Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c12.179

c12.179

The abysmal ignorance of Indian art-history implied in the last sentence may be pardoned, for it is not confined to the editorial columns of Anglo-Indian newspapers; but what are these "large effects," these Parnassian heights, seemingly inaccessible to ourselves, which we would fain make others climb? When we have succeeded in creating in India, either by our own exertions or through the Indian intellect, anything ethically or æsthetically as great as a medieval Gothic cathedral we may begin to aim at something higher. But all such academic recipes, relating either to art, architecture, or general education, are just as vain and useless as the *mantras* of uncomprehended mysteries the Tibetan Lama drones as he twirls his praying-wheel.