The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c7.48

c7.48

The artistic sense of the people has now passed away or is relegated to those few whose business it is to care for these things. They now produce their wares to order, not so much by quality as quantity—so many square feet per rupee. In days gone by, as we have seen, there seems to have been a desire for better and more conscientious work, more taste being shewn by the people themselves, so that, when the buildings were erected which we now see in ruins, the double demand of religious fitness and artistic taste was satisfied. Now the former alone remains, while the latter has died out. Hence it is that we find that, where these old shrines have been desecrated and abandoned as places of worship, there is no feeling left strong enough to rescue them from the basest and foulest purposes to which they are freely put, or to attempt to arrest the effects of the ravages of time and the elements.