DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0505
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 483
ciples on which they are designed are well worthy of attentive
study.
By their employment of sculpture, in preference to painting, for the
decoration of their caves, the Brahmans had, for us at least, an advan-
tage which is now very striking. Except in the caves at Katak, and
some perhaps of the earliest in the west side of India, sculpture was
rarely employed by the Buddhists, and for all historical and legendary
purposes painting no doubt afforded them facilities of which they
were not slow to avail themselves. The Brahmans, on the other
hand, had no story to tell. Their mythology required only repre-
sentations of single acts, or manifestations of some individual deity,
easily recognised by his attributes, and consequently easily repre-
sented in sculptured groups consisting only of a few figures. These
could be more easily and forcibly reproduced in a cave by form than
by colour. From their greater durability, these, in most instances,
remain, and, though mutilated in many instances, have not lost their
value as architectural decorations, while, except in some caves at
Ajanta and at Bagh, the paintings have perished so completely that
it is only by analogy that we can feel sure that they ever existed,
u, however, the paintings in the Buddhist caves were as complete
now, as there is every reason for believing they once were, they no
doubt would afford illustrations of history and mythology far more
complete than can be gathered from the more limited scope of the
Brahmanical sculptures. As they, however, have so generally been
obliterated, while the sculptures in the caves at Mahavallipur, at
Wephanta, and Blura remain so nearly complete, the Brahmanical
caTes do,— at the present day at least—possess an interest that hardly
attaches to the earlier and more appropriate caves of their prede-
cessors.
However these artistic questions may ultimately be decided, there
ls no question as to the extreme historical interest of the Brah-
manical Cave Temples. They afford us a more vivid picture than
e obtain from any other source of the arts and aspirations of the
indus during the whole of the seventh century, to which nearly the
*hole of them practically belong.
On the disappearance of the Guptas, who, if not Buddhist them-
es, at least favoured Buddhism during the whole of the fifth
U17, an immense impulse was given to the cultivation of Hindu
" a Ure an(i the revival of the Brahmanical religion by the splen-
IH 2
ciples on which they are designed are well worthy of attentive
study.
By their employment of sculpture, in preference to painting, for the
decoration of their caves, the Brahmans had, for us at least, an advan-
tage which is now very striking. Except in the caves at Katak, and
some perhaps of the earliest in the west side of India, sculpture was
rarely employed by the Buddhists, and for all historical and legendary
purposes painting no doubt afforded them facilities of which they
were not slow to avail themselves. The Brahmans, on the other
hand, had no story to tell. Their mythology required only repre-
sentations of single acts, or manifestations of some individual deity,
easily recognised by his attributes, and consequently easily repre-
sented in sculptured groups consisting only of a few figures. These
could be more easily and forcibly reproduced in a cave by form than
by colour. From their greater durability, these, in most instances,
remain, and, though mutilated in many instances, have not lost their
value as architectural decorations, while, except in some caves at
Ajanta and at Bagh, the paintings have perished so completely that
it is only by analogy that we can feel sure that they ever existed,
u, however, the paintings in the Buddhist caves were as complete
now, as there is every reason for believing they once were, they no
doubt would afford illustrations of history and mythology far more
complete than can be gathered from the more limited scope of the
Brahmanical sculptures. As they, however, have so generally been
obliterated, while the sculptures in the caves at Mahavallipur, at
Wephanta, and Blura remain so nearly complete, the Brahmanical
caTes do,— at the present day at least—possess an interest that hardly
attaches to the earlier and more appropriate caves of their prede-
cessors.
However these artistic questions may ultimately be decided, there
ls no question as to the extreme historical interest of the Brah-
manical Cave Temples. They afford us a more vivid picture than
e obtain from any other source of the arts and aspirations of the
indus during the whole of the seventh century, to which nearly the
*hole of them practically belong.
On the disappearance of the Guptas, who, if not Buddhist them-
es, at least favoured Buddhism during the whole of the fifth
U17, an immense impulse was given to the cultivation of Hindu
" a Ure an(i the revival of the Brahmanical religion by the splen-
IH 2