The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.68

c9.68

A tendency is growing in recent years to call all contiguous phases of renaissance in art in distant provinces of India, “ Gupta.” Such mistaken terminology are being used by well-known art critics like Coomaraswamy. Coomaraswamy says “ There exists many ‘ caves ’ of the Gupta period. At Ajanta caves, XVI and XVII are *Vihāras* dating about 500 A.D., Cave XIX a *caitya*-hall datable about 550 ; all of these contain paintings, referred to below.² ” Similarly with regard to the *Viśvakarmā caitya*-hall the same author says “ the excavation is Gupta or early Cālukya dating about 600.³ ” There is no contiguity either in date or in locality between early Gupta art and those of Ajanta, Ellora, or Badami. It is extremely doubtful whether any paintings in any of the caves at Ajanta can be referred to the fifth century A.D., the earlier paintings belong to the pre-Christian centuries and those in the later caves bearing painted labels are certainly not earlier than 600 A.D. Neither Ajanta nor Ellora nor Badami were ever included within the dominions of the Gupta emperors and their artists did not begin work before the final destruction of the Gupta empire. Such authors often date specimens without stating any reasons, reliable or unreliable, and the absence of data never deters them from coining incongruous terms and nomenclature. The only authorities which Coomaraswamy can quote about the date of the Viśvakarama caitya-hall are Fergusson and Burgess, none of whom were ever competent to date an Indian monument from an inscription. It is *prima facie* wrong to give a proper name to a movement, when it takes place at a different locality, and at a much later date. Coomaraswamy and others want to express the idea that the symmetry and poise, introduced into northern art some time in the 5th century A.D., appears in the art of south-western India also a century and a half later. It was a *renaissance* in art, the impulse having been felt much earlier in the north than in the south-west; but for that reason it is not necessary to design it in a way which is distinctly misleading.