The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c10.15

c10.15

Fergusson’s ignorance of the symbolism of Indian art led him to interpret the sculptures of Buddhist stûpas as representations of “tree and serpent worship.” Monsieur A. Foucher’s brilliant analysis of the sculptures of the Sânchî gateway disposes of this fallacy, which has been the source of much misunderstanding of Indian art and religion. He shows that these sculptures, instead of representing the primitive animistic cult of wild aboriginal followers of the Buddha, really embody the esoteric teaching of Hînayâna Buddhism, which was based upon the true spirit of Vedic Aryan philosophy in refusing to permit the representation of the Deity in human form. Hero-worship was a popular sentiment which could not be ignored by Aryan religious teachers; it went down to the very foundations of Aryan religion, for the Kshatriya chieftain was the spiritual leader of his tribe before the Brahman hierarchy became a political power and developed the philosophical teaching of the Vedas; and, even then, the fighting Kshatriya often overcame the Brahman with his own weapons in philosophic encounters. Both the Buddha and Krishna, the hero of the Mahâbhârata, were Kshatriyas. It was not to be expected that the abstruse speculations of Aryan philosophy could be made intelligible to the whole Indo-Aryan community, composed of so many different intellectual and racial elements;