A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s7.3

c13.s7.3

The reality of the debt due to India by those distant lands is attested abundantly by material remains, by the existence to this day of both the Buddhist and Brahmanical religions in the island of Bali to the east of Java, by Chinese history, and by numerous traditions preserved in India, Pegu, Siam, and the Archipelago. But when the attempt is made to transmute vague, conflicting traditions and imperfectly known archaeological facts into orderly history the difficulties in the way of success appear to be largely insurmountable. In this place it is, of course, impossible to probe deeply the mystery referred to. The critical investigation of the subject, even if confined to Indian colonization and its consequences in the Malay Archipelago alone, would require a large book. But, in order to render at all intelligible the fact of the existence of magnificent achievements of Indian art in Java, to which island the summary observations in this work will be confined, some attempt, however imperfect, at historical explanation is indispensable. In Java the forms of art to which a few pages will be devoted are thoroughly Indian in subject and style, of high aesthetic quality, and sufficiently dated to permit of their correlation with the art of India. The less purely Indian and less meritorious ramifications of Hindu art in the other countries of the Far East must be left unnoticed.