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RUPAM

NO. ZAPRIL 1920

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Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2010 with funding from

University of Toronto

http://www.archive.org/details/rupamind02indi

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1 THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF ORIENTAL ART. 1m . m11 "Patron : Jjj|bn) an]| His Excellency The Right Hon'ble |j1 EARL OF RONALDSHAY, G.C.I.E., 1U Governor of Bengal. j|!8i - . I^ . "presl&ent: gjjjjwe T we* Hon'ble Mr. C. H. KESTEVEN. Iifi

Ifon?. Secretaries : ||G. N. TAGORE, Esq., & C. W. E. COTTON, I.C.S., CLE. |cHE Society was founded in the year 1907 with the object of cultivation by its Hui ^ members, and the promotion amongst the public, of a knowledge of all branches illof ancient and modern Oriental Art by means of the collection by its members g|of objects of such art and the exhibition of such collections to the Society; the reading wi

we of papers; holding of discussions; the purchase of books and journals relating to art;Jfi correspondence with kindred Societies or Collectors and Connoisseurs; the publication S!HHi of a Journal, and by such other means as the Society may hereafter determine; as also ^J]jS the furtherance of modern Indian Art by means of the holding of public loan exhibi- jui|e tions of objects of ancient and modern, and, in particular, Oriental Art owned by mem-MR bers of the Society or others; the encouragement and assistance of Indian artists, art tfi

students and workers in artistic industries by amongst other means, help given to them pgl by the Society towards the disposal of their work, the holding of public exhibitions of weBe works of modern Indian Art, the award of prizes and diplomas at such exhibitions,ifi as also by such other means as the Society hereafter may determine. ffiM . ... ... . ^The Society has hitherto confined its activity to the exhibition and publication of !Hni!HEi Indian pictures. kfm |H The Society has now been reorganised and it is now intended to augment the p=|e scope and work of the Society in various ways. It has now obtained a fine well-furn- ^[y=j ished suite of rooms and lecture hall in the Samavaya Mansions, Calcutta, which are !Hni

being used for meetings and lectures. A library specially devoted to the study of!fi Oriental Art, is in course of formation, and it is hoped that within a short time the g| Society will be able to afford the best facilities for the study and understanding of iyeH Indian Art, and to promote a wider interest in and to help in the revival of a great and ^distinctive phase of Oriental Art which is destined to play an important part in theW world's culture in the future, as it has done in the past. pibe i5|| The Annual Subscription is Rs. 36, which entitle members to all free publications we|e of the Society.

Application for membership should be made to the Honorary Secretaries, Suitejy^i No. 12, Samavaya Mansions, Hogg Street, Calcutta.

w

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RUPAMAn Illustrated

Quarterly Journal of Oriental ArtChiefly Indian

Edited byORDHENDRA C. GANGOLY

No. 2April 192C

OFFICE : No. 7, OLD POST OFFICE STREETCALCUTTA, INDIA

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970 t

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CONTENTS.I. A Brass Statuette from Mathura [ Frontispiece] . . 1

II. Art and Craftsmanship. By Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy 4III. The Continuity of Pictorial Tradition in the Art of India [Conclusion]. By

E. Vredenburg . . 5IV. A Signed Molaram. By Pundit Chandradhar Guleri ..11V. A Vaishnavaite Madonna. By Sushil Banerjee . . . . 14

VI. A Buddhist Image from Burma . . 16VII. Indian Art and Iconography. By Brindavan C. Bhattacharya . . 19VIII. Review . . . . . . . . . . 21

All Rights of Translation and Reproduction are Strictly Reserved.

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EDITOR'S NOTE.The Editor is not responsible for the views expressed by contributors

or correspondents. And the publication of a contribution or correspond-ence shall not necessarily imply the identification of the Editor with theviews and opinions expressed in such contribution or correspondence.

The Editor will welcome proposals for articles, provided that they aretypewritten, or quite easily legible ; he can, however, use only articleswritten by those who have a real knowledge of the subjects treated, andhas no use for articles which are compiled from other works or which con-tain no original matter.

A stamped and addressed envelope must accompany all manuscripts,of which the return is desired in case of non-acceptance. Every care willbe taken of manuscripts, but copies should be kept, as the Editor can inno case be responsible for accidental loss.

All photographs intended for publication should be printed on albu-menized silver paper, and preferably on shiny bromide paper,

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Rupees sixteen annually. Post free,rupees seventeen, in India; Foreign, rupees eighteen. Single copy, rupeesfive, post free. Owing to the state of exchange it is not possible to quotethe rate of subscription in Foreign Currency. Remittance for subscrip-tion should therefore be sent in Indian Currency.

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I.-A BRASS STATUETTE FROM MATHURA.IT

is somewhat of a paradox to assertthat, inspite of the attention that arch-aeologists have lavished on it, the Old

School of Sculpture at Mathura has notyet been " discovered," much less appreciat-ed. In taking stock of the numerous bondsand ties with which the Mathura school issupposed to have been related to the Gand-

^liara school, archaeologists have succeededHi ignoring, and even evading, the study ofthe indigenous and inherent qualities of thegreat School of Sculpture which existed andflourished at Muttra from very ancientperiods. The archaeological evidences ofthe Jaina remains carry the antiquity of theschool to remote times. During the supre-macy of the Kushans, the School of Sculp-ture, perhaps, entered into the most activepart of its career and came to occupy itsplace as the most important seat and centreof the art of the sculptor and image-maker,which supplied, for centuries, the demandsof the most remote parts of Northern andNorth-Eastern India. The discovery ofmany images inscribed with the, names ofthe sculptors from Mathura, at Sarnath(Benares), and other distant cities, particu-larly at Kasia and at Jetavana, has abun-dantly proved the popularity of the sculptorsof Mathura and the extension of their tradi-tion far beyond the limits of the old city.That the school at Mathura early came incontact with the Hellenistic masons of Gand-hara, who for a time at least overran the in-digenous traditions, cannot perhaps be doubt-ed, but the examples of the school, studiedonly in the cross-breeds of the Hellenistictypes, could only misrepresent the true andreal achievement of the local artists, whofounded a school long before the Hellenisticinvasion and whose achievements and worksfar outlived in time and in geographicalextension the short-lived career of theHellenistic wave. The " Herakles and theNemean lion " can no more picture to usthe achievements of Mathura than the im-ported pictures from Persia could conveyto one the characteristic production of thelocal Indian artist of the Mughal court.And, unfortunately, the many remains ofMathura sculpture have been too often

regarded as an adjunct and an unimportantpendant to Gandharan art to leave anyroom for an independent and unbiassed studyof its own individual merits. But the in-digenous school has been of much top. pro-nounced and rampant a .-character to beignored even by archaeologists preoccupiedwith Hellenistic achievements. And manyof the indigenous type of female figures onthe carved railings of the Kushana periodhave demanded and wrenched from this classof students considerable attention, and ex-tracted from them a somewhat reluctantconcession that beneath the crust of Hellen-istic influence ran the continuation of thetradition of the old Indian Art of Bharhutand Sanchi, Anyhow the wide extensionand the long continuity of the MathuraSchool of Sculpture is recognised by allschools of critics. And though actual evid-ences do not carry it beyond the Gupta epoch,there is no doubt that it persisted manycenturies later. The brass statuette fromthe collection of Mr. Werner Reinhart, re-produced in the frontispiece, helps to carrydown the story of Mathura sculpture to avery late time as our present study of thisinteresting image will seek to demonstrate.It is not claimed that the plasticity of theimage illustrated in the two accompanyingplates ie of a very high order. The chiefinterest of the figure lies in the continuityof the female type with which old sculptorsof Mathura have made us familiar in thecurved figures of " Yakshis " on the railingsof the Kushana period. The convention ofthe pose of the type figure is no doubtborrowed from Sanskrit literature, in whichthe poetic tradition of the Asoka tree beingmade to flower by the magic touch of theleft foot of a beautiful lady is continuallyalluded to. And the type of a beautiful ladyafterwards came to be represented in art inthe conventional pose with her left foot bentand in contact with a tree. With this con- *vention is intimately associated the typeknown to archaeologists as the " tree andthe woman " motif, which it was vainlysought to derive from classical models, withwhich some critics were anxious to seekanalogies as if to deprive India of any

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originality in its conception. ProfessorFoucher was the first to draw the attentionof European students to the old Indian poetic^tradition as underlying the peculiar pose offcf.ine of the types of figures at Mathura,particularly in connection with a piece ofrail -tow in the Mathura Museum, and whichwe hope to >?produce in some futurenumber. There is no doubt that all the laterfigures are derived from the model repre-senting a lady under the Asoka tree, as thegracious pose of the figure bending its legagainst the tree offered a very temptingpresentation of female form, which wasimmediately accepted as a very attractiveconvention in which to picture the type ofbeautiful ladies. Ultimately it became thecommon accepted formula of representinggenerally a female figure.

If we remember this interesting historyof the type of these figures, it shall not benecessary for us to seek any particularsignificance in the pose of the brass statuette,which, as we shall presently see, is an imageand not the portrait of a lady. Our statu-ette is a solid piece of casting probably ofasta-dhatu, an amalgam of eight metals,which corresponds to the practice of theSouthern Indian image founders who usean amalgam of five metals (panchaloha) asdistinguished from the eight metals of UpperIndia. Although a long surviving school ofstone craftsmen existed in Mathura, and inits neighbourhood, we have had very littleevidence of metal founders in Mathura inancient times. Indeed, it is not until thesixteenth century that Mathura became thecentre of production of numerous metalimages, chiefly Vaishnavite, and mostof the later metal images in thenorthern part of India tip to thepresent time are supposed to have comefrom Mathura. The style of our brassstatuette precludes any date being ascribedto it earlier than the eighteenth century, andvery probably it belongs to the middle of thenineteenth century. The cult of Krishna(which recent investigations have traced asexisting in Mathura as far back as the cen-turies previous to the Christian era) under-went very rich development under the in-fluence of the Bengali Gossains of Brindabanfrom about the end of the sixteenth century

and had encouraged a revival of temple-building, and also of image-making both instone and metal. And although this laterevival hardly succeeded in awakening thebest traditions of Mathura sculpturewhichmust have been extinct long agoit musthave recalled the memory of old master-pieces, as it seems to have done in theexample of ovr brass statuette which, thoughleaning distinctly towards late Vaishnaviteimages, still carries in the convention of itsbeautiful pose the echb~of the types creatcJby the old masters of Mathura. Indeed, ifwe had no other evidence of its provenance,the pose of the figure will undoubtedly carryus to the old school of Mathura, and thusoffer an infallible guide in tracing the placeof its origin.The study of the iconography of theimage is, however, attended with difficultiesand is less easy than the study of its plasticconception. Here we have the figure of awoman (seventeen inches in height) stand-ing, with a crudely devised semi-circular haloat the back, on the stem of which she restsher leg: she holds in her hands a branch ofa tree which goes round her head. Thestem of the branch is planted on a lotus cupfrom which a little serpent lifts its hood.The face is a close reproduction of typesof " Krishna and Radha," and specially thetop knot of hair on the head is particularlyreminiscent of Krishna figures. Very prob-ably the image was cast by founders accus-tomed to fashion images of Krishna andRadha. It is, however, difficult to associatethe conception with any form of Vaishnavacult. The clue to the identity of the imagehas to be sought in the series of crude repre-sentations on the pedestal on which thefigure is standing and on which are twoSwastika symbols. One could easily recog-nise among them the four-handed figures,Bramha, Shiva and Vishnu, and also thefigures of Ganesha and the Moon which areplaced between them. It is somewhat diffi-cult to resist the temptation of identifyingthe image as the incarnation of " Maya," theCosmic Illusion of Vedantic doctrine.According to the latter, the phenomenalworld does not exist; it is only Maya arisingfrom Avidya (ignorance) that makes userroneously think it to be real. From the

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time of the Rig Veda (V. 31, 7) Maya* hasbeen pictured as a young woman, and thesame imagery seems to have descendedthrough the Vedantic as well as the PauranicConceptions. As the connotation of theword " Maya " is the illusion created by themagical charm of the sense-world, thefigure of a beautiful lady is an appropriateform of her symbol. A cult inr.jrge embody-ing in a concrete form the r/Iiilosophic con-ception of Maya is such,?*;! unknown thingliivlRdisuvieonologjT tnat it is easy to findfault with this identification. Why the in-carnation of Maya should be placed abovethe plane occupied by the Pauranic deities isnot easy to explain, unless Maya is taken tobe. conceived as the " Mula Prakriti," theprimordial essence from which all beings,including all forms of god, derive theirsubstance and origin. Tantric hagiologyseems to offer more convenient textsto explain the conception of our image. Theverses from Tantra-sara describing Bhu-baneswari seem to supply the somewhatnearest literary parallel to the icon: "Thouart the primordial One, Mother of countlesscreatures, Creatrix of the bodies of theLotus-born, Vishnu, and Shivam, whocreates, preserves, and destroys thethree worlds. Mother! By hymn-ing Thy praise I purify my speechAlthough Thou art theprimordial Cause of the world, yet art Thouever youthful I call to my min'dThy two thighs, which humble the pride ofthe trunk of an elephant, and surpass theplantain tree in thickness and tenderness.

Mother! Youth has fashioned thosethighs, that they may support as two pillarsthe weight of Thy great hips " (ArthurAvalon, "Hymns to the Goddess," 1913,pp. 32-40). The four hands which the hymnascribes to Bhubaneswari unfortunatelydestroy the parallel and forbid the

* Maya is the power by which things aremeasured, that is, formed, manifested and madeknown.

identification. The hymn 'to Jagadambika(mother of the world) may be offered as analternative identification. " It is by Thypower only that Bramha creates, Vishnu /maintains, and at the end of things Shi^/destroys the universe. Powerless are the tfor this but by Thy help. Therefore ^i*^ift.that Thou alone art the Creatrix, Maintainer,and Destructress of the world " (" Hymns tothe Goddess," p. 147). There are variousother forms pictured in the hymns which,though offering a close parallel, do nothelp the identification. Two of the nearestparallels are Lalita and Tripurasundari," The spouse of the Three-eyed One,who should be meditated upon as inthe first flush of her nubile youth, theweight of whose breasts are garlandedwith glittering gems." In the absence ofthe exact Dhyana or contemplative verse,such iconographic guesses could be carriedto wearisome extent, but enough has beensaid to suggest the meaning and conceptionof the icon. That an image, probably in anew form, should have been continued to bepictured so late as the nineteenth centuryproves that India has never been able toshake off her old habit of iconising herphilosophical concepts, and the little brassstatuette is a very interesting specimen ofvery late examples of such icons. It isnot wholly devoid of aesthetic effect, notwith-standing its obviously crude technique.There is a youthful simplicity, a naivedirectness and an absence of affectation verywell gleaned from the second plate, whilethe frontispiece offers a dignity in its charm-ing profile not often met with in more finish-ed examples. The Indian artist very oftenreaches a point where reality touches dis-tortion under the exigencies of the subjectillustrated. But this exaggeration of formdoes not always transgress the limits ofnaturalism. And when he chooses, or, moreaccurately, when his subject so demands, theIndian artist can also woo form with caress-es, as it can be legitimately claimed he hasdone in the present example.

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-

fs N reply to the enquiry, What is art? an, 1. answer may be made as follows: Art

"'is the involuntary dramatisation ofsubjective experience. In other words, thecrystallisation of a state of mind in images(whether visual, auditory or otherwise).This excludesl fi: 1.1 art the practical acti-vity of mere illustration, which involves onlythe combination of empirical observationwith skill of craftsn anship. Even the set-ting down on paper of the signs, lines, words,musical notes, etc., that serve to communi-cate aesthetic experience, or the transmissionof such an experience by the indications ofgesture, or audible sounds, is a practicalactivity (1) to be distinguished fromthat of creation. However swiftlythe .record may follow on the heelsof the single spiritual activity of intui-tion-expression, it is always the exter-nalisation of an already completed cycle.The words of a poem, the lines of a drawing,are not expressive: they are the catalyticstimuli to a renewed aesthetic activity, orexpression, on the part of the hearer. It istherefore by ellipsis that we call them ex-pressive, as it is by ellipsis that we speakof a physical work of art as beautiful. Itis scarcely needful to add that questions ofpersonal taste or interest have nothing to dowith aesthetic values, however legitimatelythey may govern conduct.The element of skill enters only into thevoluntary practical activity of externalisa-tion, the use of the language of stimula-tion. We cannot measure qualities of artby measuring degrees of skill. In fact, ,there are no degrees of art: nor is it possibleto speak of a progress or degeneration ofart, in individuals or schools, as we canspeak of progress or loss in the realm ofknowledge, technique and skill. In the wordsof Blake: "The human mind cannot gobeyond the gift of God, the Holy Ghost. Tosuppose that art can go beyond the finestspecimens of art that are now in the world

II -ART AND CRAFTSMANSHIP.By ANANDA COOMARASWAMY.

is not knowing what art is; it is being blindto the gifts of the Spirit." Wagner andRaphael are not necessarily superior toPalaestrinsr^and Giotto because of theirmore elaborate technique or superior facility.We can only

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the learned and the rich as to the illiterateand the poor. If anything, too little honourhas been paid to craftsmanship and know-ledge in recent times. Skill and sophisti-cation, learning and wealth, are neithergood nor bad in themselvesthat is to say,they can be used or misused. And bothare relative terms. Most great artistshave been learned in their own time andplace (Giotto was acclaim -d as a realist),and there is nothing i%. the coincidenceof the external r^ds of art with the

dimensional aspect of . s -*cure, which of itself

precludes the possibility of communicatingby such signs an authentic spiritual experi-ence. We cannot separate the tares from th?wheat by distinguishing a naturalistic frdtaa symbolic language It is not by an intel-lectual or categorical activity that we carjudge of the intensity of any artist'r 1 %o&.We cannot judge except by our response ;and whether or not We can respond willdepend on our own : tate of grace.

Ill -THE CONTINUITY OF PICTORIAL TRADITION INTHE ART OF INDIA.By E. VREDENBURG.

(Concluded from last isstie.)CONSIDERING the wealth of minutely

detailed information that has beentransmitted to us by the historians of

the Mughal period regarding the courtpainters of the emperors, and even by theemperors themselves in their memoirs, it isastonishing how anyone could maintain thatMughal painting had a Persian origin. But,apart from all these historical documents,the internal evidence of the paintings them-selves is so clear as to render the Persiantheory simply inexcusable.

It is clear that if Mughal painting andlate mediaeval Persian art differ to such anextent that the one cannot possibly bederived from the other, then the only rea-sonable conclusion is that Mughal artrepresents the continuation of an indigenousIndian tradition. It does not need closeattention to discover the uncompromisingcontrast between Persian and Mughal art.About the only point of resemblance is thatthey both take the form principally of bookillustration and miniature painting. Apartfrom this quite superficial resemblance theydiffer totally in their aims and methods.Persian art of the later middle ages is repletewith artificiality, conventionality, and man-nerism. I do not wish to imply anythingdisparaging. Its qualities entitle it to arank amidst the great art schools of theworld. With the means which they haveadopted, Persian artists have produced

works of the highest merit, not only for theirunequalled harmony of colour, but also forqualities of composition and expression ofunsurpassed excellence. Indian painting,on the contrary, whether at Ajantaor in the Mughal pictures, js far morerealistic. This realism does not ex-clude a studied grace which, nevertheless,does not degenerate into pronounced man-nerism. Indian painting may be full of re-finement and distinction, but it does notattempt to depart from the appearances ofnature. Indeed, inspite of all the dithy-rambs that have been sung in praise of thesuperhuman tendencies of Indian art, itmust be admitted that at Ajanta and else-where it is remarkably closely related bothin spirit and method to many of the mostapproved aspects of Western art. In thebitter controversies regarding the merits ofIndian art, those who condemn the Indianideal from the' narrow point of view of Re-naissance pseudo-classicism seem to forgetthat at the same time they implicitly con-demn more than half of the art of Europe, inparticular all the mediaeval schools. Yetthere are many European art critics, andamongst the ablest, who not only thinkhighly of Western mediaeval art, but whowould even rank it above the art of *heGreek period or Renaissance.The later mediaeval art of Persia differsvery widely in spirit from the art of India

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and Europe though 'A without some pointsof contact with Western mediaeval painting.On the whole * I affinity is very close with'he art of the Far East, Wi-:i- tne art fiiidia and Europe an always be looked uponaraninterp^etatiw n of nature, Persian art ismore of a parap ase. Both points of viewi.o. . *'-

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indeed more contrasted than the manner inwhich facial features are treated respective-ly by the Persian and Indian. The Persianadopts a process of extreme simplification.A single stroke often suffices for the mouth.The eye may be indicated by two strokeswhich are not even joined, or even by merelya stroke and a dot. [Vide Fig. 1.]The force and variety of expressionwhich the Persian artist obtains even infigures drawn on the smallesi. scale by meansof what might be described as this short-r-anH niched . *r: vimply astounding, and isclearly an inheritance from the Far Easttransmitted to him through Mongolian art.The West can scarcely show anything com-parable unless it be, on a lower plane, inthe work of some continental caricaturistsor "the nineteenth century. The Mughalartist draws every feature with a minuteaccuracy which on the small scale ofsome of the figures may even be re-garded as waste of labour. In drawingthe mouth he invariably gives a full outlineof both lips. In his admirable representa-tion of the eye, not only does he carefullyoutline the eyelashes, but the eyelid is in-variably drawn with marvellous precisionand "correctness. [Vide Fig. 2.]

In his extreme elaboration of the hand-some features with which he endows hispersonages, the Mughal artist is usuallysatisfied with an agreeably placid counten-ance, and seldom even approaches thedramatic force of the Persian although in-comparably more correct in anatomy. Justlike the Greek of the classic period, theMughal artist frequently allows his sense ofphysical beauty to interfere with his powerbut one which has long passed its prime, which isbound up in the formulas of decadent conven-tionalism, and totally incapable of further evolution.It is inconceivable that an art entirely of line couldever again evolve into an art of mass. Wheresuch an apparent evolution has occurred, it is thatthe mass method had survived side by side withthe line system. There are innumerable instancesin which artistic fitness demands the rendering bytouch as preferable to that by line, but the modernmodelled picture after the manner of the Renais-sance school is no " evolution " from line. Thegreatest masters in the West have used either lineor touch with equal success, according to theexigencies of each particular style of work.

of expression. As the scale of the pictureincreases, the Persian is apt to induce fiimsi-ness; as it becomes reduced, the Indianmethod may lead to over-elaboration. Forus, the essential point to be considered i rthat we can scarcely think of two me^oHsmore radically opposed. The Mongol*^nartists have introduced into Persian paint-ing a Tartar type of reafinm*- utttrlydifferent from the usu J countenance ofthe Iranians, the persistence of whichconstitutes one of the most curiousfeatures of later mediae-v&i Persian art. Theartist sometimes trleS1 Jtcv1 indicate racialdifferences by alterim? the obliquity of theeyes or the colour of the complexion, yetwithout ever freeiiig himself from thestereotyped Mongolian countenance. Hereat least he is at a great disadvantage as com-pared with the Mughal painter whose admir-able rendering of individual and racial char-acteristics is one of his chief glories.

It is unnecessary to analyse in fulldetail the other differences that distinguishIndian from Persian painting. The mostcasual attention will show that they are asstartling as those that distinguish therendering of the countenance. The correctproportions of the human figure are invari-ably adhered to in Mughal drawing, whilethe Persian allows himself an extraordinarydegree of liberty in the proportions anddelineation of limbs. Mention has alreadybeen made of the mannered action of thePersian personages, as contrasted with thenatural, sometimes commonplace attitudesof the Indian. The Indian readily admits adiscreet use of modelling which the Persianavoids as much as possible. The renderingof landscape and architecture in Persian artis conventional and at the same time fan-tastic in the extreme, though highly effec-tive. In Mughal art, it is strictly realistic,just . as might be expected from asurvival of the primitive and earlymediaeval Indian tradition. From the timeof Jehangir and Shah Jehan, it becomesobviously blended with European models insuch a manner that it is often difficult toestimate the due share of each influence.The interpretation of architecture andvegetation in the Ajanta style comes alreadyso near to the -spirit of Western methods

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that an almost complete fusion in theseparticulars is whm would be expected assoon as the Indian artist became familiarwith Western works. The Indian artist

**of " the time of Akbar is in full posses-sion of a well-established technique,which he applies with an ease andmastery that could only have beenacquired by long familiarity as transmittedfrom generation to generation. The tech-nique is of a kind that he could not havelearnt from Persia, and as we know of noother source whence it could have beenobtained, we axedi*ven to the conclusionthat it is indigenous. |The independence of style maintainedby the Mughal school ^appears all the moreremarkable if we remember how highlythe work of the Persian masters was esteem-ed by the Mughal emperors and the noblesof their court,a circumstance furtheremphasizing the overwhelming strengthand vitality of the local tradition. Itis inevitable that in the border-landprovinces of the two realms, works shouldhave been produced of a mixed nature shar-ing the characters of Indian and Persian art.Nevertheless, such works are hybrid, nottransitional. They indicate contact, notderivation. Many of Akbar's and Jehangir'scourt painters were Hindus, while thedescendants of Persian or Turkoman artists,far from imposing upon India the style oftheir ancestors, adapted themselves entirelyto the Indian methods.The period of great activity of modernIndian painting commences with the reignof Akbar, in the latter part of the sixteenthcentury. On the supposition that it is aforeign importation, the paintings of thetime of Akbar ought to be thoroughlyPersian, and we could only expect thesucceeding generations to free themselvesgradually of the foreign influence ; instead ofwhich, not only are the paintings of the timeof Akbar purely Indian in character, butthe style which we are accustomed to call

" Mughal " can be shown, on the clearestevidence, to have been thoroughly establish-ed in India even before Akbar's time.Amongst the priceless gems of the CalcuttaGallery is an exquisite picture painted inIndia during the first half of the sixteenth

century, representing a dancing party at thecourt of Muhammad Tughlak. It is admir-ably reproduced in Havell's work on IndianPainting and Sculpture. Anything morethoroughly Indian and less related to Persianart, either in form or spirit, could scarcely beimagined. If we refer once more to thepanels of Mansingh's palace, which we in-stanced as evidence of the vitality of Indiantradition, we may notice that they are notmore than three or four decades anterior tothe charming miniature here alluded to.Practically all the charact^rj^iic^features ofthe Mughal school, which so conspicuouslydistinguish it from Persian painting, can bematched in the art of the Ajantaperiod, of which they clearly representa survival.The " trimmings," as they might beCaHed,of the Mughal books, in the way of titlepages, decorative borders, end-pieces, arepurely Persian in style. Indeed, consideringthe fully organised system of division oflabour that prevailed in Mughal times, it isnot unlikely that some of this work is direct-ly referable to Persian hands.The gorgeously illuminated books of theMohammedan libraries were an innovationin India. In respect to book illustrationother than pictorial, the Indian had scarcelyany precedent to go by, and he adopted theadmirable Persian models. Moreover, al-though the Indian is an excellent decorator,this particular branch of the art does notseem to have been particularly congenial tohim. It is significant of its imported originthat it deteriorates conspicuously as earlyas the time of Shah Jehan, though, in thepurely pictorial style, many provinces ofIndia continued to produce excellent workfor two centuries more. In Persia, on thecontrary, notwithstanding the decline ofpictorial art that sets in from the periodof Shah-Abbas onwards, the purely orna-mental illuminations have continued tomaintain a very high standard, even downto the present day. It is true that even nowsome good work of the kind is still done inIndia, but the Indian examples always lackthat supreme refinement which invariablymarks Persian illuminated arabesques evenwhen they are carried to the extreme limitsof gorgeousness and elaboration. This

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branch of the art has never becomethoroughly acclimatised in India.

It is clear that, even if we ignore thoseworks- of Indian painting that still survivefrom mediaeval times, the internal evidenceof the Mughal school is sufficient to estab-lish its indigenous Indian origin.The problem can be approached fromyet another path. Even if the'Ajanta paint-ings had disappeared without leaving anytrace, our knowledge of Indian pictorial artwould scarcely "have suffered except as re-gards information on such subsidiary pointsas the technique of modelling and scale ofcolours. From the Asokan period on-wards, the use of ivory, wood, and mejtal forsculpture purposes was supplemented bythat of stone. However inferior a materialthis may be from an artistic point of view, ithas over wood and ivory the advantage ofdurability, while its cheapness generallyprotects it from the risk of destructionwhich always threatens metal images onaccount of intrinsic value ; unless, indeed,the material may consist of more or lesspure limestone, when it may share the fateof the Amravati sculptures and follow themto the lime-kiln. The ruins of sacred edi-fices, ranging in age from second or thirdcentury B.C. to the close of the middle ages,have yielded a vast amount of sculpture inwhich we find every gradation from repre-sentations in the round to the lowest relief.A bas-relief is but a carved picture, .and conveys almost as much informationConcerning the conditions of pictorial artas an actual painting. Many of theearlier Ajanta paintings, if representedin outline, might readily be mistakenfor carvings from Sanchi . or Bharhut.Others of somewhat later date might,with equal ease, be mistaken for reliefs fromAmravati. Allowing for the somewhatgreater freedom inseparable from paintingas compared with sculpture, the same closecorrespondence is evident through everyvariation in style in each succeeding century.Where the Ajanta record forsakes us,in the seventh century, there is no reason tobelieve that the parallelism which we cantrace continuously through nearly a thousandyears abruptly ceased to exist, simply be-cause we do not happen to possess any

remains of wall-paintings of the succeedingcenturies. On the contrary, the littleinformation afforded by illuminated manu-scripts clearly shows the continued paral-lelism of the two main branches of plasticart. While proclaiming their evident rela-tionship to the art of Ajanta, the charminglittle miniatures reproduced in these pagesare no less reminiscent of the thousand andone delightful carvings that nestle in everyrecess, or enliven every pilaster from Girnarto Bhuvaneshwar, from Khajuraho to Tanjor,even, to far-off Angkor and Boro-Buddur.The perfect continuity of the double traditionof painting and sculpture could not be moreclearly expressed.Down to the close of the middle agesand to the era of Mughal conquest, Indiacontinued to produce sculpture according tothe indigenous tradition. Babar and Huma-yun entered a country in full possession ofa flourishing art tradition of great antiquity.There is no reason to suppose that when allother branches of culture were alive, paint-ing alone should have disappeared. Thisaspect of the problem therefore again leadsus to the conclusion that the Mughal schoolof painting is nothing else but the long-established indigenous art of India.The connection between Indian paintingand sculpture and also decoration is indeedso close that it scarcely seems correct totreat them separately. Once we realise thistruth we need no longer speak of any"hiatus" in the history of Indian art, andwe have sufficient elements for tracing itsdevelopment continuously. We are still sad-ly in need of a comprehensive work thatwould give us, without any " esprit de parti,"a connected account of the evolution ofIndian art. All the works so far publishedare of a somewhat controversial nature, andprincipally discuss the aesthetic merits ofIndian art. These controversies inevitablybring to light many instructive data, yetevery one of us is at liberty to decide hisown likes and dislikes, and what we need isa thoroughly precise and co-ordinated studythat will allow us to make use of the enor-mous amount of material now available. Theauthor who will have the patience of pre-paring a work of this kind, with the simpleobject of conveying precise information, will

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109earn the gratitude of every lover of art in

every part of the world.TJbere is one conspicuous detail which

is well worthy of notice as distinguishing theAja'nta school and the early mediaeval Indianminiatures from the art of the Mughalperiod: it is the absence of gold used soprofusely in Mughal painting. That thepractice in India may be of Persian originis not improbable, but the subject needs moreelucidation than seems at present available,for we have to account also for the profuseapplication of gold ,in late mediaeval andmodern Tibetan painting, considering howsparingly it is used for that purpose in manybranches of Chinese and Japanese painting.It is worth noticing that there are Nepalesebanners of the sixteenth century and care-fully executed miniatures in Nepalese manu-scripts of as late a date as the seventeenthcentury, entirely without gold. Thesubject is worthy of attention and maybe of utility in attempting to elucidate therelative share of Western and Eastern in-fluences in the development of the latermediaeval art of Persia and India. Thatthe practice of gilding as applied tominiature painting, and indeed to paint-ing in general, is primarily of Westernorigin cannot admit of any doubt. More-over, we can locate its commencementwith even further precision by referring itto the Mediterranean regions; for we canreadily trace the gradual spread of this prac-tice into the furthest western provinces ofEurope. For instance, up to a comparatively

period, the exquisitely beautiful illumina-ted manuscripts of Ireland remain withoutany trace of this material. As late as theeighth century, it is used very sparingly inEngland even in the most richly decoratedmanuscripts, while, as early as the sixthcentury, throughout the eastern provincesof the Empire, in Italy, and, to some extent,throughout the Merovingian realm, the prac-tice is already fully established, inspired nodoubt by the gorgeous gilt mosaics whichfrom this period onwards became such aconspicuous feature of architectural orna-mentation so long as lasted the Byzantineinfluence. The climax of gilding for bookdecoration was reached in the superb illus-trations of the Carolingian manuscript of the

ninth and tenth centuries, where its usesometimes almost exceeds the bounds ofgood taste. In later mediaeval times, gild-ing, though more restrained than in theCarolingian period, became universalthroughout every district of the West, bothLatin or Greek, in every form of pictorial art,whether book illustration or mural decora-tion, and was "Used with strikingly beautifuleffect. Although, as already suggested, thegilding of manuscripts may have been in-spired by the dazzling Byzalitirle" mosaics,yet in the decoration of typical easternByzantine manuscripts gold was usedalways in moderation. So far as can bejudged from surviving fragments, the samething seems to be true of the Abbassidmanuscripts which belong essentially to theByzantine school.The fall of Constantinople in 1204, andthat of Bagdad in 1258, dealt a death-blowto Byzantine culture, both in its Christianand Mohammedan phases. Owing to thedownfall of these two last strongholds ofthe Byzantine world, Latin culture, that atthe zenith of its splendour, and Mongolianculture came into direct contact and con-tended for supremacy over the ruins ofByzantine civilisation. Though the Mon-golian influence may preponderate, that ofthe Latins cannot be negligible, especiallywhen we remember the protracted periodduring which the Mongolian conquerorsvacillated between Christianity and Islam,and consequently the closeness of their inter-course with the most brilliant of theWestern courts for more than half a century.A careful study of the effects of Western arton the final phases of Eastern mediaevalculture might yield interesting and import-ant results. However great may be thedebt of mediaeval Persian painting to Mon-golian art, the mannered attitude of thepersonages which so curiously recall thethirteenth and fourteenth century minia-tures of Europe, combined with the lavishuse of gold, establishes a degree of resem-blance with Western art which it is difficultto regard as a mere coincidence.The interaction of these various in-fluences which lends such a fascinatingcharm to a study of the history of art hasseldom, if ever, reached such a degree as to

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supplant one school of regional art by an-other. Western, Persian, Indian, andChinese art may have at various times moreor less acted or reacted upon one another;but in no true sense can any one of thembe said to be derived from any other. Itis obvious that they all have a commonorigin, but to trace them to their commonfountain-head we might have to go backat least ten thousand years. With the his-torical and archaeological information nowavailable, it is surprising that art criticsshould still be found who try to ascribe aGreek origin to Indian art. There areenthusiasts who look upon the art of Chinaas derived from that of India. With all duerespect to the learned authors who havepropounded this view, their opinion seemsas unreasonable as the Greek theory. In-deed, from what we know, by means of afew actual examples, concerning the flourish-ing condition of Chinese art twenty cen-turies before the Christian era, the oppositecourse might be accepted as probable, andChina might be regarded as the Fountain-head of Indian art, though we lack definiteproof of such a theory.The derivation of a regional art doesnot necessarily bear any relation to its true

originality or aesthetic merit. Out of ahackneyed motif may be evolved a thorough-ly original treatment. So long as the artistuses sufficiently good material, it does notmuch matter whence he procured it orwhether he manufactured it himself. It ishis treatment of it that constitutes the valueand originality of his work.

Nothing can be more instructive andelevating than the history of art, but thenarrow-minded controversies on questionsof national precedence which so frequentlydisfigure modern criticism are as fruitlessas they are unjust and cruel. If we mix upArt with Politics, the artist will wallow inthe mud together with the politician andart criticism will sink into the mire ofjournalism. Whatever the nationality ofthe artist, let us bow to him in deep rever-ence and gratitude!. From wherever hehails, whether from Europe, Persia, India,China, or Japan, the artist is the supremeMagician who casts a woof of enchantedcolours across the drab warp of our drearylives. He is the Magician to whom Godhas revealed the secret of the philosopher'sstone: everything he touches he can trans-mute into gold.

IV.-A SIGNED MOLARAM.By PUNDIT CHANDRA DHAPv GULERI.

ANONYMITY is an outstanding char-acter of Indian art. With fewexceptions, the authors of a large

body of Indian sculptures and paintings arenot known by name. Their distinctionlies in the fact of their being racialrather than individual productions. Thisis true as much in the field of artas in that of literature. The entirerange of early Sanskrit literature hasnothing much to offer in the way of auto-biography and very little history, thoughater commentators and writers occasionallygive detailed accounts of themselves andtheir patrons. The names of the authorsof the epics or the Puranas are mythicalshadows and in most cases fictitious; and inlater times authors frequently suppressed

their own names and let their work pass asthat of some mythical or famous poets. Insome hymns of the Rigveda, the last versegives the name of the author, sometimesconveying a double entendre; the practicesuddenly revived ip the vernacular literatureof the middle ages when his name invariablyoccurs in single verses, songs or hymns, e.g.,"Thus saith Kabir," " Bhushana says."Suradasa, Tulsidasa and other poets alwaysgive their names in full or in part in the lastline of a hymn or sonnet. According tothe old rules of social discipline, the purposeseems to have been to suppress and discountindividual life wiih the view to merge thesame in a larger racial consciousness. Thusthe expression in art as in literaturecame to be largely racial rather than

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individual. The expression of individualitywas considered as injurious to the unity ofthe inner spiritual life which the individualsought to attain as the common heritage of'the race. The .artists were exponents of aform of culture which was of a profoundand general character, shared by all butpeculiar to none. The individuality of theartist is thus, more or less, a mystery inIndian art, and his productions are the onlyevidence left to us of the quality of hismind, and the only means, if at all, ofpicturing to ourselves a glimpse of his per-sonality. In Europe the study and criticismof the works of an artist is very oftenencumbered by many details of biographyand anecdotes, and much other extraneousmatter, more or less alien to the understand-ing of a masterpiece. However much suchextraneous details of the life of the artistmay help to realise the atmosphere in whichthe artist worked and lived, they have the in-evitable effect of diverting the concentra-tion of attention from his worksthe pro-duct of the mind of the artistto his per-sonality.* For, indeed, the mind of theartist, and, in fact, all that is worthknowing about him, is best knownthrough his works. H is a verypopular and somewhat pardonable fail-ing to enquire more about an artist than hisworks alone can give us, v and out of thispopular curiosity has grown up a prodigiousliterature in European countries, dealingwith the " life " and " works " of famouspainters and sculptors. Fortunately thematerials available in those countries arerich enough to justify the attempts made toelucidate the bibliography of the works ofartists and to deduce from them a criticalestimate of the evolution of style of indi-vidual artists. In India, and in the Asiaticcountries generally, such details are almostimpossible to obtain, and, indeed, in India asigned masterpiece, until we come to theMughal period, is almost an unknown pheno-menon. Even in Mughal and post-Mughalpainting, and in the later Kangra schools, asigned picture is more or less a rarity. Asomewhat unusual interest thereforeattaches to the little water-colour drawingfrom the brush of Mola Ram, which we re-produce here in the colour plate opposite,

from the original in the collection of theEditor.

In A.D. 1760, when the fifth act of thegreat drama of Mughal history was comingto a tragic end, there was born, in the dis-trict of Garhwal, the last representative ofthe ancient court painters of India on whomdevolved the somewhat difficult task of keep-ing alive for a few years the great flamesof the old pictorial tradition in India, beforeit was finally extinguished shortly after theoverthrow of the political power under theshadow of which lived and flourished manyof the later cultural activities of India.During the anarchy that preceded the dis-solution and dismemberment of the MughalEmpire, many of the surviving exponents ofthe old schools of painting took refuge inthe recesses of the Himalayas under the pro-tection of petty Hindu chiefs. Just as withthe inroads of the Muhammadans in Bengalthe representatives of old art of Magadhaand Gaud found refuge in the valleyof the Nepal, the artists of the Mughal court,under somewhat similar circumstances, ranfor shelter under the Hindu princes of thePunjab Himalaya. Of many a family ofartists who no doubt gradually dropped off,one by one, from the Court of Delhi, thecase of the ancestors of Mola Ram is un-doubtedly a typical example.* When theintrigues of Aurangzeb drove his nephew,Prince Salim, for safety of his life, fromDelhi, the latter obtained temporary pro-tection with Raja Fateh Singh, the thenruling Chief of Garhwal. With the fugitiveprince came to Srinagar (Garhwal)two artists named Shamdas and Kehar-das. They remained with the Rajah ofGarhwal who, shortly after, treacherouslysurrendered the prince to Aurangzeb. TheRajah appears to have taken great interestin the two artists, who were made Dewanswith a jagir (freehold) of fifty villages andan allowance of Rs. 5 per day. They musthave flourished under their new patron, and

* That various Chiefs and Rajahs unknownin political history have been immortalised by theirCourt artists is evident from numerous extantportraits of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-turies, e.g., portrait of Raja Bir Singh, of Nurpur,and various Sikh portraits.

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appear to have handed down the craft oftheir family tradition to Mola Ram, whowas the fourth descendant of the familyand an artist of a very wide culture. Fromhis extant works we know that he was agifted painter. He also appears to be a poetin Hindi and Persian. He is said to haveleft some manuscripts in the way of historyof some of the events of the time of Aurang-zeb, the memory of which could, easily havebeen preserved in the family, the ancestorsof which actually took part in some of theincidents. The achievement of the artist inthe role of a historian has not been investi-gated, but we have had evidence of hispoetic exercises. Dr. Coomaraswamy, in his"Rajput Painting" (Oxford Press, Vol. I,p. 23), has already cited one doha or versewhich Mola Ram has affixed to one of hispictures. It runs as follows: "What arethousands and lakhs or millions of gold andvillages? Mola Ram finds his rewards ingood-will and well-being. Samvat 1832(AD. 1775), the fifth day of the bright fort-night of phalgun: well be it! " That theartist was in the habit of inscribing hispictures with poetic compositions of his ownis borne out by another example of his workhere reproduced. The practice of inscrib-ing pictures with descriptive notes or verses,so frequent in ancient Chinese painting,seems to have been very fashionable withold Indian artists. Pictures illustratingscenes from the epics and the Puranas, asalso representations of Raginis or musicalmodes, are invariably accompanied by in-scriptions in the handwriting of the artist,quoting verses, generally, on the top of thepicture, describing or elucidating the subjectmatter. These verses are generally borrow-ed from the current popular texts either inHindi or in Sanskrit. In many of the worksof Mola Ram his descriptive verses indoha or other metres appear to be his owncompositions, the last line giving the nameof the composer, according to the old tradi-tion preserved in Hindi poetry. Both theverses are dated, so that they offer valuableevidence, recorded by his own hands, of thetime in which he flourished. There could beno doubt that the verse, at least on thepicture here reproduced, was inscribed bythe artist himself. The verse has been

,

written in careful hand, in thick whitecolour, the four quarters being punctuatedby red lines. Portions of the writing areunfortunately damaged, but it is not diffi-cult to make out the sense. The first wordsin red lettering were probably " Subha-mastu," the usual benedictive formula. Thelanguage of the verse is Hindi [poetic Braja-bhasa, lit., the dialect of Braja, MathuraDistrict], and the composition is in the well-known " Savaiya " metre. Missing the twoillegible words, the verse lends itself to thefollowing transliteration: " Vagavilokanakaun nawala nikasi mukha-chanda dikhavatahi[ Lakhi sanga cha (kora) sabdakathora sunawata hij| Ujhaki ujhaki phirakisi phiri chahu ashahi |Ka (?) viMola Rama chali hati kai dupata pata chotabachawata hi|| Samvat 1852" (A.D. 1795).It is certainly difficult to render the spirit ofthe mellifluous words of the original verse,but the following somewhat bald translationwill at least convey the meaning of the poet:" The young lady went out to see the garden.As soon as she showed her beautiful moon-face she was hung upon by the impertinent| chakora' (partridge), which insisted oninflicting on her its harsh unwelcome words.She gently flitted about like a whirling top,avoiding the impertinent attention ofthe bird. The poet Mola Ram says,she stepped back, in time, dodging thebird by the strokes of her whirlingsash cloth." The dress and ornamentsof the young lady are similar to thosevery common in the district of Garhwal andthe submontane Kangra District. The verseand picture may well have been the artist'spoetic tribute to his own lady-love and waspossibly founded on an actual incident,though the chakora thirsting after the moon-face of a beautiful lady is a well-known oldIndian poetic conceit, repeatedly exploitedand hackneyed by almost all Sanskrit poets.The chakora, in poetic tradition, is very fondof the moon. It is said to be rather fasti-dious and inconsistent in its tastes, eitherdrinking the moon's rays or swallowingburning charcoal.* In the language of the

* Many quotations from Sanskrit poets can begiven in which chakora's fondness for the moon'srays is exploited. As the face of the beloved is

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verse the poet Mola Ram may very aptly betaken to pose in the guise of the bird thirst-ing for the beautiful face, as in the picturethe bird very narrowly misses beingcompared to the moon, poets transfer the allegianceof the chakora to the face itself. The followingverse from Rajashekhar (Viddhasalabhanjika i, 31)describes the face of the beloved as another moon,rising on the palace walls, without the deer-mark,not in the sky, and scattering pure light which isfollowed by chakoras from the garden, who arebent upon taking mouthful of this nectar:Upa prakaragrain prahina nayane tarkayamanag Anakashe koyain galitaharinah sitakiranah

jSudhabaddha-grasair-upavana chakorair-anusr-tam| Kiran-jyotsnam-achchham navalavalapaka-pranayinimj!

struck by the end of her yellow sash, assuggested by the last line of the verse.Although the artist has succeeded in catch-ing his young lady in a very beautiful pose,the picture cannot be taken as representinghim in his best manner. In spite of a certaindecisiveness and firmness of drawing whichclearly foreshadows the later developmentof his style, the picture is a little crude inmany respects, particularly in the treatmentof the trees, and evidently belongs to themiddle period of his life, when his style wasyet to mature. This is amply borne out bythe date of the picture, viz., Samvat 1852(A.D. 1795). He was born in 1760, and diedin 1833 A.D. So that he was 35 years oldwhen he drew this little water colour picture.

V.-A VAISHNAVAITE MADONNA.By SUSHIL BANERJEE.

EVER since the beginning of the fourthcentury, and throughout the wholecourse of Byzantine, Gothic and

Italian art, down to the twentieth century(as in such modern works as those of thePolish artist Bernard Meninsky), themother and child has been one of the mostpopular and fascinating motifs in variousphases of European art. While the themelent itself to various doctrinal developmentsin the hand of the theologian, it afforded toartists of various temperaments and moodswidely divergent methods and manners ofpresentation. From the hieratic Madonnaof the early bas-reliefs, grim and rigid, itwent through a variegated career, nowgracious and reverential, now winsome andtender, now picturesque and attractive andsubsequently developing into a real goddessof maternity and ultimately descendingthrough pathos and homeliness into senti-mentality and affectation. As one of themost hackneyed themes of Christian mytho-logy it has enjoyed a continuous reign inEuropean art for nearly fifteen centuries.Indeed it is difficult to name any othersubject which enjoyed so prolonged a voguein Gothic sculpture and Italian painting.And one is almost inclined to mistake amother and child motif as a special feature

of European art. But it would be erroneousto regard the motif as a monopoly ofChristian art. The cult of *the motherhoodof God itself goes far back into pre-Christianera, and is anterior to the development ofGreek civilization. The earliest evidence ofthe existence of the idea has beendiscovered in Crete, from which it mayhave found its way into the non-Christian religious system of the East,as also into the Christian religion of theWest. In India the development of motherand child motif is earlier than its parallelin the West. Hariti, the Buddhist Madonna,has been proved by M. Foucher to be earlierthan any similar Christian theme. Begin-ning from Gandhara, the " mother andchild " repeatedly occurs throughout thewhole career of Buddhist art in all its rami-fications both within and outside thegeographic limits of India. In early Brahm-anical sculpture the motif occurs once ortwice, and several times, in the later phasesof the art, as in Orissa. But it is in thelater Vaishnavaite development under the in-fluence of the Bhagavata Purana that thetheme acquires very interesting features inconnection with the stories of Krishna.

Of all the picturesque legends that folk-lore have woven round the Cycle of Krishna

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one are perhaps so " sweet " and " poetical "as the stories about the career of the DivineChild in the house of Nanda and Yasoda,wife and queen of Nanda and the foster-

of Krishna. The infatuation offor the Babe of Indian Bethlehem

transcended and idealised all the lovea mother ever felt for her own child.

Indeed, the Love of Yasoda for* the Holy" Gopala "" The Little Shepherd "become typical of the idealised emotionf the mother. It is an image of the baby

that the Indian mother adores asBambino, calling it Gopala, her cow-

His name fills gospels and poems, theof all Hindu races are full ofscriptions of Him as a cowherd wandering

sporting among His fellows; andliterature is full of stories about

curiously like European tales of theAccording to Vaishnava

the God-head is attainable by allis accessible in terms of all kinds of

passionsone of them being the filialthe Vatsalya Rasa. It is said thathad prayed, in a former life, to attain

through the love of a mother.the queen of Nanda, Yasoda, through the

passion for the child, attained toclosest fellowship, if not union, with theby the path of emotionalism, asfrom the path of knowledge.inspite of all the miracles that theChild performed, Yasoda hardly everto a realisation of the superhumanof her babe. Her glimpses ofwere constantly overpowered andby her human maternal affection,

she felt happiest in believing that itnot a God, but her own little child, thatpressed to her bosom. It is the apotheo-of this human emotionthe intensityMother-Lovethat has been pictured informs in Indian literature and art.love of Yasoda for infant Krishna hastold with consummate lyrical and imagi-

skill in all classes of Vaishnava poetryparticularly in " Hindi Bhajan " songs.poets and artists popularised in folk artemotional creed of devotion which thesought to establish through

religious speculations. While thetheologists have preached a

mystic spiritualization of the humanpassion, the artist and the poet have pre-ferred to keep to the common human leveland have lavished all their skill in picturingin terms of ordinary human feeling thesweet infatuation of the Indian Madonna/or her little "black baby "the infantKrishna.* In mediaeval and later Indianart the treatment of these themes is ex-tremely poetical rather than theological.They are essentially lyrical in feeling ratherthan, in any sense, epic. They are notliterary interpretations of sacred legends.They are rather the products of an identi-fication and realisation of the sacred legendsin the actual life-environment of the artists.The leading character of the presentationof Yasoda in the later pictures of the Kangraschool is one of sheer humanity, as in theexample here reproduced in colour. As in somany of the works of Correggio, the Madon-na is the homely mother, and the child is amere infant. It has nothing superhumanor sacred about it except in the traditionalblue colour of its complexion. Yet there isa subtle and exquisite tenderness; coupledwith a restraint, which saves the presenta-tion of the subject from degenerating intoa mere genre picture of a mother sucklingher babe. The picture is no doubt foundedon actual experience of the artist of lifearound him and bears many traces of hisown local environment from which he drewhis models. The piece of red cloth round thehead of Yasoda, known as " Jamar-patti," isvery characteristically reminiscent of thecustom (till lately current in North-WesternIndia and Rajputana) of indicating mother-hood ; the new mother after the birth of thechild used to be signalled by this character-istic symbol. The introduction of the oldnurse sitting in front, offering a pot of sandalpaste, is a very well-known convention inRajput painting, and in a nativity subject,such as the one we are now considering;will easily recall the midwife depicted inmediaeval Christian art or the well-knownAnastasia of Provencal mystery plays. Itwill be unfair to attempt to draw any closeanalogy between the mother and child ofthe Vaishnavaite legends and the Christian

Krishna literally means "The Black One."

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treatment of the same theme, as thesubject in the two systems of mythologydeveloped very distinct and divergent cultfeatures. In Christian mythological art,the mother and the child have never partedcompany and have formed a twin deityfor the worship of the faithful. In Vaish-navaite art, the Gopal Krishna, the favour-ite child of Yasoda, developed an indepen-dent status and has been worshipped in thesingle image of the boy Krishna. There areinnumerable images in brass, bronze andstone surviving in various places, fromMathura in the North to all parts ofSouthern India, where Vaishnavaite cultshave enjoyed any kind of popularity. But thetreatment accorded to the subject in Rajputart has many parallels in European art, parti-cularly in its later history. The particularsubject as treated in the Kangra school ofthe eighteenth and the nineteenth century

hardly reaches the gravity, dignity or reli-giosity of the Madonnas of Italian art. Andour present example hardly rests on anylevel much higher than that attained by suchpictures as Alfred Stevens' " Tous les Bon-heurs " in the Brussels Museum. The motifitself appears to have been very seldom treat-ed by artists of the Kangra school. Al-though a few subjects representing Krishnaand Yasoda have recently come to light, theyseem to be far less frequent in Rajput paint-ing, and the known examples appear to befrom the pen of the same artist or his associ-ates or descendants, as the colour schemes ofthe known specimens seem to indicate. Wehope to reproduce in a subsequent numbera somewhat similar subject which appearsto be from the same brush as that of ourpresent illustration, which we owe to thegenerous courtesy of Mr. P. C. Manuk, ofBankipur, the owner of the original picture.

VI.-A BUDDHIST IMAGE FROM BURMA.IN the* spread and propagation of theBuddhist faith in countries beyond the

geographical limits of India, the partthat the teachings and "sayings" ofihe Buddha played was no less thanthat played by images of the Enlighten-ed One. Indeed, in countries in a moreor less primitive and barbarous stage,the pictures and images of the Buddhaappear to have made greater appeal tonew converts than abstruse philosophicaldoctrines. And specially in countries likeBurma, Tibet, Siam and Java, the Buddhistmissionaries found in the numerous imagesof the Buddhist pantheon more useful andpotent instruments than the Buddhist scrip-tures in propagating and popularising theBuddhist creed. With the gradual develop-ment of the worship of the Buddha as apersonal god and the growth of a spirit ofdevotion which led to the creation of a cultof images of the Buddha and a host ofBodhisattvas regarded as personal gods,responsive to the prayers of worshippers,there grew up an enormous demand of avariety of images for worship of which thecentral figure was the Buddha himself.The multiplication of images of the Buddha

very soon became the principal phase in allforms of Buddhist religion in and outsideIndia. . And the well-known pious and some-what passionate utterance of EmpressKomio of Japan very typically illustrates theposition given to Buddhist images in laterBuddhism: "The sound of the tools thatare raising the image of Buddha, let it rever-berate the Heaven!" Indeed the demand ofthe worshipper for images must have keptbusy generations of image-makers in Indiaand Further India, as well as in China, Japan,and Java, for many centuries. And themissionaries who carried the words of theBuddha beyond the Indian Ocean came withfully developed doctrines as with a perfectedand complete system of iconography. Theimage of the Buddha had long ago developedand perfected itself. And the type attainedin the Gupta period (A.D. 320-455) formedthe main foundation of the colonial andmissionary phases of Buddhist Art in Fur-ther India and the Far East. The con-tinuous repetition of the type principally ofthe Gupta School, notwithstanding its full-ness, suavity, and grace, had almost degener-ated into a stereotyped formula, out of whichit seemed impossible to deduce or derive the

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passion and vitality of primitive examples.But the contribution made to Buddhist Artby its colonial exponents was of a more realand individual character than the mere re-production and repetition of Indian typesand patterns. As Buddhism spread andgrew in China, Japan, Burma, and Siam, itdeveloped new phases of art and iconography,inspired no doubt by Indian prototypes.The actual number of images carried bypilgrims and missionaries from India toChina and other Eastern countries must havebeen numerous. They inspired the growthof new branches of Buddhist Art, outside theIndian Continent. And just as the scrip-tures of Buddhism were rendered in thevernacular languages of the countries whichaccepted the faith, Buddhist Art likewisefound new expression in terms of a some-what new vocabulary and plastic idiomwhich reflected in its main outline thecharacter of Indian Buddhist Art, but whichhad many new features as well which con-stituted, in many ways, distinctive contri-butions and accessions to Buddhist Art.This was evident not only in manyinteresting iconographic developments,but also in the very character andmode of representation. There is an-other important feature of colonial BuddhistArt which deserves careful notice. EarlyBuddhist Art in China, Japan, Siam orJava, particularly in its images of theBuddha, is resplendent with all the qualitiesof primitive art, being the product anddirect expression of a newly felt emotion,notwithstanding the many centuries thathave preceded the colonial expansion withvarious schools of Buddhist sculpture in acontinuous chain of historical developmenta chain which seems to be broken with theefflorescence of colonial Buddhism. Thuswhen the mode and style of representingthe Buddha and the connected images asdeveloped and perfected during the Guptaepoch reaches Burma, Siam and other FarEastern countries, Buddhist sculpturesuddenly reverts to its past history anddevelops many new and primitive qualitiesas if the image of the Buddha was picturedfor the first time in these distant Buddhistcolonies. In this way Buddhist Art formany, centuries preserved its primitive

inspiration as some new race or other, be itthe Tibetan, the Chinese, the Siamese, theBurmese or the Japanese, was " alwayscatching the inspiration and feeling and ex-pressing it with primitive sensibility andpassion." The practice of Buddhist sculp-ture in Burma, as in all other Easterncountries, though it never fails to honourthe main conventions of Indian Buddhistimages, develops qualities distinctly rich inindividual expression as in their power ofinspiration. They do accept the generaliconographic canons, but they use them asuseful instruments to express the deeplyfelt emotion of their new faith. They havenever copied or reproduced the models fromGupta or Amaravati schools as mechanicalformulas. This is particularly evident inthe physiognomy of the types depicted inthe Buddha images of Burma, Siam or China.The features of the face are translated fromthe ethnic types of each country, and thedistinct and nicely differentiated variationsof the features of different branches of theMongolian family help one to identify anyBuddhist image as originating from China.Burma or Siam. It is true that in Siam andin Java the Aryo-Indian feature crops upin many images of the Buddha, but theyappear to be exceptions to the general rulethat colonial art loved to find expression inracial local types. Before the progress ofarchaeology and the discovery of earlyBuddhist images, Buddhist Art wasgenerally represented by late examplesprincipally of the Burmese and Siameseschool, the principal reason being theexistence of a long-continued livingtradition of image-making in thosecountries, where image-worship has flour-ished up to the present day, long after theextinction of Buddhism in the land of itsbirth. The products of recent times wereno doubt of a very lifeless and mechanicalcharacter, chiefly represented by crudemarble Buddhas seated in " bhumisparsamudra," and generally decorated with loudcolours, of red and gold in violent and vulgarcontrasts. But before the degeneratedflourish of this gold and tinsel of the modernart, Burma grew and nursed a vitally richand noble school of sculpture principallyrepresented in wood. Indeed, the latter

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material offered a peculiarly suitablemedium for the expression of the quaintartistic genius of the Burmese people. TheBurmese school had strong affinities withthe Siamese and Cambodian schools, bywhich later Burmese Art was greatly in-fluenced and with which the Burmeseschool is liable to be confused. The leadingtypes of Buddhist sculpture undoubtedlycame from Cambodia or Siam, for the oldRamanya-desa (Pegu and Tenasserim) wasunder Cambodian rule from the 6th centuryto the 10th century A.D. and under Siameserule in the 14th century. Though there arevarious images of the Buddha obviouslyfashioned on the Gupta types (e.g., the well-known image of the Buddha sheltered by thehooded snake Muchalinda in the Naga Yonpagoda in Pagan), the leading types ofBuddha images of Burma follow the innova-tions introduced by the Cambodian and,later, by the Siamese schools.By the courtesy of Mr. Charles Nord-linger (Calcutta) we are enabled to repro-duce on the page opposite a typicalBurmese image of the Buddha, which willhelp us to study the characteristics of theimage in the form it became popular inBurma. The subject of our illustration is awooden image treated with the dull goldlacquerwhich must have been renewedfrom time to time. It appears to havebeen carved from one single piece,except the right hand which is aseparate and a new piece added by way of" restoration." Its height is about thirty-two inches, including the lotus pedestal onwhich rest the feet of the image in a verysensitive and almost nervous pose. Themodelling seems to be characteristicallyfine and delicate and the expression of theface with its dreamy smile is particularlyhappy and far above the average mechanicaleffect of this class of figures. The princioalelement which contributes to the superiorplastic quality of the figure is undoubtedlyfurnished by the extremely artistic disposi-tion of the drapery, the subtle rhythm ofwhich gives a movement to the figure in con-trast to the static character of the pose,which is emphasized by the dynamics of theflowing lines of the richly brocaded bord-ers of the garment. In the treatment of the

drapery the Buddhist artists of the FarEast found the principal outlet of their ownindividual expression, and it is in the mannerof the disposition of the drapery that anelement is introduced for differentiating itfrom the Indian prototypes. If we comparethis with any image of the Gupta period,the divergence is quite obvious. The pecu-liar manner of arranging the end of theupper cloth in graceful and super-imposed folds resting on the left shoulderis derived from images of the Cam-bodian school, which appears to have beenthe originator of this practice. The Burmesetype of the Buddha can, however, beeasily distinguished from the Cambodianand Siamese types by the characteristictreatment of the " urna," the protrudingsymbol on the head. In Burma it is almosta circular knob very closely reproducing theIndian fashion, whereas in Siamese andCambodian figures it is invariably a pointedpeaklike flame, particularly in the examplesof Buddha images of the Ayuthia period.To return to our illustration, the sincerityand the obvious spontaneity of expression inthe figure appear to be products of theartist's individual inspiration rather than themechanical skill of the craftsman, and oneis driven to conclude that it must have beenone of the earliest types of the class of theBuddha,the individual creation of someearly Burmese artist. It cannot, however, betaken to represent the earlier schools, and,in view of its affinity to well-known ex-amples, it has to be ascribed to a late period.Mr. Charles Duroiselle, to whom we are in-debted for many valuable suggestions withregard to the study of the figure, thinks it" to be quite modern." The many distinc-tive qualities of the figure seem, however, totake it much beyond the tendencies ofmodern productions. The right hand of thefigure, which is a new piece added to replacethe original hand evidently injured by someaccident, seems to indicate that the " restor-er," at any rate, estimated the figure asrepresenting a worthy example deservingrepair or restoration. That the artist whoactually carved it was not the author of itsconception is, however, evident from asuperficial comparison of our figure withthe type represented by the colossal , image

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of the Buddha in the Ananda temple atPagan built in 1090 A.D. by King Kyanta-sittha, as also the gold image of the Shwe-zigon Pagoda rebuilt by the same king.The poses of the hands, as also the disposi-tion of the draperies, in our illustration areaccurately, if not slavishly, transcribed fromthese earlier examples. Indeed, it is some-what of a marvel how the artist, thoughstrictly conforming to the canon and for-mula of the earlier precedents in all details,has succeeded in contributing many in-dividual qualities which have saved thefigure from the effect of a mechanicalrepetition of a fixed and schematic pattern.A few words may be added as to the exactidentity of the figure and its place in theBuddhist pantheon. According to Mr.uroiselle, it is the representation of Dipan-

Buddha, the twenty-fourth predecessorGautama. Dipankara (literally, theis the first of the twenty-fiveathagatas who attained Buddhahood,Buddha being the last. " He

believed to have lived 3000 years onbefore finding any one worthy

of receiving his divine message. He thendecided to convert the world, and caused theappearance of a great city to proceed fromhis lamp (" dipa ") and fix itself in space.While the people of Jambudvipa (India)were gazing upon this miracle, fierce flameswere emitted from the four walls. Fearfilled their hearts and they looked for aBuddha to save them. Then Dipankaracame forth from the burning city and beganto teach the Law" (Getty). In Java andCeylon, as in Burma and Siam, the Dipan-kara Buddha is generally represented asstanding with the right hand in the gestureof protection (" abhaya mudra ") and theleft hand carrying the folds of the garmentsat the hip as in our illustration. Like allBuddhas, Dipankara has the short curly hair,the "ushnisa," "urna," and long-Iobedears. The small object in the right hand isgenerally believed to represent a fruit fromthe Jambu tree. To the modern Buddhistsin Burma the figure simply represents theBuddha Gautama without any particularassociation.

VII.-INDIAN ART AND ICONOGRAPHY.By BRINDAVAN C. BHATTACHARYA.

art is not a thing merely byitself. It forms one of several mani-festations which represent, in all con-

the spiritual life of the Indians.appreciate the true nature of Indian art

always a sound comprehensionthe origin of all true art and that of Indianin particular. Human mind takes an in-delight in reflecting itself upon natureits processes, and it is the idealised forms

the issues of such a mental operation thatgiven rise to all productions of art.as observer of nature, has discoveredunities or similarities between him-and the outer world, but not being con-

with a mere shadow of resemblance, hein finding out his own similaritiesin scale or modified in form

nature. He proceeded still furtherfrom a consideration that allsignified a true sign of life, he

believed that throughout in nature there wasno lack of life, and nature, as a whole, was aliving principle more or less. So rightlyhe regarded nature as a great store-house oflife and energy from which have radiatedthe so-called living beings, and consequentlywas justified in regarding nature as the trueoriginatorthe mother or father, so to speak,of created beings. This was the origin ofthe personification of nature, or, in otherwords, of seeing nature in a personal form.When, thus, the relation between Nature andMan was once established and understood,all the attributes as well as the functions ofman commenced to be seen through nature,though in an idealistic form. There was,however, another process at work: theprocess of abstraction or generalisationwhich gradually created a world in it-self. Abstraction of qualities resultedin revealing certain universal phases

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of nature. Any comprehension of one ofthem was practically not possible withouta " recollection " or " representation " of theobject that it always inhered. Thus theneed of objectifying the human as well asthe natural phase was felt, and immediately,we find, artists were born for attaining thispurpose.

Artists of all ages have perceived inNature and Man certain immutable universaltypes or phases, of which they have attempt-ed to render faithful representation andskilful expression in the art of poetry, paint-ing, or sculpture. All ideas, it may bemaintained, are abstractions either ofqualities or of forms. And ideas have beenfound to be the guiding factors of all art.Let us now take an example of what we haveso far essayed to explain generally. It iswell-known that with the Greek artists theidea of the beautiful was practically every-thing.* And thus they eminently succeededin bringing out that idea in the best phasesof their plastic art. Similarly, the idea,though of no single attitude, but of fierce-ness, mildness, beauty, magnificence, medita-tiveness and so on played a great part in theminds of the Indian artists. In this con-nection it would be just relevant to say thatthere existed a fundamental distinctionbetween the Greek life and the Indian life.For their own sake, the bodily culture andthe improvement of its form engaged thesole attention of the Greeks, whereas, con-trarily, the Indian life of old ages, and pro-bably of to-day, has been manifestly pre-occupied with a contemplative phase of thehuman mind. Thus it is only too naturalto " discern " in the products and creations ofthe Indian artists a faithful representation oftheir subjective ideals.

It is not infrequently maintained that theold Indian artist was fettered to a great ex-tent in his freedom of expression by rulesand canons but for which he could movemore freely in the realm of his own art, andthus the productions which he has leftutterly lacked that free play of artthatunrestrained atmosphere of life and harmonywhich is always the principal condition of

* Such a generalisation cannot apply to Earlyor Archaic Greek Art.Ed.

success in all works of art. We, however,naively dissent from such a view. We arerather disposed to hold that Indian litera-ture generally, .and religious literature inparticular, bear clear proofs which indicatethat not only were the artists directed to ex-press in art certain symbolical representationof the essential nature of a particular icon,but to delineate, through their brush orchisel, extremely subtle poses of the image,to express in unmistakable terms variousmoods and gestures, be it grim or mild,meditative or grave, in which the deities aresupposed to manifest before the worshipper.This presumably led to the psychologicalfoundation of Indian art.

There is still a deeper meaning conveyedby the productions of the Indian artists,meaning which they so eagerly made it theiraim to express in their works. Once moreit may be said that the Indian images usedto be wrought and fashioned for the pur-poses of worship. And in order that theworshipper might without much effortmeditate upon them, might think that hisdearest, his " Saviour," his master, hisobject of reverence, has come before his eyes,might forget his own individual identityand identify his own self with the image ofGod, the artists of India have tried theirvery best to render the images in as impres-sive and imposing a form as was possibleto do within the conventions of plasticart. They believed with the devotee that" God comes near the worshipper if theimages were made fine."" Abhirupyachcha bimbanamj Devahsannidhyamichchati "|| [Hayasirsa-panca-ratra.]

Another consideration of no less im-portance was in the minds of the Indianartists as it was in the minds of the " Rsis."In almost all phases of Indian art " Rasa "(or " impassioned feeling ") has played avery prominent role. The Indian belief isthat the supreme being is " Rasa-svarupa,"or as, on other occasions, has been said" Raso Vai Sah " (He himself is the impas-sioned feeling). Thus the merit of a pieceof Indian art should, doubtless, be judged bythe degree of " Rasa " (or impassioned feel-ing) it evokes in the mind of the spectator,or a worshipper. The mind and inclination

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all people are not alike, nor arestates of temperament fixed for all times.

ever vary with individuals and withand circumstances. Hence we find aof different " Rasas " which theloved to dwell upon in terms of stones

metals. These " Rasas " offered thequalities by which the.y exerted

psychological influence upon the minds ofdevotee. The " Rasas," being the veryof a poem or a drama as well, havethus enumerated as nine in number:" Sringara hasya karuna raudra vira

Bibhatsadbhuta sangau chetya-natye rasah smritah "

(" Love, laughter, pain, sorrow, rage,fear, repugnance, wonderthese

nine feelings enumerated in a drama.")The images were so wrought by theartists as to manifest one or more of" Rasas " by their mood, pose, andThe artists believed that when thefeeling and temperament of a devoteecome in an identical line with those

the worshipped, the realisation of one'scould only then be expected. Thus

furnished various images expressingone but a variety of " Rasas," justto the needs of the worshipper.

should we carelessly err in assuming

that an image conveys one single feeling inits pose. As in a man, so in an image maybe discernible a mixed feelingthe resultof an interaction of multiple feelings, eitherof similar types or even of opposingtypes. As for illustration, the expression oflove and sublimity is regularly to be noticedin the images of " Hara-Gauri " or " Laksmi-Narayana," more particularly in the" Ananta-Sayya " group. The feeling oflaughter, but without repugnance or sarcasm,may easily be excited in us as we lookat the pot-bellied image of Ganesa dancingwith his elephant nose, or of Kubera, theGod of Wealth, whose prototype is themodern Baniya of our bazar. The mood ofanger, together with the sympathetic pro-tection (" Vara-bhaya "), has been emphati-cally expressed in most of the Tantrikimages which, as a rule, represent theenergic principles of the universe. In themmore vividly than in others may be witnesseda mingled feeling of fear, wrath, repugnance,wonder and sportiveness. Indeed, it oughtto be said that, without a trained eye in thisdirection, it is as impossible to appreciatethe remarkable success attained by theIndian artists as it is to estimate rightly andaccurately all the monumental remains ofancient Indian culture.

VHI-REVIEW.QUATORZE SCULPTURES INDIENNES DE LA COLLECTION PAUL MALLONDECRITES PAR VICTOR GOLOUBEW. A PARIS. 58 Boulevard

Flandrin. (Price not stated.)is a great pleasure to welcome this beau-

tiful portfolio of " Fourteen IndianSculptures from the collection of Paul

described by Victor Goloubew,"well-known and distinguished Russian

and collector of Oriental Art.service that Dr. Goloubew has rendered

the cause of Persian paintings by hiscollection of specimens of

school now in the Boston Museumgreat hopes for the study of Indianthe claims of which still con-to be overlooked by most of the

connoisseurs of the world. And

the publication of this dainty little portfoliowill undoubtedly help to start in Paris,the acknowledged centre of the aestheticvortex of the Continent, a campaign againstthe ignorance and prejudice which havehitherto prevented a juster appreciation ofthe merits of Indian Art. The agitationwhich we owe to Mr. Havell and his series ofmonographs on Indian Art has hardly suc-ceeded yet in arousing in art-coteries a titheof the amount of interest and attentionwhich continue to be lavished on the FarEastern phases of Oriental Art. While it isopenly admitted by enthusiasts that the

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debts of Chinese and Japanese Art to IndianArt are considerable, the claims of IndianArt itself have been brushed aside in favourof an exaggerated interest in Far Easternaesthetics, the enthusiasm for whichshows no signs of abatement. In thetributes paid during the last few yearsto the Oriental Art generally, the Indianphase has received a very scanty share. Theaesthetic qualities of Indian Painting andSculpture deserve more distinct and indivi-dual treatment and study than has beenaccorded to them by vaguely regarding theIndian achievement as a minor and unimpor-tant branch of Oriental Art. From thispoint of view this beautiful publication is ofsome significance for the future study ofIndian Art. Monsieur Mallon's portfoliodoes not pretend to furnish materials for anelaborate study of Indian sculpture, nor doesit represent its leading phases. It is acollection of fourteen plates exquisitely re-produced, each accompanied by a short des-criptive note from the pen of Dr. Goloubew,who also contributes a short introduction.Of the fourteen examples reproduced, six re-present the Gandhara School, of which thefirst plate, Bodhisattva Maitreya, is a veryinteresting specimen with peculiar featureswhich distinguish it from the two somewhatanalogous types in the Louvre and thePeshawar Collection. The other eightplates, mostly representing Buddhist sculp-ture from Magadha (Behar), executed dur-ing the supremacy of the Pala Kings (8th to10th centuries), are of unique interest.Contrasted with the specimens of theGandhara School, the examples fromMagadha evince qualities of feeling and ex-pression which one looks for in vain in theworks of the stone masons of Gandhara.For some reasons which yet await investiga-tions, the B