Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c5.7

c5.7

Art movements originate, gather strength and continue so as to mingle their strands with the successive ones and, therefore, one need not insist on the fixity of political dates, which only offer a satisfactory working basis. The period from about the sixth century B. C. to the beginning of the era may be termed as ‘Pre-classical’; that from the first century A. D. to the time of Harṣa (seventh century) as the ‘Classical age’, which forms the most important of the formative periods of Indian culture in its multiple facets of art, literature and life. This was followed by what is known as the ‘Medieval period’ (700-1200 A. D.), which may be divided into ‘Early’ (700-900 A. D.) and ‘Late’ (900-1200 A.D.).