Indian Sculpture c9.175

c9.175

Although there are signs of mediævalism in reliefs of the fifth and sixth centuries (pp. 67, 74, Figs. 61, 107), in the whole of contemporary sculpture of that phase they are only stray instances. Their importance is not manifest within the character of the whole of contemporary art. It becomes so retrospectively only when these seemingly stray instances had grown to be qualities of mediæval sculpture. The middle ages in Indian sculpture are framed by the second immigration from the north and by a third invasion, that of Islām, which put an end to sculpture. Where, as in south India, it left the monuments untouched, the practice, too, of mediæval sculpture continued. The term ‘mediæval’ is used here in this sense. It presupposes the classical. As in Europe, so in India, it has the migrations of people for its background. Its roots, however, are sunk into the soil of India, and from there forms are brought forth organically one with those that came from more ancient roots.