributions in these many areas, she has here received a centripetal return - support and a good dcal of unabashed affection.

A glance at the biographies of the twenty-seven contributors reveals the universality of Kapila Vatsyayan’s inlerests. For, all the many-aspected approaches seem to seek patterns, in a quest for a holistic vision, even as they teach aboul their own particular disciplines. There are contributions here from... reader, hołd on to your hat: the fields of Indology, physics, astro physics, metaphysics, history of art, religion and of India, museology, theology, anthropology and archaeology, and a poet, a dancer and a dramatisl as wcll!

It is the mark of the deep feclings many of Kapila Vatsyayan’s dose associates have for her that there is also a rangę of modes of expression. The warmth and intimacy felt by one editor, B.N. Saraswati, is discursive and self-searehihg. The others do stay within the bounds of logical discourse, but even as they discuss fundamenlals, the mood is dedicatory.

Although one cannot actually be brief and at the same time do justice to the complcxities, and I must rest content wilh whelling the readers' appetite, perhaps, as an inlroduction, a schema can be construcled. The articles might be situated along vertical and horizonlal alignments, cven (hough these axcs can be conceived only as pillars out of which idcas intcrconnect at all lcvels, in all directions. On the vertical axis are those articles, the conlenls of which describe a surging ascent towards, or the unfolding from Brahman. In tandem, on the horizontal axis, there is a liberał number of cross-cullural studies conceming universals. This confluence is a reflection of Kapila Vatsyayan’s world view, and for that matter, of the healthy generał trend towards sceing