ART IN BENGAL VAISHNAVISM 8i< forms of bhaJeti or love of God, gives the highest place to what is called the madhurya or the sex romance. The Chaitanya-Charitamrita declares that the object of the advent of Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is to initiate a new hhakti movement ; this new hhakti had never been revealed or practised before. The central idea of the Vaishnavic art of Bengal is derived or developed from its con- ception of the five rasas, shanta, dasya^sakhya, batsalya and madhura. These rasas are not mere abstractions or generalisations, but they are concrete things. They are not what is called formless or nirakara, but all these rasas have their specific forms. The object of all art is to bring out the specific forms of the different rasas. In painting, the forms of different rasas are sought to be brought out through combination of colours ; in sculpture through organisation of muscles and contour ; in poetry through representation with the help of words ; in music through sound ; in dancing through movement of living limbs. The aim and object of Vaishnavic lyrics have been to bring out, with the help of verbal description, the essential forms of the different ra«a-s. These forms, though manifested in and through our bodies, are really not
