Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c36.35

c36.35

The above is but a bald outline of the system by which this unending wealth of relief work was distributed over the exterior of this temple, but it is the incredible intricacy with which each detail of this extensive conception was treated that is so overwhelming, filling the spectator with astonishment. In the marvellous minuteness of its technique alone, there is no thought of time, space, or limitations of any kind, and, as to the emotional conditions which inspired this great work, no other known movement can approach it in the intensity of its purpose. Not that the quality of the art thus represented is of the high order of some of the schools of Indian sculpture; much of the figure modelling is taut and stylized, lacking in breadth and suggestion, but as a sustained *tour de force*, and also as a grand repository of religious thought expressed in plastic form, the walls of this temple are unequalled.