The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c15.12

c15.12

Hellas herself was under the heel of Rome; the light of her own inspiration was becoming dim, and her best artists devoted their talents to the service of Roman patricians. Among the best of the Gandharan craftsmen there were sometimes a few to compare with the second-best of the Greek sculptors and painters who adorned the villas of Pompeii and Herculaneum. But except for an occasional piece of fine academic craftsmanship, Gandharan sculpture is generally petty in ideas and feeble in execution, and nothing that was produced under the patronage of the Kushan kings approached in grandeur of conception the chaitya-house of Kârlê or the monasteries of Nâsik, or showed the warm vitality and unaffected beauty of the Sânchî gateways. So far from inspiring the ideals of Indo-Aryan art, it was not until the Gandharan master-masons had drunk in the inspiration of Indo-Aryan philosophy and religion that any of their sculpture became worthy of comparison with the best original art of India.