Agnès Varda - Plaisir d'amour en iran

indigenousdialogues:

“Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake. What purports to be art begins to looks like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalised action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in an artistic creation the personality does not assert itself it serves another, higher and communal idea. The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of the self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of human calling.”

— Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time

(via deadwaxinscriptions)

vintageindianclothing:

Every rāga and rāginī in the Indic system is supposed to have a specific effect on the listener’s psychological state, their physical wellbeing, or indeed on the wider natural world. Rāginī Dhanashri, for example, is supposed to evoke feelings of loss and longing caused by the absent beloved. [X]

In the pics: Pic 1: Ragini Dhanashri. Pic 2: Ragini Deskar Pic 2: Ragini Asawari.

Perhaps because the paintings are from a 16th/17th century musical treatise from Bijapur, the costumes are like Deccani sarees and the jewellery too characteristic of the region. See for contrast Ragini Dhanashri in a Bundi painting. Asawari, being a forest ragini, is however always depicted in garments of leaves or something akin to a choli and short sari/skirt.