The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c15.13

c15.13

Indirectly, however, the inflow of this current from the West greatly assisted the new movement from within, which was already tending towards the removal of the restraint which had hindered the higher development of Indo-Aryan sculpture and painting from the earliest Vedic times. The Kushan kings were evidently liberal patrons of the fine arts, and, like the Great Moguls, were personally interested in sculpture and painting. Though of the Buddhist faith, they were indifferent to the rule of the Hînayâna school, which forbade any icon of the Master's personality in the service of the Sangha. The elders of the Buddhist Church in Gandhara, anxious to reconcile their royal patrons' dilettantism with the ritualistic traditions of their creed, withdrew the prohibition, but laid down strict rules, in the spirit of Vedic philosophy, to prevent vulgar idolatry. The image of the Blessed One was not to be fashioned, like those of the Olympian gods, as an ideal human; nor was it to be worshipped until it had been consecrated with appropriate rites. The imager by spiritual insight must realise the Divinity which transfigured Him when He attained Nirvana under the Bodhi tree at Gayâ: he must transport himself by meditation to the Tusitâ heavens, where the Buddha now watched humanity with compassionate eyes, and show the divine glory revealed to him there.