A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c17.2

c17.2

THE isolation of India, so apparent on the map, has never been absolute. Her inhabitants from the most remote ages have always been exposed to the action of foreign ideas conveyed by one or all of three ways—by sea, through the passes of the north-eastern frontier, or through the more open passes of the north-west. The only foreign art which could influence India from the north-east being that of China, which certainly produced no considerable effect on Indian art prior to the Muhammadan conquest, the ingress of foreign artistic ideas through the north-eastern passes may be left out of account.