A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c12.5

c12.5

All students of Indian literature now recognize the fact that during the reigns of Chandragupta II and his next two successors, from about A. D. 375 to 490, every branch of Hindu literature, science, and art was vigorously cultivated under the stimulus of liberal royal patronage ; and there is general agreement that Kālidāsa, the greatest of Indian poets, graced the Gupta court and produced his masterpieces in the later years of the fifth century.¹ The plastic and pictorial arts shared in the good fortune of literature and science. In painting we have the frescoes of Ajaṇṭā and Bāgh, produced under the patronage of Chalukya and Vākātaka kings of the Deccan, and also those of Sigiriya in Ceylon. In coinage a marked improvement took place during the reigns of the earlier Gupta kings. The paintings and coins will be discussed in other chapters, here our concern is with the sculpture only. The improved coins being obviously suggested by European models, and the drama of Kālidāsa being, as I believe, an Hindu adaptation of Greek originals, I feel a strong suspicion that the refined beauty of Gupta sculpture must be due to the same obscure Hellenic influences which stimulated the Gupta revival of numismatic art and the development of regular drama. But the facts have not been recorded, and nothing can be proved definitely.