Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c8.41

c8.41

If we accept the conclusion of archæologists that the Indian artistic ideal is a feeble attempt to imitate the Gandharan models, or those of Græco-Roman art, we must assume that, many centuries later than these Bharhut sculptures, when every other branch of art had progressed and India was the acknowledged head of the scientific world, Indian sculptors and painters had actually retrograded in their art, and were less proficient in anatomical knowledge than the artists of Asoka's time. The only alternative to this conclusion is that which I propose, that at some period after the Bharhut and Sanchi sculptures Indian artists abandoned purely naturalistic aims and adopted an ideal of their own devising.