(MENET:AL CIIMIACTER. The religious character of Indian art is quite as prominent in other branches as it is in architecture. A knowledge of the intricacies of the pantheon is a necessary prerequisite to the study of the sculp ture and the pottery and even tile lac quers, bronzes. and goldsmith work. There is lit tle :esthetic value to the representations of the human tigure in India: they interest in the mass, as decoration: and for their subject, as illustra tive material for the study of Indian thought. The endless repetition of the same theme in the same monument is characteristic of its symbolic use, as it is, indeed, of the Oriental spirit. This impersonal character has favored the extraordi nary tenacity of tradition and continuity of style still to be observed in the various prov inces. This has been made possible by the heredi tary nature and continuous life and organization of the different crafts, not only in the guilds of the cities. but especially in the groups of arti sans which. organized as guilds. have for seine 3000 formed an integral part of the village cominunities of India, supplying its inhabitants by perpetual contract. The sumptuary arts fos tered by the aristocracy naturally flourished in the cities and not in these village communities. Although originality vanished centuries ago, no fundamental damage had been inflicted on Indian arts until British rule the incongruous architecture of Europe, the degrading methods of machine manufactures came into fashion in place of the native methods of hand work. This make, it possible to study some of the methods of antique art in modern India, hccausu the continuous merland trade during antiquity and the Middle Ages kept India in constant re lations Persia, Ifabylonia, and Assyria, Egypt. and the late Hellenic States after Alex ander's time, and later with the Mohammedan powers. The stepped temples of Baylonia, the filigree gold jewelry of Etruria and Itroccc, the en ameled tiles of Persia, the products of the looms of Mesopotamia, and. later, the arts of the N10 hanimedans of Egypt. Syria, and Persia, were all echoed in India. greater or less purity. Vet there was always enough of a transformation to give an aspect of Hindu unity to Whatever was burrowed. Indian a rt has always been full
of n character of its own. Its greatest successes I ave been in its decorative work, both on a small scalp and in masses. and in the imposing coin positions of its architecture. Its failures are due to a poor sense of form both in line and coin pcsit ion.
1.191:12E. The three centuries before and af ter the Christian Era saw the development, under Buddhist influence, of the most artistic schools of sculpture that India ever saw. In certain parts of the North and Northwest, there are strong traces of Oreek and Persian in fluences, as in several monuments of the region of Peshawar. The famous AsOka ediet-pillars and the encircling marble rails of the Buddhist tors of Illiarhut, Buddha Caya, and Sanelii (Ithilsa), all belong to the earliest stage (c.2311-200 we.). Somewhat later are the rich series of the Amra vat i type and the sculptures of the earliest cage temples of Ellora, Kanheri, and Ajanta. The Buddhist style was eontinued in Ceylon after it had decayed out the mainland, as is shown at Anuradhapura. Most of these sculptures can be studied in the South Kensington Museum (Lon don) or the Indian Museum (Calcutta). and in the British Museum and the Madras Museum. The subordination of sculpture to architecture is evident even at this early period: the human fig ure though used in colossal size in statues and high reliefs. especially in representations of Paid (Ilia, is usually in rather minute proportions, and in (manse(' and intricate compositions. Line upon line of reliefs are superposed. in which architec tural detail and decorative design play an impor tant part. The rock-cut figures of the caves are hardly as delicate as the earlier sculptures of the rails or the later work on the open-air temples. The almost classic style of Muttra, of which echoes even survive at Amravati, is gradu ally replaced by one given to grotesque and exag gerated forms: the female figure especially is treated with undue emphasis. No ideal types were created. The prevalent realism expressed itself more successfully in animal forms, which were plentifully interwoven with human and decorative motif,.