Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c4.4

c4.4

The long delay however which has taken place has enabled me to make the work more comprehensive. When it was first written the Museums of Dacca, Rajshahi, Patna and the Bangīya Sāhitya Parishad had either not come into existence or were in their incipient stage. The collection in the Dacca Museum has brought to light a new phase of artistic activity on the North-Eastern frontier of India and very great credit is due to Mr. Nalini Kanta Bhattasali, M.A., by whom this excellent collection was formed. This collection is very small but it possesses the advantage of being thoroughly representative. The specimens collected from the districts of Faridpur, Dacca, Tippera, Mymensingh and Noakhali include very few inscribed sculptures but the chronological sequence obtained from the inscribed specimens in the Indian Museum proves definitely that in Eastern Bengal there was a separate artistic development, when the Pālas were laying the foundations of their first empire. Art gradually revived in Bihar, specially in the two Buddhist centres of activity, Buddha Gaya or Bodh Gaya and Nālendra or Nālandā; but at that time the artists of Eastern Bengal were able to produce specimens which were exquisite objects of art on account of the delicacy of their outline and expressiveness of form in comparison with contemporary specimens of Northern and Western Bengal.