A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s5.10

c15.s5.10

Happily, the inexhaustible fountain of Hindu mythological imagination provides a group of subjects which invite the freest play of fancy, and give unlimited opportunities for artistic treatment. During the eighteenth century, the class of material alluded to, the symbolism connected with the 'musical modes', was exploited by numerous artists, whose works were eagerly collected by Warren Hastings and his contemporaries and brought by them to Europe, where they now enrich various libraries, museums, and private collections. The works in question, known as *Rāgmālās*, or 'Garlands of Musical Modes', are characterized by singular tenderness of sentiment, and present examples of some of the best pictorial work ever produced in India. Such praise applies, of course, only to specimens of the highest class. The collections include much rubbish.