DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0057
INTRODUCTION.
35
Amravati may probably be considered as the culminating point attained
by that art in India.
When we meet it again in the early Hindu temples, and later
Buddhist caves, it has lost much of its higher resthetic and phonetic
qualities, and frequently resorts to such expedients as giving dignity
to the principal personages by making them double the size of less
important characters, and of distinguishing gods from men by giving
them more heads and arms than mortal man can use or understand.
All this is developed, it must be confessed, with considerable vigour
and richness of effect in the temples of Orissa and the Mysore, down to
the 13th or 14th century. After that, in the north it was checked by
the presence of the Moslems; but, in the south, some of the most
remarkable groups and statues—and they are very remarkable—were
executed after this time, and continued to be executed, in considerable
perfection down to the middle of the last century
As we shall see in the sequel, the art of architecture continues to be
practised with considerable success in parts of India remote from
European influence; so much so, that it requires a practised eye to
discriminate between what is new and what is old. But the moment
any figures are introduced, especially if in action, the illusion vanishes.
No mistake is then possible, for the veriest novice can see how painfully
low the art of sculpture has fallen. Were it not for this, some of the
modern temples in Gujerat and Central India are worthy to rank with
those of past centuries; but their paintings and their sculptured
decorations excite only feelings of dismay, and lead one to despair of
true art being ever again revived in the East.
To those who are familiar with the principles on which these
arts are practised, the cause of this difference is obvious enough.
Architecture being a technic art, its forms may be handed down
traditionally, and its principles practised almost mechanically. The
higher phonetic arts, however, of sculpture and painting admit of
no such mechanical treatment. They require ^individual excellence,
and a higher class of intellectual power of expression, to ensure their
successful development. Architecture may, consequently, linger on
amidst much political decay; but, like literature, the phonetic arts
can only be successfully cultivated where a higher moral and intel-
lectual standard prevails than, it is feared, is at present to lie found
in India.
Mythology.
Whenever any one will seriously undertake to write the history
of sculpture in India, he will find the materials abundant and the
.sequence by no means difficult to follow; but, with regard to mytho-
logy, the case is different. It cannot, however, be said that the
materials are not abundant for this branch of the inquiry also; but
D 2
35
Amravati may probably be considered as the culminating point attained
by that art in India.
When we meet it again in the early Hindu temples, and later
Buddhist caves, it has lost much of its higher resthetic and phonetic
qualities, and frequently resorts to such expedients as giving dignity
to the principal personages by making them double the size of less
important characters, and of distinguishing gods from men by giving
them more heads and arms than mortal man can use or understand.
All this is developed, it must be confessed, with considerable vigour
and richness of effect in the temples of Orissa and the Mysore, down to
the 13th or 14th century. After that, in the north it was checked by
the presence of the Moslems; but, in the south, some of the most
remarkable groups and statues—and they are very remarkable—were
executed after this time, and continued to be executed, in considerable
perfection down to the middle of the last century
As we shall see in the sequel, the art of architecture continues to be
practised with considerable success in parts of India remote from
European influence; so much so, that it requires a practised eye to
discriminate between what is new and what is old. But the moment
any figures are introduced, especially if in action, the illusion vanishes.
No mistake is then possible, for the veriest novice can see how painfully
low the art of sculpture has fallen. Were it not for this, some of the
modern temples in Gujerat and Central India are worthy to rank with
those of past centuries; but their paintings and their sculptured
decorations excite only feelings of dismay, and lead one to despair of
true art being ever again revived in the East.
To those who are familiar with the principles on which these
arts are practised, the cause of this difference is obvious enough.
Architecture being a technic art, its forms may be handed down
traditionally, and its principles practised almost mechanically. The
higher phonetic arts, however, of sculpture and painting admit of
no such mechanical treatment. They require ^individual excellence,
and a higher class of intellectual power of expression, to ensure their
successful development. Architecture may, consequently, linger on
amidst much political decay; but, like literature, the phonetic arts
can only be successfully cultivated where a higher moral and intel-
lectual standard prevails than, it is feared, is at present to lie found
in India.
Mythology.
Whenever any one will seriously undertake to write the history
of sculpture in India, he will find the materials abundant and the
.sequence by no means difficult to follow; but, with regard to mytho-
logy, the case is different. It cannot, however, be said that the
materials are not abundant for this branch of the inquiry also; but
D 2