Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c5.3

c5.3

Each region has taken its due share in this session of beauty (*Rūpa-sattra*). The genius of many a people has contributed to this enrichment, but the inspiration and the meaning throughout are essentially Indian. With the extension of Indian culture beyond the seas and across the mountainous frontiers the monuments of Indian art took root in other lands carrying with them the original inspiration in the matter of ideas, and to a large extent in form also. Fortunately, the monuments exist to this day as proof of the expansive art movements that originated in the home-land and took shape outside. The depth and intensity of the colossal æsthetic flood which once engulfed the inter-continental regions from Indonesia to Central Asia extract our admiration. An integrated study of all the varied creations of Indian art necessitates an interpretation in the light of the philosophy, religion and cultural patterns that flourished on the Indian soil and are preserved in her sublime literature from the Vedas up to the Purāṇas and Kāvyas.