A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c7.29

c7.29

The high achievement of the semi-foreign sculptors of Asoka's reign and of the best artists of the Gandhāran school is so deeply tinged by foreign influences that it may be left out of consideration in this connexion. In sculpture the artistic success of India should be judged from her performance during those periods when elements of foreign origin were a negligible quantity. It is difficult to understand how any unprejudiced critic can refuse the name of fine art to the best sculpture of Sāñchī, Bharhut, Mathurā, the Gupta period, and other categories of early date illustrated in the following pages. The widest divergence of opinion relates to the vast mass of sculptures executed from the seventh century to the present day, and grouped together as Mediaeval and Modern in the seventh chapter.