A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c17.76

c17.76

Whatever influence Greece had exercised on Indian art was practically exhausted by A. D. 400. After that date the traces of Hellenistic ideas are too trifling to be worth mentioning. The mediaeval Brahmanical and Buddhist schools have nothing in common with Greek art, and the strange artistic forms introduced by the Muhammadan conquerors at the beginning of the thirteenth century were equally alien to Hellenic feeling. From the fifth century the art of India, whether Hindu or Muslim, must stand or fall on its own merits, without reference to Hellenic standards. The mediaeval Hindu revival and the advance of Islam, in large part synchronous, both involved a revolt against Hellenic ideas and a reversion to ancient Asiatic modes—a 'renaissance aux dépens des influences helléniques'.²