Page 3 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

Introduction

The arts and crafts of Bangladesh have a position of great importance in the
understanding of the heart of its culture. The arts are the unbroken link of the present
to the distant past. This book includes a wide variety of artistic expressions with the
aim of presenting a complete picture of Bangladesh art. Particular emphases has been
placed on traditions that bear the distinctive characteristics of this country as they
represent the way of life, hopes and aspirations of the people as well as the way that
this civilization has developed.
The art of Bangladesh may be divided into two streams, the folk and the ‘high’. These
two separate streams control the total cultural sphere of this country. According to
Heinz Mode, ‘A completely illogical standard has been imposed to consider the art of
the palace and the temples as high art and separate it from the folk arts. Yet the culture
which is intimately connected with the daily life of the people has been rejected as
common and low-class art. As a result, accepting the class and racial differences in
society, art too was evaluated by the same standard.’ [Trans.]
1
Folk culture has evolved through the ages and successive generations in a rural
environment in an almost spontaneous way, without state patronization. Though it is
rooted in the agricultural society of the past, it is also subject to change. Rural culture
may again be divided into two streams. One stream is deeply connected to the all
Indian and primarily Brahmanic or Islamic culture. The source and development of the
other stream has much less outside influence. It is primarily the culture of the
ancestors of the non-Sanskrit language based peoples who were the originators of this
culture in their own homeland ages before the arrival of Brahmanic culture. A part of
this divided folk culture lies within aesthetic activity, the examples of which are seen
in the sculptures, masks, paintings, pata, decoration and utensils, the elements for
puja, utility implements, furniture etc. which are associated with the beautification of
objects and dwellings. The concerned artists are common people skilled from
generation to generation in the rural tradition, but they are not trained within the
regulations of an influential school or style. ‘However when the rural artist … creates
2
art upon being educated in a special technique or style through the patronage of high
class people for their use or the use of the common people, or had created such till the
mediaeval age, it can be categorized as so-called “high” art created and nourished by
the “higher classes.”’ [Trans.]
3
1. Heinz Mode, “Lokasanskritir Shwarup O Banglar Lokshilpa”, Lokasruti, Volume Twelve, Falgun 1402
(Bengali year), Kolkata, 9.
2. Bratindranath Mukhopadhyaya, Lokshilpa Banm “Uchha” Margiya Shilpa Prak-Gupta Banger
Prekshpate, (Calcutta 99), 2-3.
3. Ibid., 3.