The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.126.3

v1.c9.126.3

In northern climes, where active exertion is a *sine qua non* of existence, wrestling, hunting, and fighting, games involving violent exertion, and scenes depicting warfare are the most delightful. The highest effort of the poet is directed to war-songs, the noblest form of the dramatic art is tragic, and some of the finest specimens of the pictorial and plastic art exhibit the most stirring scenes of life. In India, on the other hand, the heat and enervating action of the climate for nine months in the year, render all exertion unpleasant, and life must, therefore, be more tranquil and seasoned with easy enjoyment. Music and singing and chess constitute the means of amusement; poetry sings of love; and the drama prohibits the exhibition of tragic scenes on the stage. It is but natural, therefore, that art here should take an easy, soft, voluptuous tone, very different from that which is most gratifying in high latitudes. In the early states of Indian society, when the Aryans had not yet lost their trans-Himalayan energy and vigour, the heroic in art and literature readily recommended itself to them, but in the seventh century of the Christian era, on the sea-board of Orissa, the case was otherwise.