Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c9.18

c9.18

The whole of the great building, from the basement to the seventh story, was adorned with a series of wonderful sculptures and bas-reliefs, extending in the aggregate for a length of nearly three miles, and expounding in ordered sequence the history, mythology and philosophy of the Buddhist faith. For the devout Buddhist pilgrims who paced these sculptured galleries they were illustrated scriptures, which even the most ignorant could read, telling in living words the life-story and message of the Master. We have discussed already the Indian idealised type of Divinity, which is represented on the monument in countless images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in high and low relief, sculptured in panels round the basement and placed in niches above the different galleries. We are now only concerned with the reliefs along the procession paths which exhibit the Indian sculptor’s highest achievements in the treatment of scenes of real, or quasi-real, life. Fortunately, though some have suffered by exposure to the weather, or from shocks of earthquake, they have escaped the ruthless vandalism to which nearly all works of art in India have been subject.