A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.43

c9.s2.43

The Bharhut sculptures, having escaped the destructive zeal of Muhammadan iconoclasts by reason of their situation in an out-of-the-way region, lay safely hidden under a thick veil of jungle until a century ago, when the establishment of general peace and the spread of cultivation stimulated the local rustics to construct substantial houses from the spoils of the old monuments for which they cared nothing. The extensive group of early Buddhist buildings at and near Sānchī in the Bhopāl State similarly evaded demolition because it lay out of the path of the armies of Islam. Although the monuments of Sānchī have not suffered as much as those of Bharhut from the ravages of the village builder, they have not wholly escaped injury. During the first half of the nineteenth century much damage was done by the ill-advised curiosity of amateur archaeologists. Now, however, the authorities concerned are fully alive to their responsibility, and everything possible is being done to conserve the local memorials of India's ancient greatness.