A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c12.4

c12.4

During the seventh and eighth centuries the foreign settlers had become Hinduized, tribes developing into castes. When the ninth century opens we find a new distribution of power among kingdoms mostly governed by so-called Rājputs, in many cases the descendants of chieftains belonging to the foreign tribes of Hūnas, Gurjaras, and the like. The Hūna or Hun invasions with the subsequent readjustments mark the division between the history of Ancient and that of Mediaeval India. For the purpose of this work it will be convenient to draw the dividing line at A. D. 650, so as to include the reigns of Harsha and Pulakesin in the Gupta Period, which will be taken as extending from A. D. 350 to 650. The Pallava works of art, although some of them may fall between those dates, are more closely connected with the Mediaeval than with the Gupta style, and will be treated as Mediaeval Sculpture.