Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c40.8

c40.8

Of the subsequent progress of this Buddhist development the material data is scanty, and much the same applies to such productions as took form during the centuries comprising the greater part of the first millennium There are remains which indicate that the building art was maintained in a fairly substantial manner during this long interval, but no important or entire structures have survived to which reference can be made in order to throw light on the actual shape that these assumed at this stage of their history. Gradually, however, it becomes apparent from the nature of their handiwork that the Newar artisans were coming within the compass of that powerful movement eventually to be known as the “Eastern School,” which flourished in the adjacent country of Bihar under the Pala and Sena dynasties in Bengal from the eighth to the twelfth centuries. The influence of the experienced Indian craftsmen during this period, supported by the traditions of the historical schools of Magadha and Varendra had a profound and far-reaching effect on the arts of Asia in the early middle ages, and there is certain evidence that the handicrafts of Nepal became one of the provincial or regional developments of this great religious and artistic movement having its headquarters in the Gangetic plain. But it was not until a dynasty of royal patrons known as the Mulla Rajas who reigned over Nepal from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries and up to the conquest of the country by the Gurkhas in 1768, that the arts flourished in their most exuberant form. The Mulla regime attained its prime, as shown by its architectural achievements, under the seventh ruler of the line, Jayastithi (1386-1429) and also during the reign of his successor the eighth raja Yaksha, although much good building and numerous artistic productions were executed under Raja Bhupatindra as late as the first half of the eighteenth century.