A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s4.18

c13.s4.18

‘The religion which finds expression in imagery so truly devilish is not a pleasant subject of contemplation, and no amount of executive skill or cleverness in the production of scenic effect can justify, on aesthetic grounds, such a composition, which is frankly hideous. Its claim to be considered a work of art rests solely upon its display of power in a semi-barbaric fashion. The horror of the subject and its treatment is not redeemed by any apparent ethical lesson. Indeed Puranic and Tantric Hinduism (including late Buddhism) concerns itself little with ethics. The earlier Buddhism, as a religion, busied itself mainly with morals, and consciously aimed at ‘the welfare and happiness of all creatures’, a noble ideal which found its utterance in art. In Brahmanical Hinduism of all varieties each man seeks at the most his own personal salvation, and so Brahmanical art seldom exhibits a trace of human sympathy, a defect dearly purchased by its much praised idealism.