Mela ( Sanskrit : मेला ) is a Sanskrit word meaning "gathering" or "to meet" or a " fair ". It is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gatherings and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sport-related. In rural traditions melas or village fairs were (and in some cases still are) of great importance. This led to their export around the world by South Asian diaspora communities wishing to bring something of that tradition to their new countries.
141-535: In recent times "mela" also popularly refers to shows and exhibitions. It can be theme-based, promoting a particular culture, art or skill. Generally at "melas" people can find eateries, entertainment activities, shops and games. The Kumbh Mela , held every twelve years, at Prayagraj , Haridwar , Nashik and Ujjain is one of the largest fairs in India , where over 50 million people gathered in January 2001, making it
282-532: A 12-year cycle for it. The later Mughal Empire era texts that contain the term "Kumbha Mela" in Haridwar's context include Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh (1695–1699 CE), and Chahar Gulshan (1759 CE). The Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh also mentions an annual bathing pilgrimage festival in Prayag, but it does not call it Kumbh. Both these Mughal era texts use the term "Kumbh Mela" to describe only Haridwar's fair, mentioning
423-512: A Buddha statue, involved alms giving and it might have been a Buddhist festival. In contrast, Ariel Glucklich – a scholar of Hinduism and Anthropology of Religion, the Xuanzang memoir includes, somewhat derisively, the reputation of Prayag as a place where people (Hindus) once committed superstitious devotional suicide to liberate their souls, and how a Brahmin of an earlier era successfully put an end to this practice. This and other details such as
564-574: A Geisha (2005) contains orientalist tropes and deep "cultural misrepresentations". She states that Memoirs of a Geisha "reinforces the idea of Japanese culture and geisha as exotic, backward, irrational, dirty, profane, promiscuous, bizarre, and enigmatic." During the Romantic period of the 19th century, ballet developed a preoccupation with the exotic. This exoticism ranged from ballets set in Scotland to those based on ethereal creatures. By
705-525: A central attraction and a stop for mainstream Hindus who seek their darsana (meeting, view) as well as spiritual guidance and blessings. The Kumbh Melas have been one of their recruitment and initiation venues, as well as the place to trade. These akharas have roots in the Hindu Naga (naked) monks tradition, who went to war without clothes. These monastic groups traditionally credit the Kumbh mela to
846-420: A distinct national style of classical music . One hallmark of "The Five" composers was their reliance on orientalism. Many quintessentially "Russian" works were composed in orientalist style, such as Balakirev's Islamey , Borodin's Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade . As leader of "The Five", Balakirev encouraged the use of eastern themes and harmonies to set their "Russian" music apart from
987-554: A group, the thirteen active akharas have been, The ten Shaiva and Vaishnava akharas are also known as the Dasanamis, and they believe that Adi Shankara founded them and one of their traditional duties is dharma-raksha (protection of faith). The Kumbh melas of the past, albeit with different regional names, attracted large attendance and have been religiously significant to the Hindus for centuries. However, they have been more than
1128-474: A house to sketch what became Women of Algiers ; few later harem scenes had this claim to authenticity. When Ingres, the director of the French Académie de peinture , painted a highly colored vision of a hammam , he made his eroticized Orient publicly acceptable by his diffuse generalizing of the female forms (who might all have been the same model). More open sensuality was seen as acceptable in
1269-628: A large number of visitors came there for trade. He also includes a 1814 letter from his missionary friend who distributed copies of the Gospel to the pilgrims and tried to convert some to Christianity. According to an 1858 account of the Haridwar Kumbh Mela by the British civil servant Robert Montgomery Martin , the visitors at the fair included people from a number of races and clime. Along with priests, soldiers, and religious mendicants,
1410-550: A large periodic assembly of Hindus at religious festivals associated with bathing, gift-giving, commerce and organisation. An early account of the Haridwar Kumbh Mela was published by Captain Thomas Hardwicke in 1796 CE. According to James Mallinson – a scholar of Hindu yoga manuscripts and monastic institutions, bathing festivals at Prayag with large gatherings of pilgrims are attested since "at least
1551-411: A later practice by a "small circle of adherents" who have sought the roots of a highly popular pilgrimage and festival. The Hindu legend , however, describes the creation of a "pot of amrita (nectar of immortality)" after the forces of good and evil churn the ocean of creation. The gods and demons fight over this pot, the " kumbha ", of nectar in order to gain immortality. In a later day extension to
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#17327725904381692-637: A literary environment of colonial exploration from a distinctly European worldview. The current trend in analysis of this movement references a belief in this literature as a mode to justify European colonial endeavors with the expansion of territory. In his novel Salammbô , Gustave Flaubert used ancient Carthage in North Africa as a foil to ancient Rome . He portrayed its culture as morally corrupting and suffused with dangerously alluring eroticism. This novel proved hugely influential on later portrayals of ancient Semitic cultures . Said argues that
1833-518: A local festival. Like the priests at Prayag, those at Nashik and Ujjain, competing with other places for a sacred status, may have adopted the Kumbh tradition for their pre-existing Magha melas. One of the key features of the Kumbh mela has been the camps and processions of the sadhus (monks). By the 18th century, many of these had organised into one of thirteen akharas (warrior ascetic bands, monastic militia), of which ten were related to Hinduism and three related to Sikhism . Seven have belonged to
1974-456: A magnificent Great Pagoda designed by William Chambers . The Wilhelma (1846) in Stuttgart is an example of Moorish Revival architecture . Leighton House , built for the artist Frederic Leighton , has a conventional facade but elaborate Arab-style interiors, including original Islamic tiles and other elements as well as Victorian Orientalizing work. After 1860, Japonism , sparked by
2115-626: A nude", and his wife modelled for several of his harem scenes, which, with the rare examples by the classicist painter Lord Leighton , imagine "the harem as a place of almost English domesticity, ... [where]... women's fully clothed respectability suggests a moral healthiness to go with their natural good looks". Other artists concentrated on landscape painting , often of desert scenes, including Richard Dadd and Edward Lear . David Roberts (1796–1864) produced architectural and landscape views, many of antiquities , and published very successful books of lithographs from them. Russian Orientalist art
2256-507: A number of major paintings of Biblical subjects drawing on his Middle Eastern travels, improvising variants of contemporary Arab costume and furnishings to avoid specifically Islamic styles, and also some landscapes and genre subjects. The biblical subjects included The Scapegoat (1856), The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1860), and The Shadow of Death (1871). The Miracle of
2397-533: A part of the glory of the Kumbh festival is in that "feeling of brotherhood and love" where millions peacefully gather on the river banks in harmony and a sense of shared heritage. In modern religious and psychological theory, the Kumbh Mela exemplifies Émile Durkheim 's concept of collective effervescence . This phenomenon occurs when individuals gather in shared rituals, fostering a profound sense of unity and belonging. The collective energy generated during
2538-418: A place "bustling with pilgrims, priests, vendors, beggars, guides" and local citizens busy along the confluence of the rivers ( Sangam ). These Sanskrit guide books of the medieval era India were updated over its editions, likely by priests and guides who had a mutual stake in the economic returns from the visiting pilgrims. One of the longest sections about Prayag rivers and its significance to Hindu pilgrimage
2679-481: A pointed analogy with France's own absolute monarchy . Byron's poetry was highly influential in introducing Europe to the heady cocktail of Romanticism in exotic Oriental settings which was to dominate 19th century Oriental art. French Orientalist painting was transformed by Napoleon 's ultimately unsuccessful invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798–1801, which stimulated great public interest in Egyptology , and
2820-591: A religious event to the Hindu community. Historically the Kumbh Melas were also major commercial events , initiation of new recruits to the akharas , prayers and community singing, spiritual discussions, education and a spectacle. During the colonial era rule of the East India Company, its officials saw the Hindu pilgrimage as a means to collect vast sums of revenue through a "pilgrim tax" and taxes on
2961-794: A scholar who specialized in the languages and literatures of the Eastern world . Among such scholars were officials of the East India Company , who said that the Arab culture , the Indian culture , and the Islamic cultures should be studied as equal to the cultures of Europe . Among such scholars is the philologist William Jones , whose studies of Indo-European languages established modern philology . Company rule in India favored Orientalism as
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#17327725904383102-516: A similar fair held in Prayag and Nashik. The Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh lists the following melas: an annual mela and a Kumbh Mela every 12 years at Haridwar ; a mela held at Trimbak when Jupiter enters Leo (that is, once in 12 years); and an annual mela held at Prayag (in modern Prayagraj) in Magh . Like the Prayag mela, the bathing pilgrimage mela at Nasik and Ujjain are of considerable antiquity. However, these were referred to as Singhasth mela , and
3243-590: A strain of Orientalism: "the East as a sign or metaphor, as imaginary geography, as historical fiction, as the reduced and totalized other against which we construct our (not less reduced and totalized) sense of ourselves." Taruskin conceded Russian composers, unlike those in France and Germany, felt an "ambivalence" to the theme since "Russia was a contiguous empire in which Europeans, living side by side with 'orientals', identified (and intermarried) with them far more than in
3384-608: A strong revival of interest in, and collecting of, 19th century Orientalist works since the 1970s, the latter was in large part led by Middle Eastern buyers. Authors and composers are not commonly referred to as "Orientalist" in the way that artists are, and relatively few specialized in Oriental topics or styles, or are even best known for their works including them. But many major figures, from Mozart to Flaubert, have produced significant works with Oriental subjects or treatments. Lord Byron with his four long "Turkish tales" in poetry,
3525-461: A strong socially cohesive function. More successful outside-of-Asia melas tend to have a strongly diversified funding base with private/public/third sector collaboration. Public money is often spent on the melas. This reflects the mela organisers' and public authorities' joint conviction that, as in the sub-continent, melas are for everyone. Kumbh Mela Traditional Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela ( / ˌ k ʊ m b ˈ m eɪ l ə / )
3666-491: A technique for developing and maintaining positive relations with the Indians—until the 1820s, when the influence of "anglicists" such as Thomas Babington Macaulay and John Stuart Mill led to the promotion of a Western-style education. Additionally, Hebraism and Jewish studies gained popularity among British and German scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries. The academic field of Oriental studies , which comprehended
3807-440: A very large human gathering, with officials estimating 70 million people over the festival, including more than 40 million on the busiest single day according to BBC News. Another estimate states that about 30 million attended the 2001 Kumbh mela on the busiest mauni amavasya day alone. In 2007, as many as 70 million pilgrims attended the 45-day long Ardha Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj . In 2013, 120 million pilgrims attended
3948-454: A view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in the service of imperial power . Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior. This allows 'Western imagination' to see 'Eastern' cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to Western civilization. Journalist and art critic Jonathan Jones pushed back on Said’s claims, and suggested that
4089-519: Is a European adaptation of the Islamic arabesque that began in the late 15th century and was to be used in some types of work, such as bookbinding , until almost the present day. Early architectural use of motifs lifted from the Indian subcontinent is known as Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture . One of the earliest examples is the façade of Guildhall, London (1788–1789). The style gained momentum in
4230-514: Is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism . On 4 February 2019, Kumbh Mela witnessed the largest peaceful public gathering of humans ever recorded. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to celebrate every revolution Brihaspati ( Jupiter ) completes, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: Prayagraj ( Ganges - Yamuna - Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik ( Godavari ), and Ujjain ( Shipra ). The festival
4371-752: Is a theatrical one: the Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined", and that the subject of learned Orientalists "is not so much the East itself as the East made known, and therefore less fearsome, to the Western reading public". In the academy, the book Orientalism (1978) became a foundational text of post-colonial cultural studies . The analyses in Said's works are of Orientalism in European literature, especially French literature , and do not analyse visual art and Orientalist painting . In that vein,
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4512-577: Is found in chapters 103–112 of the Matsya Purana . Exceedingly old pilgrimage There is evidence enough to suggest that although the Magh Mela – or at least, the tradition of religious festival at the triveni [Prayag] – is exceedingly old, the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad is much more recent. Maclean (2008) , p. 91 According to James Lochtefeld – a scholar of Indian religions,
4653-651: Is found in the Vedic texts, in this sense, often in the context of holding water or in mythical legends about the nectar of immortality. The word Kumbha or its derivatives are found in the Rigveda (1500–1200 BCE), for example, in verse 10.89.7; verse 19.16 of the Yajurveda , verse 6.3 of Samaveda , verse 19.53.3 of the Atharvaveda , and other Vedic and post-Vedic ancient Sanskrit literature. In astrological texts,
4794-426: Is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass gatherings of monks, and entertainment. The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to prāyaścitta (atonement, penance, restorative action) for past mistakes, and that it cleanses them of their sins. The festival is traditionally credited to
4935-492: Is one of the most important writers to make exotic fantasy Oriental settings a significant theme in the literature of Romanticism . Giuseppe Verdi 's opera Aida (1871) is set in Egypt as portrayed through the content and the visual spectacle. "Aida" depicts a militaristic Egypt's tyranny over Ethiopia . Irish Orientalism had a particular character, drawing on various beliefs about early historical links between Ireland and
5076-472: The Hindu luni-solar calendar and the relative astrological positions of Jupiter , the sun and the moon. The difference in Prayag and Haridwar festivals is about 6 years, and both feature a Maha (major) and Ardha (half) Kumbh Melas. The exact years – particularly for the Kumbh Melas at Ujjain and Nashik – have been a subject of dispute in the 20th century. The Nashik and Ujjain festivals have been celebrated in
5217-477: The Indian Railways , artificially intelligent video surveillance and analytics by IBM , disease surveillance , river transport management by Inland Waterways Authority of India , and an app to help the visitors. The Kumbh mela is "widely regarded as the world's largest religious gathering", states James Lochtefeld. According to Kama Maclean, the coordinators and attendees themselves state that
5358-550: The Notting Hill Carnival , it is the second-largest street festival in the United Kingdom , attracting over 80,000 visitors from across the country. Many melas are wider intercultural (though mainly Asian) festivals incorporating music, dance, food and other aspects of mainstream culture. Since the 1980s an increasing number of melas have regularly been held in larger towns outside south Asia, especially in
5499-608: The Ottoman Empire in painting and prints . Gentile Bellini, who travelled to Constantinople and painted the Sultan, and Vittore Carpaccio were the leading painters. By then the depictions were more accurate, with men typically dressed all in white. The depiction of Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting sometimes draws from Orientalist interest, but more often just reflects the prestige these expensive objects had in
5640-655: The Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt and David Roberts (in The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia ) had similar motivations, giving an emphasis on realism in British Orientalist art from the start. The French artist James Tissot also used contemporary Middle Eastern landscape and decor for Biblical subjects, with little regard for historical costumes or other fittings. William Holman Hunt produced
5781-542: The Shaivism tradition, three to Vaishnavism , two to Udasis (founded by Guru Nanak's son) and one to Nirmalas . These soldier-monk traditions have been a well-established feature of the Indian society, and they are prominent feature of the Kumbh melas. Until the East India Company rule , the Kumbh Melas (Magha Melas) were managed by these akharas . They provide logistical arrangements, policing, intervened and judged any disputes and collected taxes. They also have been
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5922-610: The UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity . The festival is observed over many days, with the day of Amavasya attracting the largest number on a single day. The Kumbh Mela authorities said that the largest one-day attendance at the Kumbh Mela was 30 million on 10 February 2013, and 50 million on 4 February 2019. The Kumbha in Kumbha Mela literally means "pitcher, jar, pot" in Sanskrit . It
6063-740: The Western world . Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle East , was one of the many specialties of 19th-century academic art , and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes. Since the publication of Edward Said 's Orientalism in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term 'Orientalism' to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, 'the West' essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating
6204-711: The largest gathering anywhere in the world. In modern usage outside South Asia it has become a term that shows widespread diversity of interpretation, just as has been the case in South Asia. One can find a Nepalese mela in the US, or a Bengali mela in London, such as the Boishakhi Mela . The Boishakhi Mela is the largest open-air Asian festival in Europe and the largest Bengali festival outside of Bangladesh . After
6345-516: The 1789 Nashik Kumbh Mela. The dispute started over the bathing order, which then indicated status of the akhara s. At the 1796 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, violence broke out between the Shaivites and the Udasis on logistics and camping rights. The repetitive clashes, battle-ready nature of the warrior monks, and the lucrative tax and trading opportunities at Kumbh melas in the 18th-century attracted
6486-490: The 18th and 19th centuries. The thesis of Orientalism develops Antonio Gramsci 's theory of cultural hegemony , and Michel Foucault 's theorisation of discourse (the knowledge - power relation) to criticise the scholarly tradition of Oriental studies. Said criticised contemporary scholars who perpetuated the tradition of outsider-interpretation of Arabo -Islamic cultures, especially Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami . Furthermore, Said said that "The idea of representation
6627-544: The 19th century. At that time, artists and scholars were described as Orientalists, especially in France, where the dismissive use of the term "Orientalist" was made popular by the art critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary . Despite such social disdain for a style of representational art , the French Society of Orientalist Painters was founded in 1893, with Jean-Léon Gérôme as the honorary president; whereas in Britain,
6768-484: The 8th-century Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara , as a part of his efforts to start monastic institutions ( matha ), and major Hindu gatherings for philosophical discussions and debates. However, there is no historic literary evidence that he actually did start the Kumbh melas. During the 17th century, the akharas competed for ritual primacy, priority rights to who bathes first or at the most auspicious time, and prominence leading to violent conflicts. The records from
6909-627: The 8th-century Hindu philosopher and saint Adi Shankara , as a part of his efforts to start major Hindu gatherings for philosophical discussions and debates along with Hindu monasteries across the Indian subcontinent. However, there is no historical literary evidence of these mass pilgrimages called "Kumbha Mela" prior to the 19th century. There is ample evidence in historical manuscripts and inscriptions of an annual Magha Mela in Hinduism – with periodic larger gatherings after 6 or 12 years – where pilgrims gathered in massive numbers and where one of
7050-683: The American's image of Okinawa rather than about the Okinawan people ." The film characterizes the Okinawans as "merry but backward" and "de-politicized", which ignored the real-life Okinawan political protests over forceful land acquisition by the American military at the time. Kimiko Akita, in Orientalism and the Binary of Fact and Fiction in 'Memoirs of a Geisha' , argues that Memoirs of
7191-598: The Battle of the Pyramids (1810). Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson 's La Révolte du Caire (1810) was another large and prominent example. A well-illustrated Description de l'Égypte was published by the French Government in twenty volumes between 1809 and 1828, concentrating on antiquities . Eugène Delacroix 's first great success, The Massacre at Chios (1824) was painted before he visited Greece or
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#17327725904387332-401: The British administration to recognise the festival and protect their religious rights. The 16th-century Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas mentions an annual Mela in Prayag, as does a Muslim historian's Ain-i-Akbari (c. 1590 CE). The latter Akbar -era Persian text calls Prayag (spells it Priyag ) the "king of shrines" for the Hindus, and mentions that it is considered particularly holy in
7473-590: The British involvement in successfully suppressed the slave trade in Egypt, but also for cruelty and "representing fleshiness for its own sake". But Rana Kabbani believes that "French Orientalist painting, as exemplified by the works of Gérôme, may appear more sensual, gaudy, gory and sexually explicit than its British counterpart, but this is a difference of style not substance ... Similar strains of fascination and repulsion convulsed their artists" Nonetheless, nudity and violence are more evident in British paintings set in
7614-471: The East India Company rule era report of violence between the akharas and numerous deaths. At the 1760 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, a clash broke out between Shaivite Gosains and Vaishnavite Bairagis (ascetics), resulting in hundreds of deaths. A copper plate inscription of the Maratha Peshwa claims that 12,000 ascetics died in a clash between Shaivite sanyasi s and Vaishnavite bairagi s at
7755-562: The East, and followed his friend Théodore Géricault 's The Raft of the Medusa in showing a recent incident in distant parts that had aroused public opinion. Greece was still fighting for independence from the Ottomans, and was effectively as exotic as the more Near Eastern parts of the empire. Delacroix followed up with Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1827), commemorating a siege of
7896-507: The East, few of which are now regarded as historically correct. The mythical Milesians are one example of this. The Irish were also conscious of the views of other nations seeing them as comparably backward to the East, and Europe's "backyard Orient." In music, Orientalism may be applied to styles occurring in different periods, such as the alla Turca , used by multiple composers including Mozart and Beethoven . The musicologist Richard Taruskin identified in 19th-century Russian music
8037-501: The German symphonism of Anton Rubinstein and other Western-oriented composers. Edward Said originally wrote that Germany did not have a politically motivated Orientalism because its colonial empire did not expand in the same areas as France and Britain. Said later stated that Germany "had in common with Anglo-French and later American Orientalism [...] a kind of intellectual authority over the Orient". However, Said also wrote that "there
8178-578: The Haractas, Followed by his Escort (1846) before he first visited the East, but in later decades the steamship made travel much easier and increasing numbers of artists traveled to the Middle East and beyond, painting a wide range of Oriental scenes. In many of these works, artists portrayed the Orient as exotic, colorful and sensual, not to say stereotyped . Such works typically concentrated on Arab, Jewish, and other Semitic cultures, as those were
8319-481: The Hindu month of Magha . The late 16th-century Tabaqat-i-Akbari also records of an annual bathing festival at Prayag sangam where "various classes of Hindus came from all sides of the country to bathe, in such numbers, that the jungles and plains [around it] were unable to hold them". The Kumbh Mela of Haridwar appears to be the original Kumbh Mela, since it is held according to the astrological sign "Kumbha" ( Aquarius ), and because there are several references to
8460-538: The Hindu pilgrims to a Christian sect. During the 1857 rebellion, Colonel Neill targeted the Kumbh mela site and shelled the region where the Prayagwals lived, destroying it in what Maclean describes as a "notoriously brutal pacification of Allahabad". "Prayagwals targeted and destroyed the mission press and churches in Allahabad". Once the British had regained control of the region, the Prayagwals were persecuted by
8601-519: The Holy Fire (1899) was intended as a picturesque satire on the local Eastern Christians, of whom, like most European visitors, Hunt took a very dim view. His A Street Scene in Cairo; The Lantern-Maker's Courtship (1854–61) is a rare contemporary narrative scene, as the young man feels his fiancé's face, which he is not allowed to see, through her veil, as a Westerner in the background beats his way up
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#17327725904388742-586: The Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj. Nasik has registered maximum visitors to 75 million. Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj is the largest in the world, the attendance and scale of preparation of which keeps rising with each successive celebration. For the 2019 Ardh Kumbh at Prayagraj , the preparations included the construction of a ₹ 42,000 million (equivalent to ₹ 52 billion or US$ 630 million in 2023) temporary city over 2,500 hectares with 122,000 temporary toilets and range of accommodation from simple dormitory tents to 5-star tents, 800 special trains by
8883-407: The Kumbh Mela is uncertain. The 7th-century Buddhist Chinese traveller Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang) mentions king Harsha and his capital of Prayag, which he states to be a sacred Hindu city with hundreds of " deva temples" and two Buddhist institutions. He also mentions the Hindu bathing rituals at the junction of the rivers. According to some scholars, this is the earliest surviving historical account of
9024-538: The Kumbh Mela originated in times immemorial and is attested in the Hindu mythology about Samudra Manthana ( lit. churning of the ocean) found in the Vedic texts. Historians, in contrast, reject these claims as none of the ancient or medieval era texts that mention the Samudra Manthana legend ever link it to a "mela" or festival. According to Giorgio Bonazzoli, a scholar of Sanskrit Puranas, these are anachronistic explanations, an adaptation of early legends to
9165-401: The Kumbh Mela, which took place in present-day Prayag in 644 CE. Kama MacLean – an Indologist who has published articles on the Kumbh Mela predominantly based on the colonial archives and English-language media, states based on emails from other scholars and a more recent interpretation of the 7th-century Xuanzang memoir, the Prayag event happened every 5 years (and not 12 years), featured
9306-455: The Kumbh Melas: Prayagraj, Haridwar, Trimbak-Nashik and Ujjain. Other locations that are sometimes called Kumbh melas – with the bathing ritual and a significant participation of pilgrims – include Kurukshetra , and Sonipat . Each site's celebration dates are calculated in advance according to a special combination of zodiacal positions of Bṛhaspati ( Jupiter ), Surya (the Sun ) and Chandra (the Moon ). The relative years vary between
9447-625: The Mela strengthens social bonds and elevates individual and communal consciousness, illustrating the power of such gatherings to create shared identity and purpose. The Kumbh Mela are classified as: For the 2019 Prayagraj Kumbh Mela , the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that the Ardh Kumbh Mela (organised every 6 years) will simply be known as "Kumbh Mela", and the Kumbh Mela (organised every 12 years) will be known as "Maha Kumbh Mela" ("Great Kumbh Mela"). Numerous sites and fairs have been locally referred to be their Kumbh Melas. Of these, four sites are broadly recognised as
9588-453: The Netherlands (the Dutch East India Company ) and France (the French East India Company ). Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine Ming -era blue and white porcelain from the early 17th century. Early ceramic wares made at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and teawares (see Chinese export porcelain ). Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in
9729-471: The Orient that comprehended East Asia : "the awakening of the Orient under the impact of Western ideas." Edward Said said that Orientalism "enables the political, economic, cultural and social domination of the West, not just during colonial times, but also in the present." In art history , the term Orientalism refers to the works of mostly 19th-century Western artists who specialized in Oriental subjects, produced from their travels in Western Asia , during
9870-496: The Paris Opera, with choreography by Joseph Mazilier . Marius Petipa re-choreographed the ballet for the Maryinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1899. Its complex storyline, loosely based on Lord Byron's poem , takes place in Turkey and focuses on a love story between a pirate and a beautiful slave girl. Scenes include a bazaar where women are sold to men as slaves, and the Pasha's Palace, which features his harem of wives. In 1877, Marius Petipa choreographed La Bayadère ,
10011-432: The Ruins of Palmyra (1758, now Edinburgh) elevates tourism to the heroic, with the two travelers wearing what look very like togas . Many travelers had themselves painted in exotic Eastern dress on their return, including Lord Byron , as did many who had never left Europe, including Madame de Pompadour . The growing French interest in exotic Oriental luxury and lack of liberty in the 18th century to some extent reflected
10152-572: The Saidian sense of the term. Gérôme was the precursor, and often the master, of a number of French painters in the later part of the century whose works were often frankly salacious, frequently featuring scenes in harems, public baths and slave auctions (the last two also available with classical decor), and responsible, with others, for "the equation of Orientalism with the nude in pornographic mode"; ( Gallery, below ) Orientalist sculptors include Charles Cordier . Though British political interest in
10293-532: The Tamil Kumbh Mela. Other places where the Magha-Mela or Makar-Mela bathing pilgrimage and fairs have been called Kumbh Mela include Kurukshetra, Sonipat , and Panauti (Nepal). The Kumbh Melas have three dates around which the significant majority of pilgrims participate, while the festival itself lasts between one and three months around these dates. Each festival attracts millions, with
10434-527: The UK and North America. The larger melas tend to be those with larger ethnic minority populations, but many melas are held in communities with small South Asian diasporas. Community ownership of these melas is important to the South Asian communities, who see them as opportunities to share their cultural heritage with the mainstream. They are opportunities for bridge-building and community-building and can perform
10575-463: The Vedic era texts (pre-500 BCE). Nor is this story found in the later era Puranas (3rd to 10th-century CE). While the Kumbha Mela phrase is not found in the ancient or medieval era texts, numerous chapters and verses in Hindu texts are found about a bathing festival, the sacred junction of rivers Ganga , Yamuna and mythical Saraswati at Prayag, and pilgrimage to Prayag. These are in
10716-879: The ancient world, and "the iconography of the odalisque ... the Oriental sex slave whose image is offered up to the viewer as freely as she herself supposedly was to her master – is almost entirely French in origin", though taken up with enthusiasm by Italian and other European painters. John Frederick Lewis , who lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo , painted highly detailed works showing both realistic genre scenes of Middle Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper class Egyptian interiors with no traces of Western cultural influence yet apparent. His careful and seemingly affectionate representation of Islamic architecture, furnishings, screens, and costumes set new standards of realism, which influenced other artists, including Gérôme in his later works. He "never painted
10857-558: The art historian Linda Nochlin applied Said's methods of critical analysis to art, "with uneven results". Other scholars see Orientalist paintings as depicting a myth and a fantasy that did not often correlate with reality. There is also a critical trend within the Islamic world . In 2002, it was estimated that in Saudi Arabia alone some 200 books and 2,000 articles discussing Orientalism had been penned by local or foreign scholars. The Moresque style of Renaissance ornament
10998-541: The attendance rose sharply. On amavasya – one of the three key bathing dates, over 5 million attended the 1954 Kumbh, about 10 million attended the 1977 Kumbh while the 1989 Kumbh attracted about 15 million. On 14 April 1998, 10 million pilgrims attended the Kumb Mela at Haridwar on the busiest single day, according to the Himalayan Academy editors. In 2001, IKONOS satellite images confirmed
11139-407: The attention of the East India Company officials. They intervened, laid out the camps, trading spaces, and established a bathing order for each akhara. After 1947, the state governments have taken over this role and provide the infrastructure for the Kumbh mela in their respective states. The Kumbh Melas attract many loner sadhus (monks) who do not belong to any akharas. Of those who do belong to
11280-470: The case of other colonial powers". Nonetheless, Taruskin characterized Orientalism in Romantic Russian music as having melodies "full of close little ornaments and melismas", chromatic accompanying lines, drone bass —characteristics which were used by Glinka , Balakirev , Borodin , Rimsky-Korsakov , Lyapunov , and Rachmaninov . These musical characteristics evoke: not just the East, but
11421-553: The clothes of the Near East . The Three Magi in Nativity scenes were an especial focus for this. In general art with Biblical settings would not be considered as Orientalist except where contemporary or historicist Middle Eastern detail or settings is a feature of works, as with some paintings by Gentile Bellini and others, and a number of 19th-century works. Renaissance Venice had a phase of particular interest in depictions of
11562-551: The colonial officials, some convicted and hanged, while others for whom the government did not have proof enough to convict were persecuted. Large tracts of Kumbh mela lands near the Ganga-Yamuna confluence were confiscated and annexed into the government cantonment. In the years after 1857, the Prayagwals and the Kumbh Mela pilgrim crowds carried flags with images alluding to the rebellion and the racial persecution. The British media reported these pilgrim assemblies and protests at
11703-578: The continuity of Orientalism into the present can be found in influential images, particularly through the Cinema of the United States , as the West has now grown to include the United States. Many blockbuster feature films, such as the Indiana Jones series, The Mummy films, and Disney's Aladdin film series demonstrate the imagined geographies of the East. The films usually portray
11844-473: The cultures of the Near East and the Far East , became the fields of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies . In his book Orientalism (1978), cultural critic Edward Said redefines the term Orientalism to describe a pervasive Western tradition—academic and artistic—of prejudiced outsider-interpretations of the Eastern world , which was shaped by the cultural attitudes of European imperialism in
11985-479: The exotic Orient. This imagery persisted in art into the early 20th century, as evidenced in Henri Matisse 's orientalist semi-nudes from his Nice period, and his use of Oriental costumes and patterns. Ingres' pupil Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856) had already achieved success with his nude The Toilette of Esther (1841, Louvre ) and equestrian portrait of Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of
12126-417: The fair had horse traders from Bukhara , Kabul , Turkistan as well as Arabs and Persians. The festival had roadside merchants of food grains, confectioners, clothes, toys and other items. Thousands of pilgrims in every form of transport as well as on foot marched to the pilgrimage site, dressed in colourful costumes, some without clothes, occasionally shouting "Mahadeo Bol" and "Bol, Bol" together. At night
12267-544: The finest works of the genre. California architects Greene and Greene were inspired by Japanese elements in their design of the Gamble House and other buildings. Egyptian Revival architecture became popular in the early and mid-19th century and continued as a minor style into the early 20th century. Moorish Revival architecture began in the early 19th century in the German states and was particularly popular for building synagogues. Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture
12408-459: The flow of pilgrims to and from the river and ghats was managed. In 1986, 50 people were killed in a stampede. The Prayag Kumbh mela in 1885 became a source of scandal when a Muslim named Husain was appointed as the Kumbh Mela manager, and Indian newspaper reports stated that Husain had "organised a flotilla of festooned boats for the pleasure of European ladies and gentlemen, and entertained them with dancing girls, liquor and beef" as they watched
12549-795: The form of Snana (bathe) ritual and in the form of Prayag Mahatmya (greatness of Prayag, historical tour guides in Sanskrit). The earliest mention of Prayag and the bathing pilgrimage is found in Rigveda Pariśiṣṭa (supplement to the Rigveda ). It is also mentioned in the Pali canons of Buddhism , such as in section 1.7 of Majjhima Nikaya , wherein the Buddha states that bathing in Payaga (Skt: Prayaga) cannot wash away cruel and evil deeds, rather
12690-832: The formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Madrid . Thomas Chippendale 's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, c. 1753–1770. Sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid-Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs that suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream " chinoiserie ". Chinoiserie media included imitations of lacquer and painted tin ( tôle ) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments. Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and full-sized ones in gardens. Kew has
12831-472: The four sites, but the cycle repeats about every 12 years. Since Jupiter's orbit completes in 11.86 years, a calendar year adjustment appears in approximately 8 cycles. Therefore, approximately once a century, the Kumbh mela returns to a site after 11 years. Orientalism In art history , literature and cultural studies , Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or " Orient ") by writers, designers, and artists from
12972-470: The historian and biographer of the Turco-Mongol raider and conqueror Timur , Timur's armies plundered Haridwar and massacred the gathered pilgrims. The ruthlessly slaughtered pilgrims were likely those attending the Kumbh mela of 1399. The Timur accounts mention the mass bathing ritual along with shaving of head, the sacred river Ganges, charitable donations, the place was at the mountainous source of
13113-698: The hubs for the Hindutva movement and politics. In 1964, the Vishva Hindu Parishad was founded at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela. The historical and modern estimates of attendance vary greatly between sources. For example, the colonial era Imperial Gazetteer of India reported that between 2 and 2.5 million pilgrims attended the Kumbh mela in 1796 and 1808, then added these numbers may be exaggerations. Between 1892 and 1908, in an era of major famines, cholera and plague epidemics in British India,
13254-510: The ideas and culture that writers of the time reflected in their work. During this time, the culture and objects of the East began to have a profound effect on Europe. Extensive traveling by artists and members of the European elite brought travelogues and sensational tales back to the West creating a great interest in all things "foreign". Romantic Orientalism incorporates African and Asian geographic locations, well-known colonial and "native" personalities, folklore , and philosophies to create
13395-502: The impact of the religious tax on the pilgrims became clear. In 1938, Lord Auckland abolished the pilgrim tax and vast numbers returned to the pilgrimage thereafter. According to Macclean, the colonial records of this period on the Prayag Mela present a biased materialistic view given they were written by colonialists and missionaries. Baptist missionary John Chamberlain, who visited the 1824 Ardh Kumbh Mela at Haridwar, stated that
13536-568: The importing of ukiyo-e , became an important influence in the western arts. In particular, many modern French artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas were influenced by the Japanese style. Mary Cassatt , an American artist who worked in France, used elements of combined patterns, flat planes and shifting perspective of Japanese prints in her own images. The paintings of James Abbott McNeill Whistler 's The Peacock Room demonstrated how he used aspects of Japanese tradition and are some of
13677-591: The largest gathering at the Prayag Kumbh Mela and the second largest at Haridwar. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica and Indian authorities, more than 200 million Hindus gathered for the Kumbh Mela in 2019, including 50 million on the festival's most crowded day. The festival is one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world, and considered as the "world's largest congregation of religious pilgrims". It has been inscribed on
13818-568: The late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, c. 1740–1770. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only partial success. Early hints of Chinoiserie appeared in the 17th century in nations with active East India companies: England (the East India Company ), Denmark (the Danish East India Company ),
13959-676: The later Kumbh Mela as strangely "hostile" and with "disbelief", states Maclean. The Kumbh Mela continued to play an important role in the independence movement through 1947, as a place where the native people and politicians periodically gathered in large numbers. In 1906, the Sanatan Dharm Sabha met at the Prayag Kumbh Mela and resolved to start the Banaras Hindu University in Madan Mohan Malaviya's leadership. Kumbh Melas have also been one of
14100-425: The later part of the century, ballets were capturing the presumed essence of the mysterious East. These ballets often included sexual themes and tended to be based on assumptions of people rather than on concrete facts. Orientalism is apparent in numerous ballets. The Orient motivated several major ballets, which have survived since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Le Corsaire premiered in 1856 at
14241-524: The lead heroic characters as being from the Western world, while the villains often come from the East. The representation of the Orient has continued in film, although this representation does not necessarily have any truth to it. In The Tea House of the August Moon (1956), as argued by Pedro Iacobelli, there are tropes of orientalism. He notes, that the film "tells us more about the Americans and
14382-411: The legend, the pot is spilled at four places, and that is the origin of the four Kumbha Melas. The story varies and is inconsistent, with some stating Vishnu as Mohini avatar, others stating Dhanavantari or Garuda or Indra spilling the pot. This "spilling" and associated Kumbh Mela story is not found in the earliest mentions of the original legend of Samudra Manthana (churning of the ocean) such as
14523-430: The love story of an Indian temple dancer and Indian warrior. This ballet was based on Kalidasa's play Sakuntala . La Bayadere used vaguely Indian costuming, and incorporated Indian inspired hand gestures into classical ballet. In addition, it included a 'Hindu Dance,' motivated by Kathak, an Indian dance form. Another ballet, Sheherazade , choreographed by Michel Fokine in 1910 to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov ,
14664-711: The majority of Orientalism was derived out of a genuine fascination and admiration of Eastern cultures, not prejudice or malice. Orientalism refers to the Orient , in reference and opposition to the Occident ; the East and the West, respectively. The word Orient entered the English language as the Middle French orient . The root word oriēns , from the Latin Oriēns , has synonymous denotations : The eastern part of
14805-416: The middle of the first millennium CE", while textual evidence exists for similar pilgrimage at other major sacred rivers since the medieval period. Four of these morphed under the Kumbh Mela brand during the East India Company rule (British colonial era) when it sought to control the war-prone monks and the lucrative tax and trade revenues at these Hindu pilgrimage festivals. Additionally, the priests sought
14946-425: The name Kumbh for these more ancient bathing pilgrimages probably dates to the mid-19th century. D. P. Dubey states that none of the ancient Hindu texts call the Prayag fair as a "Kumbh Mela". Kama Maclean states that the early British records do not mention the name "Kumbh Mela" or the 12-year cycle for the Prayag fair. The first British reference to the Kumbh Mela in Prayag occurs only in an 1868 report, which mentions
15087-542: The names of temples and bathing pools suggest that Xuanzang presented Hindu practices at Prayag in the 7th century, from his Buddhist perspective and perhaps to "amuse his audience back in China", states Glucklich. Other early accounts of the significance of Prayag to Hinduism is found in the various versions of the Prayaga Mahatmya , dated to the late 1st-millennium CE. These Purana-genre Hindu texts describe it as
15228-547: The native police also made attempts to improve the infrastructure, movement of pilgrims to avoid a stampede, detect sickness, and the sanitary conditions at the Melas. Reports of cholera led the officials to cancel the pilgrimage, but the pilgrims went on "passive resistance" and stated they preferred to die rather than obey the official orders. The Kumbh Melas have been sites of tragedies. According to Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi ,
15369-557: The need for increased pilgrimage and sanitation controls at the "Coomb fair" to be held in January 1870. According to Maclean, the Prayagwal Brahmin priests of Prayag coopted the Kumbh legend and brand to the annual Prayag Magh Mela given the socio-political circumstances in the 19th century. The Kumbh Mela at Ujjain began in the 18th century, when the Maratha ruler Ranoji Shinde invited ascetics from Nashik to Ujjain for
15510-508: The ones visited by artists as France became more engaged in North Africa. French artists such as Eugène Delacroix , Jean-Léon Gérôme and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted many works depicting Islamic culture, often including lounging odalisques . They stressed both lassitude and visual spectacle. Other scenes, especially in genre painting , have been seen as either closely comparable to their equivalents set in modern-day or historical Europe, or as also reflecting an Orientalist mind-set in
15651-816: The outbreak of the Second World War, German dominance of Orientalism was practically unchallenged." Nationalist historical painting in Central Europe and the Balkans dwelt on oppression during the Ottoman Empire period, battles between Ottoman and Christian armies, as well as themes like the Ottoman Imperial Harem , although the latter was a less common theme than in French depictions. The Saidian analysis has not prevented
15792-601: The period. Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702–1789) visited Istanbul and painted numerous pastels of Turkish domestic scenes; he also continued to wear Turkish attire for much of the time when he was back in Europe. The ambitious Scottish 18th-century artist Gavin Hamilton found a solution to the problem of using modern dress, considered unheroic and inelegant, in history painting by using Middle Eastern settings with Europeans wearing local costume, as travelers were advised to do. His huge James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering
15933-473: The phrase "Kumbh mela" is yet to be found in literature prior to the 19th century. The phrases such as "Maha Kumbh" and "Ardh Kumbh" in the context of the ancient religious pilgrimage festivals with a different name at Prayag, Nasik and Ujjain are evidently of a more modern era. The Magh Mela of Prayag is probably the oldest among the four modern day Kumbh Melas. It dates from the early centuries CE, given it has been mentioned in several early Puranas . However,
16074-496: The phrase Kumbh Mela and historical data about it is missing in early Indian texts. However, states Lochtefeld, these historical texts "clearly reveal large, well-established bathing festivals" that were either annual or based on the twelve-year cycle of planet Jupiter. Manuscripts related to Hindu ascetics and warrior-monks – akharas fighting the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire era – mention bathing pilgrimage and
16215-444: The pilgrimage dropped to between 300,000 and 400,000. During World War II , the colonial government banned the Kumbh Mela to conserve scarce supplies of fuel. The ban, coupled with false rumours that Japan planned to bomb and commit genocide at the Kumbh mela site, led to sharply lower attendance at the 1942 Kumbh mela than prior decades when an estimated 2 to 4 million pilgrims gathered at each Kumbh mela. After India's independence,
16356-497: The pilgrims bathing. According to the colonial archives, the Prayagwal community associated with the Kumbh Mela were one of those who seeded and perpetuated the resistance and 1857 rebellion to the colonial rule. Prayagwals objected to and campaigned against the colonial government who supported Christian missionaries and officials who treated them and the pilgrims as "ignorant co-religionists" and who aggressively tried to convert
16497-407: The pilgrims. This changed particularly after 1857. According to Amna Khalid, the Kumbh Melas emerged as one of the social and political mobilisation venues and the colonial government became keen on monitoring these developments after the Indian rebellion of 1857. The government deployed police to gain this intelligence at the grassroots level of Kumbh Mela. The British officials in co-operation with
16638-474: The previous year, and The Death of Sardanapalus , inspired by Lord Byron , which although set in antiquity has been credited with beginning the mixture of sex, violence, lassitude and exoticism which runs through much French Orientalist painting. In 1832, Delacroix finally visited what is now Algeria , recently conquered by the French, and Morocco , as part of a diplomatic mission to the Sultan of Morocco . He
16779-484: The realists who carefully painted what they observed such as Gustav Bauernfeint; and those who imagined Orientalist scenes without ever leaving the studio. French painters such as Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) are widely regarded as the leading luminaries of the Orientalist movement. In the late 18th century, 19th century and early 20th century, the term Orientalist identified
16920-586: The return voyage. Though not noted as a religious painter, Wilkie made the trip with a Protestant agenda to reform religious painting, as he believed that: "a Martin Luther in painting is as much called for as in theology, to sweep away the abuses by which our divine pursuit is encumbered", by which he meant traditional Christian iconography . He hoped to find more authentic settings and decor for Biblical subjects at their original location, though his death prevented more than studies being made. Other artists including
17061-500: The rituals included a sacred dip in a river or holy tank. According to Kama MacLean, the socio-political developments during the colonial era and a reaction to Orientalism led to the rebranding and remobilisation of the ancient Magha Mela as the modern era Kumbh Mela, particularly after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 . The weeks over which the festival is observed cycle at each site approximately once every 12 years based on
17202-533: The river and that pilgrims believed a dip in the sacred river leads to their salvation. Several stampedes have occurred at the Kumbh Melas. After an 1820 stampede at Haridwar killed 485 people, the Company government took extensive infrastructure projects, including the construction of new ghats and road widening, to prevent further stampedes. The various Kumbh melas, in the 19th- and 20th-century witnessed sporadic stampedes, each tragedy leading to changes in how
17343-539: The river banks and camps illuminated with oil lamps, fireworks burst over the river, and innumerable floating lamps set by the pilgrims drifted downstream of the river. Several Hindu rajas , Sikh rulers and Muslim Nawabs visited the fair. Europeans watched the crowds and few Christian missionaries distributed their religious literature at the Hardwar Mela, wrote Martin. Prior to 1838, the British officials collected taxes but provided no infrastructure or services to
17484-687: The same year or one year apart, typically about 3 years after the Allahabad / Prayagraj Kumbh Mela. Elsewhere in many parts of India, similar but smaller community pilgrimage and bathing festivals are called the Magha Mela, Makar Mela or equivalent. For example, in Tamil Nadu , the Magha Mela with water-dip ritual is a festival of antiquity. This festival is held at the Mahamaham tank (near Kaveri river) every 12 years at Kumbakonam , attracts millions of South Indian Hindus and has been described as
17625-573: The seductive East that emasculates, enslaves, renders passive. In a word, it signifies the promise of the experience of nega , a prime attribute of the orient as imagined by the Russians.... In opera and song, nega often simply denotes S-E-X a la russe, desired or achieved. Orientalism is also traceable in music that is considered to have effects of exoticism , including the influence of Javanese gamelan in Claude Debussy 's piano music all
17766-470: The street with his stick. This a rare intrusion of a clearly contemporary figure into an Orientalist scene; mostly they claim the picturesqueness of the historical painting so popular at the time, without the trouble of researching authentic costumes and settings. When Gérôme exhibited For Sale; Slaves at Cairo at the Royal Academy in London in 1871, it was "widely found offensive", partly because
17907-613: The term Orientalist identified "an artist". The formation of the French Orientalist Painters Society changed the consciousness of practitioners towards the end of the 19th century, since artists could now see themselves as part of a distinct art movement. As an art movement, Orientalist painting is generally treated as one of the many branches of 19th-century academic art ; however, many different styles of Orientalist art were in evidence. Art historians tend to identify two broad types of Orientalist artist:
18048-560: The term also refers to the zodiac sign of Aquarius . The astrological etymology dates to late 1st-millennium CE, likely influenced by Greek zodiac ideas. The word mela means "unite, join, meet, move together, assembly, junction" in Sanskrit, particularly in the context of fairs, community celebration. This word too is found in the Rigveda and other ancient Hindu texts. Thus, Kumbh Mela means an "assembly, meet, union" around "water or nectar of immortality". Many Hindus believe that
18189-423: The territories of the unravelling Ottoman Empire was as intense as in France, it was mostly more discreetly exercised. The origins of British Orientalist 19th-century painting owe more to religion than military conquest or the search for plausible locations for nude women. The leading British genre painter , Sir David Wilkie was 55 when he travelled to Istanbul and Jerusalem in 1840, dying off Gibraltar during
18330-457: The trade that occurred during the festival. According to Dubey, as well as Macclean, the Islamic encyclopaedia Yadgar-i-Bahaduri written in 1834 Lucknow , described the Prayag festival and its sanctity to the Hindus. The British officials, states Dubey, raised the tax to amount greater than average monthly income and the attendance fell drastically. The Prayagwal pandas initially went along, according to colonial records, but later resisted as
18471-476: The use of "Turkish" styles in the decorative arts, the adoption of Turkish costume at times, and interest in art depicting the Ottoman Empire itself. Venice, the traditional trading partner of the Ottomans, was the earliest centre, with France becoming more prominent in the 18th century. Chinoiserie is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in
18612-490: The virtuous one should be pure in heart and fair in action. The Mahabharata mentions a bathing pilgrimage at Prayag as a means of prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes and guilt. In Tirthayatra Parva , before the great war, the epic states "the one who observes firm [ethical] vows, having bathed at Prayaga during Magha, O best of the Bharatas, becomes spotless and reaches heaven." In Anushasana Parva , after
18753-405: The war, the epic elaborates this bathing pilgrimage as "geographical tirtha" that must be combined with Manasa-tirtha (tirtha of the heart) whereby one lives by values such as truth, charity, self-control, patience and others. There are other references to Prayaga and river-side festivals in ancient Indian texts, including at the places where present-day Kumbh Melas are held, but the exact age of
18894-586: The way to the sitar being used in recordings by the Beatles . In the United Kingdom, Gustav Holst composed Beni Mora evoking a languid, heady Arabian atmosphere. Orientalism, in a more camp fashion also found its way into exotica music in the late 1950s, especially the works of Les Baxter , for example, his composition "City of Veils". The Romantic movement in literature began in 1785 and ended around 1830. The term Romantic references
19035-611: The west with the publication of views of India by William Hodges , and William and Thomas Daniell from about 1795. Examples of "Hindoo" architecture are Sezincote House ( c. 1805 ) in Gloucestershire , built for a nabob returned from Bengal , and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton . Turquerie , which began as early as the late 15th century, continued until at least the 18th century, and included both
19176-552: The world; the sky whence comes the sun; the east; the rising sun, etc.; yet the denotation changed as a term of geography. In the " Monk's Tale " (1375), Geoffrey Chaucer wrote: "That they conquered many regnes grete / In the orient, with many a fair citee." The term orient refers to countries east of the Mediterranean Sea and Southern Europe . In In Place of Fear (1952), Aneurin Bevan used an expanded denotation of
19317-984: Was a genre that arose in the late 19th century in the British Raj . Orientalist tendencies in Western art have a long history. Oriental scenes may be found in medieval and Renaissance art, and Islamic art has itself had a profound and formative influence on Western artistic output. Oriental subject matter further proliferated in the 19th century, in step with Western colonialism in Africa and Asia. Depictions of Islamic " Moors " and " Turks " (imprecisely named Muslim groups of southern Europe , North Africa and West Asia ) can be found in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art. In Biblical scenes in Early Netherlandish painting , secondary figures, especially Romans, were given exotic costumes that distantly reflected
19458-609: Was also recorded in subsequent years by Napoleon's court painters, especially Antoine-Jean Gros , although the Middle Eastern campaign was not one on which he accompanied the army. Two of his most successful paintings, Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa (1804) and Battle of Abukir (1806) focus on the Emperor, as he was by then, but include many Egyptian figures, as does the less effective Napoleon at
19599-538: Was greatly struck by what he saw, comparing the North African way of life to that of the Ancient Romans, and continued to paint subjects from his trip on his return to France. Like many later Orientalist painters, he was frustrated by the difficulty of sketching women, and many of his scenes featured Jews or warriors on horses. However, he was apparently able to get into the women's quarters or harem of
19740-609: Was largely concerned with the areas of Central Asia that Russia was conquering during the century, and also in historical painting with the Mongols who had dominated Russia for much of the Middle Ages, who were rarely shown in a good light. The explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky played a major role in popularising an exotic view of "the Orient" and advocating imperial expansion. " The Five " Russian composers were prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create
19881-651: Was nothing in Germany to correspond to the Anglo-French presence in India, the Levant, North Africa. Moreover, the German Orient was almost exclusively a scholarly, or at least a classical, Orient: it was made the subject of lyrics, fantasies, and even novels, but it was never actual." According to Suzanne L. Marchand , German scholars were the "pace-setters" in oriental studies. Robert Irwin wrote that "until
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