Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c12.160

c12.160

The critic who endeavoured to form a just estimate of the results we have achieved in the two former capacities would naturally take into consideration the present condition of art in India, for as a symptom of intellectual, moral, and spiritual progress, the condition of a national art is a more certain guide than any blue books or statistics. Such a critic would doubtless be inclined to regard the degeneration and decay of Indian art, which have certainly been much more rapid under the peace and security of British rule than under the most chaotic period of native government, as a very unfavourable indication—and, so far as it goes, it may be regarded as such. But there can be no doubt that this seeming inexplicable decay of Indian art, in spite of the blessings of order and settled government which we have conferred upon the country, is due to exceptional administrative difficulties, and to causes which, in process of time, will probably be removed. One of the most conspicuous of these causes is the pernicious example we have held up in Anglo-Indian art, more especially in the architecture of public buildings—always the outward visible sign of the inner civic consciousness.