[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908) › c8.67 # Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c8.67 Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c8.67 - **Language:** English ### [c8.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908.c8.67) There is this in common with the Gandharan sculptures and those of Amarâvati—that both were inspired by the monastic schools of Northern India; the former employing foreign agents, the latter mostly Indian. The foreign artists of Gandhara were naturally slower in absorbing Indian impressions, derived from the philosophical schools, than the native artists. The great culture-centres of Asia at this time were the Indian universities of Takshasila, Benares, Sridhanya Kataka, on the banks of the Krishna, and Nalanda: their influence was supreme, and compared with it the whole influence of Hellenism in Indian art may be taken as a negligible factor. It is to the direct teaching and influence of these great educational institutions, rather than to the occasional intrusion of foreign suggestions and foreign technique, that we must look for an explanation of the development of Indian artistic ideals. For certainly the teaching of the Mahâyâna doctrine by Nagarjuna and the infusion of Brahmanical philosophy into Buddhism were the influences which shaped the ideals of Indian art, not the migration of Western artistic ideas eastwards. India was not then in a state of pupilage, but the teacher of all Asia, and she only borrowed Western suggestions to mould them to her own way of thinking. - [Previous: c8.65](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908.c8.65) - [Next: c8.68](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908.c8.68) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908.c8) ## Linked texts (2) - [Takṣaśilā](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.taxila) - [Nālandā](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.nalanda) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908.c8.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1908.c8.67) · Pramāṇa