The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.127

v2.c16.s2.127

Relative proportions generally been accepted as very good tests for determining the nationality of human figures; but seeing that, on the one hand, the human frame is in its general outline very much alike in all parts of the world, and that, on the other, no two masters of the Hellenic art adopted the same relative proportions, and further, that they are subject to extensive variations according to age, sex, and other causes, not to advert to the fact that specimens of ancient Indian art are generally of so primitive a character that they are not amenable to technical rules, it is hopeless to deduce from [44] them any reliable evidence for a general premiss. There are certain peculiarities in proportion which if properly studied by experts,—such for instance as the breadth of the head along the eyes, which in Greece almost uniformly measured five eyes,—would doubtless be of value as collateral proofs, but they can under no circumstance be accepted as well-established majors for any universal conclusion.