A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s1.3

c13.s1.3

During the first half of the seventh century, when the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang recorded his invaluable notes, the Buddhists of Orissa outnumbered the Brahmanical Hindus, but notwithstanding that fact, Buddhist sculpture is rare in the province, and the extant specimens, often of a high class, are mainly Brahmanical. From the point of view of the historian of art, as already observed, religious distinctions in the mediaeval period are unimportant, sculptors making use of the style of their own age and country, irrespective of the creed to the service of which their works were dedicated.