Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c5.10

c5.10

DATES—The problem of dates is to be based on the data supplied by the Inscriptions engraved on the monuments, e. g. a Stūpa, a temple, śilāpaṭṭa, or on the pedestal of an image, or statue. When such information is lacking, the style becomes our guide for assigning a date to an art object. In the case of systematic archæological excavations, the relative strata as defined by the inscriptions, coins and associated finds indicate the sequence of chronology. The lever of an objective study is to settle the period or dating of an art object, and to place it in its proper historical and cultural background when that particular object was produced. Thus, the find-place, date and style give us the full cultural interpretation of an art object.