The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.60

v1.c9.60

The necessity for the comparison also arises from the circumstance of there existing a very erroneous impression on the subject in Europe, owing doubtless to a want of adequate information. Authors, who devote chapter after chapter, and not unoften entire works, to Egyptian and Assyrian art, refer perfunctorily, only as a matter of form, to Indian art, and simply to declare that it is unworthy of notice, or fit only to be condemned. The spirit in which the subject is generally taken up will be best illustrated by the following quotation from Mr. Westmacott's *Handbook of Sculpture*. After treating of the nature and character of Assyrian art, he says : “There is no temptation to dwell at length upon the sculpture of Hindustan. It affords no assistance in tracing the history of art, and its debased quality deprives it of all interest as a phase of fine art, the point of view from which it would here be considered. It must be admitted, however, that the works existing have sufficient character to stamp their nationality ; and although they possess no properties that can make them valuable as useful examples for the student, they offer very curious subject of enquiry to the scholar and archaeologist. The sculptures found in various parts of India, at Ellora, Elephanta, and other places, are of a strictly symbolical or mythological character. They usually consist of monstrous combinations of human and brute forms, repulsive from their ugliness and outrageous defiance of rule and even possibility"²¹. Dr. Wilhelm Lübke, in each of his two magnificent works, *The History of art*, and *The History of Sculpture*, has devoted a few pages to India, but, like the author above noticed, only to come to the conclusion that the national religion of the people of this country could not favor the plastic art, and so they have none worthy of the name. After descanting on the effect of Hinduism and Buddhism on the mind of man, he says :