16.10.10

The 64 Arts of Krishna

Confucious had his Six Arts.  Roberta Smith identified six forms of contemporary installation art.  Krishna has them both beat, more than ten times over, with the Kalā, a Hindu catalog of the 64 arts.  As extensive as they come.

The Goddess Meenakshi is the upasana murthi, or Hindu patron deity of the fine arts.  Her little parrot knows each of the 64 Kalā and can recite them for you.

I have generated the following custom list from several web sources.  They each have specific Hindi names, but here we list them in English.


1. singing  2. playing instruments  3. dancing  4. theater  5. painting  6. body-painting  7. rice and floral decoration  8. making a flower blanket  9. personal grooming  10. jewelry  11. bedmaking  12. creating music woth water  13. splashing water  14. color mixing  15. garland-making  16. coronets  17. dressing for bed  18. tragus decoration  19. aromatics  20. applying ornament  21. juggling  22. secret mantras  23.  magic and illusions  24. food preparation  25. beverage prepartation  26. weaving and cloth-mending  27. embroidery  28. the lute and small drum  29. making and solving riddles  30. tongue twisters  31. recitation of books  32. enacting short plays  33. solving enigmatic verse  34. preparation of shield, cane and bow and arrows  35. thread spinning  36. carpentry  37. engineering  38. silver  39. metallurgy  40. sexual arts  41. mineralogy  42. medicine  43. lamb and cock fighting  44. maintaining conversation between men and women  45. perfumes  46. combing hair  47. communication with the hands  48. impersonation  49. knowledge of dialects  50. prediction  51. mechanics  52. use of amulets  53. conversation  54. composing and reciting verse from memory  55. training parrots and mynas to speak  56. shrine-building  57. lexicography  58. concealment with clothing  59. gambling  60. the dice game, akarsha  61. mastery of children's toys  62. personal etiquettte  63. understanding of dharma 64. awakening the master with music at dawn