Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c17.21

c17.21

An analysis of the dispersal and assimilation of these ancient symbols holds the key to the understanding of Indian art forms as they had been handed down from the past, as they became absorbed in the statuary and architecture of the future. The handling of symbols from these two points of view was a very subtle and universal movement which was quietly perfected in accord and harmony which is unparalled in the art history of the world. The Kuṣāṇa and Gupta period is like a threshold from which one can look before and after and the full meaning of Indian art cannot be perceived without a close attension to the individual history of each symbol with which the art of the age is so profusely saturated. We may visualise this as a great experiment in the assimilation of diverse art forms or a vast crucible in which the whole people filled their offering with a optimum feeling of life's full assembly.