Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c18.s2.30

c18.s2.30

The truth is that we have to consider in all probability two stages in the history of the works in question, the first that of their formulation at the close of the fifth century in Northern India, the second that of their subsequent use and final decay in the North, finally completed as the result of Muhammadan conquest and influence. During this second period, the traditions flourished in the South, where most of the remaining works are still to be found; new recensions of them were made, with additions and interpolations relating to representations of local deities and saints. Artistic expression in the South culminated in the sculpture and architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, after which there followed a gradual decline, rapidly accelerated in the nineteenth century, until now there are but few craftsmen who understand their own books, and but few copies of these books procurable, and those imperfect and exceedingly corrupt.