Indian Sculpture c6.s5.4

c6.s5.4

This provokes a partly new measure in some of the provinces of mediæval Indian sculpture as well as painting. To overlook it and to estimate this mediæval phenomenon as a downward movement of the prior, i.e. the classical Indian complex of form, would be like interpreting the early Christian art of Europe merely as a decay of classical Græco-Roman traditions. The northern factor, that had its share in the building of classical Indian art, now, although carried by a variety of different immigrants, who had come to India from the north, whether their original homes lay in the north-east or in the north-west, leads to a reinforcement of tendencies already present. In it precious blossoms bestir themselves to outlast the overwhelming vegetation that was classically Indian.