A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s5.29

c15.s5.29

The Beckford volumes in the British Museum, Or. 4769, 4770, already noticed more than once, contain some excellent ideal portraits of Hindu deities, with elegant floral borders. I select for reproduction Yama, the Indian Pluto, riding on his buffalo, nearly all in black and white (Plate LXVIII); Dharmrāja, as judge of the dead, on his black bull (Fig. 225); and Byās (Vyāsa) Muni, the supposed compiler of the Vedas, who is represented standing, and holding a rosary. His body is 'wheat-coloured', his skirt purplish-grey, and his turban pink (Fig. 226).