Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c10.152

c10.152

To form a just estimate of any national art we must consider, not what that art has borrowed, but what it has given to the world. Viewed in this light Indian art must be placed among the greatest of the great schools, either in Europe or in Asia. None of the great art-schools are entirely indigenous and self-contained, in the archæological sense; there are none which did not borrow material from other countries, and the schools of Greece and Italy are no exceptions to this rule. India was a borrower, like Greece and Italy, but what she borrowed from Persia was, so to speak, a draft on her own bank, a part of the common stock of Aryan culture. What India borrowed from outside her own world was repaid a hundred-fold by products of her own creative genius. If she took this from here, that from there, so did Greece, so did Italy; but out of what she took came higher ideals than Greece ever dreamt of, and things of beauty that Italy never realised. Let these constitute India’s claim to the respect and gratitude of humanity.