A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.25

c8.25

The architectural style employed in the monastic buildings varied, of course, according to time and place. In Western India many monasteries were excavated in the solid rock, but in other parts of the country they were largely constructed of timber resting upon massive brick foundations. Our knowledge of ancient Indian art depends much on the study of the remains of the monasteries, both rock-cut and structural, and the extant examples of the early schools of painting occur almost exclusively in the rock-cut monasteries and their connected halls in the west.