Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c10.146

c10.146

The cosmopolitan character of these Indian philosophical schools, at the time when the foundations of Indian art were laid, was derived from the fact that they were rather schools of original research than schools of dogma and ritual. Every idea and every suggestion, whether foreign or Indian, would be weighed, considered, and, if found useful, thrown into one great crucible to form the synthesis which made up Indian philosophy, science, and art. It is a wholly misleading method of analysis to isolate details in these paintings which may be called Western and use them to prove that the inspiration of the art came from Greece or Rome. It is not the material used by an artist which shows his inspiration, but the way he uses it and the mode of his expression.