A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.11

c13.11

The sculpture of the early Indian schools makes an appeal far more universal than that of mediaeval times, which demands from the spectator a certain amount of recondite knowledge of the ideas underlying the later mythology. Its enthusiastic admirers never weary of extolling its 'idealism', and of glorying in the fact that it is so peculiarly and exclusively Hindu as to be often unintelligible to the ordinary well-educated critic. The feelings which prompt such eulogies appear to be largely influenced by the desire now much in fashion to exalt everything Hindu beyond measure—a desire which recently found its extreme expression in an absurd octavo volume entitled *The Superiority of the Hindu*. But the mediaeval sculpture of India, in so far as it fails to appeal to critics who are not saturated with the peculiar notions of Hindu metaphysics and religion, confesses itself to rank below the highest art, which, whether in literature or sculpture, is able to touch the emotions and win the sympathy of cultivated students of every age and clime.