MEDIAEVAL (FROM ABOUT 850 ONWARDS) The Mediaeval art again falls into three main divisions, corre sponding to the geographical classification of the architecture as Nagara (Northern and Eastern), Vesara (South Central and West ern) and Dravida (Southern). The character of Indian art has now definitely changed and hardened ; the sculpture is no longer distinguished by plastic volume, but has acquired a linear char acter; that is, the form appears to be conceived from the stand point of outline, and all the features are sharply defined; its application is primarily architectural, and one might say decora tive, were it not for the fact that it retains a precise significance in all its details; its forms are more complicated, partly because the theological development has brought in a greater variety of many-armed forms (these appeared first in the second century, and are already common in Early Mediaeval work), and partly because of the tendency, innate in all late art, towards great intricacy and elaboration of detail, and an overvaluation of merely technical skill, displayed as an end in itself.
The main schools are those of Bihar and Bengal (Pala Dynasty) ; Orissa; and Bundelkhand and Raj putana. Under the Palas (750-1200) the main centre of produc tion was at the important monastery and university of Nalanda in Bihar. The characteristic Buddhist images, together with Buddhist and Brahmanical examples from other sites in Bihar and Bengal are executed with the utmost technical proficiency in a kind of black slate, and are represented in all large collections; and in recent years very numerous and exquisitely made copper images have been excavated here or found elsewhere in Bengal (Rangpur and Chittagong). The themes are at first Buddhist, but the Buddhism is greatly mixed with Hindu elements, and acquires as time passes a more and more Tantrik character. The names of two painters and sculptors, Dhiman and Bitpalo, are mentioned by the historian Taranatha as having been masters in the Eastern School in the 9th century. The Bihar school exer cised a powerful iconographic and stylistic influence on Nepal, Tibet, Burma and Java and Sumatra. Not only sculpture, but also painting was practised ; a number of Buddhist palmleaf manuscripts from Bengal and Nepal, with painted wooden covers, and illustrations in the text have been preserved from the I i th and i 2th centuries. The style is most closely related on the one hand to the slightly later painting of the Gujarati school, and on the other to the contemporary frescoes of Burma (Pagan) . The Pala school of painting in the i 2th century was known even to the Chinese.
Sculpture in Orissa is typically Brahmanical, and occurs in connection with the series of great temples at Bhuvanesvara, Konarak, Puri, etc., ranging in date from the 8th to the t 3th century. The monumental horses and elephants, and the erotic architectural sculptures of the Sun Temple at Konarak are espe cially noteworthy.
The magnificent temples of Khajuraho are literally covered with Brahmanical sculpture in a hard creamy sandstone; and isolated fine examples have been found at Mahoba, another Candela capital. Jaina sculptures too occur in abundance, but Buddhist works are relatively rare. To enumerate the sculpture in Rajputana would be impossible; there is much of excellent quality.
An enormous revival of building and sculpture took place in the Dekkhan under the later Calukyas after 973, the Hoysalas of Mysore in the r 2th and r3th centuries, and in Gujarat under the related Solanki dynasty (loth to i 5th century). The sculpture of the Dekkhan and Mysore is executed in a fine-grained dark chloritic schist, which is comparatively soft when first quarried, and lends itself to an unlimited elaboration of detail more appropriate to metal-work than stone. Almost all the work is of architectural application, and unbelievably rich in quantity and detail. Especially charac teristic are the elevated temple basements, with tier upon tier of sculptured friezes, and the huge turned cylindrical pillars of the porches, with luxuriously developed bracket figures of dancers. In Mysore, Belur, Halebid, Dodda Gadavalli, Somnathpur and ravana Belgola are amongst the most famous sites. At the latter place there is a remarkable monolithic image of Gommatesvara (son of the first of the 24 Jinas of the Jaina mythology) ; one of the largest freestanding figures in the world, 57 feet in height, this was carved in situ for Camunda Raja in A.D. 981. Another figure at Ilivala is over 20 feet in height.
In Gujarat, Kathiawar and parts of Rajputana there exists another extensive development in a related style. In Gujarat proper, most of the temples are in ruins. At Girnar, Palitana and Taranga, Jaina temple cities and places of pilgrimage, there is much sculpture still in situ. The most famous and remarkable examples of the style, however, are to be seen at Mt. Abu (Dilvara, in southern Rajputana), in the temples of Vimala Shah (c. iO32) and Tejahpala (c. 1232) ; these are domed shrines with pillared halls.
A Gujarati school of manu script illustration flourished from the r3th to the z7th century, after which it is more or less modified by Mughal and Rajput influences. One manuscript dated 1237 is on palm-leaf, all others are on paper, with earliest date 1427. The majority of the manu scripts are Jaina scriptures, but there is one secular example, a Vasanta Vaasa, dated 1451. Although the colouring is brilliant, the style is really one of pure draughtsmanship; the outline establishes all the facts, and this outline, though very facile and almost care less, is extremely accomplished.
The tradition of mural painting, exterior and interior, even at the present day survives sporadically all over India ; a good deal may still be seen in Rajputana, for example in the Old Palace at Bikaner. Paintings on canvas and illustrated manuscripts are very rare. But as paper gradually came into use, the older methods of painting on walls and panels or cotton cloth were employed on the new material; the technique of Hindu painting on paper is in fact identical with that of the older mural art as seen at Ajanta and described in the technical treatises. The themes of Rajputa painting are religious (dealing especially with the Krsna cycle, but also with 8aiva and Vaisnava mythology in general), Epic (Mahabliarata and Ramayasia), lyrical and rhetoric (Rag-rndlas), and, less typically, secular (portraiture). The Krsna cycle and themes illustrating treatises on rhetoric (classification of heroines, and emotional analysis), given a con temporary environment in court and village life, permit an ex quisite delineation of every phase of love. The Epic subjects, especially in early Jammu works, are treated on a large and almost mural scale. Especially characteristic are the sets of illustrations of the Rag-malas, vernacular poems describing the situations which are appropriate to each of the Ragas or musical modes; these are usually 36 in number, and each has its particular hour and specific sentiment (see INDIAN Music). Stylistically Rajput paintings can be classified both geographically and in historical se quence. Very few of them show any approximation to the Gujarati style. The early examples from Rajputana and (or) Bundelkhand are most distinctive ; here we find a robust analyt ical method of drawing, an indication rather than a representa tion of forms, and an intensely brilliant colouring, like that of enamel or stained glass, by which the planes are established. A modified tonality gradually appears, partly due to Mughal in fluences; but even in the i8th century, when the outline has be come more meticulous, the work of Jaipur artists can be recog nized by its brilliancy, and by its marvellous decorative treatment, especially of flowers and trees. The earlier Jammu productions too are strongly coloured, while the drawing is more provincial throughout. In some respects the most exquisite, and certainly the most refined, if not the most powerful, phase of Rajput paint ing is that of the Karigra school, developed in the latter half of the i8th century under Raja Sarhsara Cand; connected with this school are its offshoot in Tehri-Garhwal, and its early i9th cen tury secular development in Sikh portraiture. The Kangra school declined during the i9th century and is now to all intents and purposes extinct. Related schools existed in Bengal and Orissa. By far the finest collection in the world is to be seen in Boston; other examples are in the Lahore and British Museums, and in private collections. • Ceylon.—The artistic culture of Ceylon is at all times very closely related to that of Southern India, but can be more con veniently treated as a consecutive development. One of the oldest documents is a carnelian seal representing a seated king, prob ably of the second century B.C., from the Yatthala Dagaba in the south, now in Manchester. It is difficult to say whether any or how much of the sculpture surviving at Anuradhapura dates be fore the beginning of the Christian era ; the greater part in any case belongs to the period ranging from the 1st to the 9th cen tury. Among the finest sculptures in Ceylon, previous to their restoration and virtual destruction by pious Buddhists, were the Buddha figures, and one traditionally known as Duttha Gamani (r. 1st century B.c.), at the Ruanweli Dagaba site; the Buddha figures show a close relation with those of Amaravati and must date from about A.D. 200. Relief sculpture may date back to the first century B.C. or but little later; this applies especially to the Naga reliefs and formal trees rising from "lucky vases," repre sented on stelae at the Eastern (so-called Abhayagiriya) and Ruanweli Dagabas, for these are still in flattened relief, and dis tinctly related in style to the Sand and early Sarnath reliefs of the 1st century B.C. The "moonstones" or stone doorsteps of monas teries or palaces are of various dates, and consist of half lotus medallions with friezes of animals (horses, lions, elephants and bulls, or geese carrying floral sprays ; the steps above them are flanked by solid balusters (alamba bahu, hasti-hasta) consisting of heads and trunks of elephants, or makara heads spouting vege tation; while at each side stand reliefs representing
holding "lucky vases" and cornucopiae. The rock-cut reliefs of elephants and a seated sage ("Kapila") at the Isurumuniya Vihqra, the elephant reliefs by the Tissawewa lake are in Pallava style and evidently of 7th century date.
At Polonnaruwa, the rock-cut statue traditionally regarded as a representation of Parakrama Bahu I. (1 153-1 186) is a mag nificent work ; not so fine, though impressive in scale and design are the seated and reclining Buddha figures of the Gal Vihara, where there is also a colossal standing figure of the disciple Ananda. Some of the brick and stucco figures of the Northern temple are extremely elegant.
There exist colossal Buddha figures of the Polonnaruwa period also at Seseruwa, Awkana and Kon Wewa.
A limited number of small bronzes or rather copper images of very high quality have been found in Ceylon. One of the largest is a fine seated Buddha from Badulla, of about 6th century date, but the finest of all are a well-known seated Avalokitesvara with figures of Vajrapani and Jambhala, of 8th and 9th cen tury date, now in Boston; there is a fair collection of similar figures in the British Museum. Brahmanical bronzes apparently of Cola date have been excavated at Polonnaruwa and are now in the Colombo Museum.
Remains of painting have been preserved at a number of sites. There are a few traces of decoration at Anuradhapura, including some figures of dwarf Yaksas. More remarkable are the Apsarases of the painted rock pockets at Sigiriya, dating from the 5th cen tury, and still in excellent preservation ; these are voluptuous female figures, cut off by clouds at the waist in accordance with a characteristic convention, and casting down a rain of flowers upon the mortal world below them. At Hindagala near Kandy there is a fragment of fresco regarded by some as of rather early date, but probably mediaeval. By far the most extensive remains, though now almost destroyed by neglect since their first discov ery, are those of the inner walls of the Northern Temple at Polonnaruwa ; these illustrate .latakas, but can only be inade quately studied in the bad copies exhibited in the Colombo Museum. The Sinhalese chronicles (Maluivaiitsa) contain in numerable references to painting, but nothing more survives until we come to the i8th century, when Kirti Sri Raja Simha, one of the last Kandyan kings, restored many shrines in the Kandyan provinces. Mention must also be made of the admirable decorated ceilings of Kelaniya, Kandy, and some other places; these are often masterpieces of design.
During the i9th century little of note in sculpture was pro duced in Northern India. In Southern India the indigenous tradi tion has been preserved in greater purity; copper images, some times of large size, and little inferior in quality to those of the 17th and i8th centuries are still made, and hereditary craftsmen still work in stone. In the present century a reaction against Western mannerisms has taken place, and especially in Calcutta, where a considerable (Bengal) school of painters is at work, a very large number of pictures, mostly water-colours, has been produced. The pictures are delicate and often very charming, but hardly powerful; the movement is comparable in some respects to that of the Pre-Raphaelites in Europe. Amongst the chief artists who have been or are still at work may be mentioned Gogonen dronath Tagore, who works mainly in monochrome, and has flirted with Cubism ; Nanda Lal Bose; Asit Kumar Haldar, now Principal of the School of Art in Lucknow; Samarandranath Gupta, now Assistant Curator, Panjab Museum, Lahore; and many younger men, and some women.
(See also INDIAN ARCHITECTURE, including FURTHER INDIAN and INDONESIAN ; INDONESIAN and FURTHER INDIAN ART.)
