Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c10.32

c10.32

This sufficiently explains why on old Indian coins we rarely find effigies of Hindu rulers. It also explains why in Hindu sculpture the tendency has always been to make representations of human beings, even when intended as portraiture, to conform to the ideal type of Divinity. It was impious to glorify man in his common personality, but not so to explain him as one of the manifestations of the universal, divine nature. Europe says: "The noblest study of mankind is man;" India declares it to be not man, but God, and Hindu art is only concerned in showing the relationship between the human and the divine nature.