The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.134

v2.c16.s2.134

⁵⁶ Mr. Fergusson is of opinion that the story of “the Gaṇeśa is the purer and the more nearly allied to Greek art. That in the Rāj Rānī, (? Rānī Naur) though fully as vigorous and full of life, is inferior in style and much more Indian in detail and costume”; and he comes to the “conclusion that some of the Yavana invaders mentioned above”, (p. 173 of his work) “introduced Greek art into this remote corner some time,-it may be, before or about the Christian era; but that instead of becoming more delicate and refined, as it did at Amrāvātī, it became more vigorous and more local in its manifestations” (p. 269). Not wishing to rely upon my own judgment in a case in which so great an authority had expressed a decided opinion, I communicated the above extract to Mr. H. H. Locke of the Government School of Art, Calcutta, who had devoted his whole life to the study of art professionally and was the most competent to decide the question without any native or patriotic leaning, and I got the following in reply from him. “I cannot at all support the quotation which you send me from Fergusson. I do not perceive *any* more of ‘Greek feeling’ in the Gaṇeśa version of the fighting scene than in the Rānī Gumphā rendering. As to the Gaṇeśa carving being ‘first Greek attempt’ and the Rānī ‘a degenerate local mainfestation of it’ there is *absolutely nothing* in the carvings themselves to support such a notion. The Gaṇeśa carving (so far as can be judged of in its present very mutilated state) is rather the ruder of the two.” Mr. Locke is much inclined to the Greek theory, i.e. to the recognition of Greek feeling in some of the sculptures of Khaṇḍagiri; nevertheless he so flatly contradicts Mr. Fergusson’s opinion that it is hopeless for me to attempt a reconciliation. This much, however, I may say with perfect confidence that that evidence must be utterly. worthless which can even to experts yield such diametrically opposite results. For those who wish to think for themselves, I supply very faithful photo-collotypes of the two scenes in plates VIII and XVI.