A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c10.s3.25

c10.s3.25

¹ Kakasu Okakura, *The Ideals of the East, with special reference to the Art of Japan* (Murray, 1903), pp. 78, 92. The author, with equal disregard of easily ascertainable facts, declares (p. 76) that the Iron Pillar of Delhi is a work of Asoka's time, calling it 'the lofty iron pillar of Asoka at Delhi—strange marvel of casting!', and further (p. 5) that Asoka's edicts 'dictated terms to the sovereigns of Antioch and Alexandria'. This latter statement could hardly be made by anybody who had read the edicts. The Iron Pillar was erected early in the fifth century after Christ, about six centuries and a half after Asoka's death (*J. R. A. S.*, 1897, pp. 1–18). For the Han sculptures, see Bushell, *Chinese Art*, figures 8–17. For Ku-K'ai-chih's picture, see Fig. 125 in the same work, or Mr. Binyon's article in *Burlington Magazine*, Jan. 1904, or the same author's *Painting in the Far East*; or Giles's *An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art* (Shanghai, 1905), p. 16 and Plate. I have seen the original painting in the Print Room of the British Museum.