CONTACT OF INDIAN ART WImH THE ART OF

OTHER CIVILISATIONS

STELLA KRAMRISCH
The Contact of Indian Art with the Art of
other Civilisations by Stella Kramrisch,
Ph.D. ... ... 76«-110
. 7
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Duke University Libraries

https://archive.org/details/contactofindiana01kram
 The Contact of Indian Art with the Art of
other Civilisations'

BY

Stella Kramrisch, Ph.D. (Vienna)

I
The process of art has two dimensions. The one is in¬
visible to the eye. It stretches from the object of artistic
representation to the artist. This is the main direction of
creativeness and all works of art lie on that route. A work of
art however exists not only by its expressive form. It is at
the same time a means of communication. Primarily, it com¬
prises an individual experience intimately connected with
some concrete object; secondarily, it brings into or represents
the contact of an aesthetic confession and a receptive mind.
By a law which does not belong to the physical world, the
two dimensions, the inner and the outer, are inversely propor¬
tionate. The deeper the object has sunk into the artistic
subject, the smaller their distance has grown, the more intense
is the effect the work of art has, the more lasting will be the
impression it creates and the greater will be the number of
persons who get impressed. Duration and extension of an
artistic tradition are thus ultimately dependant upon the
vitality of one or a few works of art.
Indian art spread eastwards and westwards. We
can follow its expansion as far as France and Ireland in
the West, and Japan in the East. From the 2nd century

1 Adharchandra Mookerjeo Lecture for 1922 delivered on the 16th and 17th December,
1922.
766 STELLA KRAMRISCH

B.C. onward to the fourteenth century A.D. it was a

continuous source of inspiration to the Far East and proved
an intermittent stimulus to Western art. India’s power of
artistic colonisation is equal to that of Greece. Almost
simultaneously these two centres of civilisation which stand for
the fusion of Aryan and non-Aryan elements sent forth their
traditions which mingled without any resistance with the
indigenous arts and crafts of any country they came to.
Greece, before its fatal end, had extended its artistic dominion
over Asia Minor and Italy. After its death Borne became
the heir and colonized the whole of Europe, the north of
Africa, Minor and Central Asia and the Far East. The
Indian and the Hellenistic tradition thus were for sixteen
centuries rival missionaries promulgating their artistic
creed over the surface of the whole world known to those
ages. The equally great success of these antagonistic efforts
is striking. The two mother countries India and Greece,
both peninsular, both in the south of a continent had
independently evolved their art, though their remote Aryan
unity left traces in either. From these two roots art grew up
in two vigorous stems which got full growth in their own
soil and spread their branches heavy with fruits to sunrise and
sunset and the twigs crossed each other and formed a bewilder¬
ing thicket. But wherever their fruits dropped the new
seedlings bore the unmistakable features of the mother stem
and the profuse crop which thus grew on the ground of the
multifarious traditions outside India and outside Greece is
called Medieval art in Europe and Asiatic art in the East.
Medieval European and Asiatic art, therefore, are the
syncretistic periods and regions of art, while Greece and
India and similarly Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Far East
are the creative centres. Of these, however, Greece and India
had the most far-reaching bearing.
Forms of art do not spread by themselves; they
need a vehicle in which they can be carried and various
 ON INDIAN ART 77

vehicles run from India into various directions. Religion

was the driving force which moved them towards the
East. While Central Asia and the Ear East were
inspired by and became permeated with Buddhistic specula¬
tion and the pictorial forms peculiar to Buddhistic art, the
south of Asia, Burma, Siam, Cambodia and the Sundia Islands
shared Buddhistic and Brahmanic divinities and their corres¬
ponding forms of art with India. Indian works of art,
however, were brought to the West far less in the service of
religion than in that of commerce. The fashionable world in
Rome during the days of Augustus paid fancy prices for
Indian pearls, brocades and textiles and Indian ivory work
was as much in demand by the Christians of Egypt as it was
liked by Charles the Great. The currents of Indian art outside
India have thus a threefold source and speed. The one which
links Indo-China and the islands, especially Java with India,
keeps measure with the Indian evolution and its peculiarity is
due to the indigenous art of the country which has become
fused with Indian tradition from one centre or the other. The
invasion of Indian forms into Central Asia on the other hand
had to face not only the artistic traditions of every special
country but also those currents which came from the extreme
East, from China and from the West from the Hellenistic world.
Still more currents mingled in the West to the effect that
while Indian art to the South-East of Asia means a natural
growth and therefore a continuous unity, it becomes an
inspiring incitement to Central and Eastern Asia as long
as Buddhism maintains the rule, and in the'West it occurs
sporadically and does not lose the charm of the exotic
as long as it is not absorbed by and made into a Western
convention.
The transmigration of forms of art proves with accuracy
which features of the national spirit of any art can be trans¬
planted—the elements accepted for instance by China will differ
widely from those which found favour in Rome. It testifies on
is STELLA KRAMRlSCH

the other hand what features of the mother art resist all transfor¬
mation so that in the most complex, locally and racially remote
combination they still remain distinct. In short, colonial art
keeps up the salient features of the mother art ; but as these
enter new combinations, compelled by merely an outer neces¬
sity, that is to serve religion or trade or fashion, it is needless
to emphasise that the works thus produced will be interesting
documents with regard to the history of form but cannot
claim to be works of art. For spontaneous growth, the funda¬
mental condition for creation is replaced there by a clash of
traditions and purposes. Indian art comes to an end the
moment it leaves India. As long as it can afford to spend it
does so. The gain, however, is not on its side and the chapter
of Indian art closes when the Eshiu Sozu painted his Amida
and when the Kathedra of the Bishop Maximian was carved
in Ravenna. These masterworks are nothing but Japanese
or nothing but early Christian and yet they could not be as
they are without that faint scent of Indian tradition which
pervades them.
We have to come back to them. But we have to follow
the route which Indian art took. At every turning of the
way we shall meet it offering an unknown mood.—A Siamese
Buddha head, for instance, though obviously derived from the
Buddha type familiar to the sculptors of Magadha is yet a
new individuality. Its refinement is less spiritual than
physical; all the features have grown thin, and sharp
accents emphasise them in pointed outlines. The subtle
modelling of the Indian prototype has given way to a
strained and sensitive definition of the Buddha’s features
and the calmness of his meditation has given way to a state of
trance where all nerves vibrate. This sort of sensitive rigidity,
hardened modelling and sharp and pointed outlines
arc typically Siamese. Expression and body, body and dress have
become separate features. An almost imperceptible cruelty
lingers for instance round Ardhanarisvara’s eyes and mouth
 ON INDIAN ART 79

while his male-female hotly is equally above sex and above

life on either side. It stands in heavy stiffness, for all move¬
ment has been concentrated into the winglike folds of the
garment. They swing to either side sharp like knives.
The Buddha head dates back to the 9th or 10th century and
the Ardhanarisvara image to the 14th or 15th. The Siamisation
of the Indian form has progressed; sharp outlines joined in
narrow angles have overpowered the round modelling of the
Indian prototype. The art of the Sukotai Savankolok, of
which the bronze Buddha head is one of the finest examples,
is the spontaneous Siamese continuation of the art of Magadha.
The Ardhanarisvara figure however visualises the effort made '
to connect the two elements with the result that an Indian
body stands on Siamese feet, is clad in Siamese folds and wears
a Siamese head. This style is frankly eclectic. The con¬
clusion is that India supplied Siam Avith its iconography,
Buddhistic and Brahmanical and with the iconography, the
“ icons ” were transplanted and translated into Siamese. The
one feature of Indian art Avhich remained intact was the
modelling in the round, though it had to withdraw from those
parts of the figures which received the greatest attention by
the Siamese artist. Pace and garment were freed from the
Indian discipline and only those parts of the body which
remained uncovered also remained Indian. It is the plastic
element, the modelling in the round which asserted itself
against the Siamisation, and Avas carried along the centuries
of Siamese art as dead Aveight, surrounded by frail and nervous
outlines.
The Khmer art of Cambodia contemporary with the period
of Sukotai Savankolok let its individuality floAv through
the channels of Indian tradition and received it back purified
and strengthened. There is scarcely any idiom of Indian art
with which the Khmer artist Avas not acquainted. And yet
his language is entirely new. Warriors, for instance, defile on
some of the relief pannels of Angkor Vat. Their croAvd is
80 STELLA KRAMRISCH

arranged in a firm row of which foot—and head—line are drawn

in straight parallelism. The rhythm of their bodies strained
forward in one direction, forms pattern-like segments of the
lowest part of the relief. Each of them has a motion of its
own. The distorted ejaculations of limbs and faces of the
moh come to a sudden stop where the arrow-hearers march in
severe dignity. Their arrows, however, reflect and repeat the
curves of hands and fingers of the former group; while,
on the other hand, their energetic steps become enhanced by
a similar movement of the horses. The group of the spear-
bearers at last throngs forward without restraint and their
rushing bodies are bent by the hurry of their action. Yet
in spite of all those contrasting groups and in spite of their
arrangement is their procession but a narrow uniform strap at
the bottom of the relief. Subtle trees of exuberant growth
stretch over the rest of the surface actionless, but moved in
peaceful, playful curves. Top and bottom of the relief at last
are strewn over with a profuse sculptured ornamentation.
The composition of this relief has nothing in common with
Indian art of the same period, hut it is closely related to
compositions met with at the time of Sanchi. There too figures
are arranged in rows and are set before a tapestry-like
background of vegetation. This similarity is due to the epical
spirit of either school. Narration there is the chief purpose.
Contemporary Indian art, however, had progressed from
narration to a canonized symbolism where such things as a
cluster of trees and the like had become superfluous and in¬
significant. The age of mind therefore in which Khmer
sculpture is executed agrees with the Sanchi stage of Indian
art, with the difference that while the Sanchi artist had to rely
on his own resources, the Khmer sculptor has the whole stock
of the Indian inheritance at hand. And this may he seen in
the supple modelling of the bare bodies and in the curvature of
the branches. But what he had to give of his own exceeded
that what he accepted. Again his hand similar to that of the
 ON INDIAN ART 81

Siamese artist cannot but chisel in angular outlines, which

subdue and surround the fine modulations of the “plastic ” and
make the whole relief more into a drawing in stone than a
sculpture. This way of artistic treatment is the natural
expression of the peoples of Further India. Another peculi¬
arity is their sense of proportion which makes the figures of
men simply grown over with and buried under an immense
vegetation. This way of treatment, however, has its roots in
India, though the part which vegetation plays there is far less
prominent. As a whole the Indian tradition and the indi¬
genous inspirations of Further India keep the balance and
make a strong amalgam because their affinity is close. But it
must not be overlooked that the active part is played by the
inspiration of Further India while the Indian tradition figures
as foundation or background, and shines through the thin
atmosphere of Khmer art.
The distribution, however, of creative power and the capa¬
city for absorption is entirely different in Java. Javanese
architecture and sculpture of the empire of Mataram
are the works of a local school of Indian art which achieved
its masterworks on this island, similar to the genius of Greece
who at a time of full maturity occasionally found its culmi¬
nation on Knidos or Lesbos. The Hindu kingdom of Mataram
most probably had its artists brought from India. Sometimes
however a local hand is traceable even in the sculpture of Middle
Java. A relief from Tjandi Prambanan, for instance, main¬
tains the rounded softness of Indian prototypes while a distorting
eagerness bends arms and legs in unexpected angles and
makes the physiognomies of men and animals alike gi in with
malicious cruelty. Angular distortion of the Indian limbs and
a cunning brutality of facial expression makes Javanese
reliefs and especially those of Eastern Java akin to the artistic
ideals of Further India. This, however, was not until the
j eleventh century when middle Java had lost its power. A
new flood of Indian art then spread from the South of India to
11
82 STELLA KRAMRISCH

the East of Java and at this time the Indo-Javanese mixture

produced a compromise of which the obverse has all the
qualities of Indian form while the reverse exhibits those of
Malaya-Polynesian conception and the truth and perfection of
either is alike. The figure of Ganesh may stand for one of
the purest achievements of an all-round restlessly modelled
volume, a treatment so dear to Indian art, yet the back view
presents on its flattened surface the mighty grimace of a
Kirtimukha dissolved into petty protrusions interspersed with
holes full of dark shades ; and this appearance perturbating
with its vicissitudes of clumsy shapes and formless holes shews
the indigenous style of Eastern Java. Nowhere in India
has the head of the Kirtimukha a similar gruesome liveliness
and it seems as if this ornamental device were given to
India from the store of Polynesian totemistic and frantically
phantastic animal heads. But where the grotesque and the
gruesome has no right to appear, figures like that of
Prajnapara Prajnaparamita or of Durga Mahishasura Mardini
attain sublime incarnation in purely Indian form.
Middle and Eastern Java were the leading centres of
Indo-Javanese civilisation. The west of the Island remained
more aloof from Indian civilisation. And yet itssculpture renders
the breathless calm of meditation but does so with means of
its own. The squatting figure of the man who holds a lotus bud
has been laid into one vertical plan and reminds in its sym¬
metrical simplification of the sitting Buddha from Sarnath.
But it would be premature to draw any conclusions. It must
suffice for the present to point out where, under what condi¬
tions and surrounded by which forms the Indian element
rules, influences, or is subdued. The Javanese experience is
complex. Java proved an extraordinarily fertile soil for the
evolution of the Indian principles of form. In the outstanding
works of Mata ram it scarcely added anything of its own but
it is worthwhile noticing that the ease with which the heavy
full round figures in the reliefs of Borobudour move is the
 ON INDIAN ART 83

same that gives unapproachable dignity to the Eastern Javanese

figures of Durga and Prajnaparamita. No indigenous Java¬
nese trend of form will be found there. The extremes,
however, which mingle with and set the limit to Indian form
are the dissolution of the plastic volume into small sculptured
compartments which rise as an agitated pattern over a plain
and dark ground on the one hand, and the geometrical
discipline of an abstract scheme on the other hand. But either
convention has the two-dimensioned surface for its working
field and it is this Malayo-Polynesian symptom which had to
offer the strongest resistance to the Indian perception of form,
which comprises the three dimensions of space in one plastic
volume. Java puts the full-stop to Indian art in its propa¬
gation south-eastwards.
Surveying the extension of Indian art in the south¬
east of Asia it proves to be colonial art in the same sense as
Greek art in Asia Minor or Italy. The indigenous traditions of
the various centres of artistic production, as the Khmer style
of Cambodia or the Malayo-Polynesian style of Java were
either subdued or remained untouched. Buddhist, Sivait
Visnait ideas and their corresponding images and forms
were brought to the colonies. How readily they were
accepted there is testified by their local taste, which in
the case of Cambodia and Java is far above provincialism.
Indian art in* Java or as created by the Khmer artists
is in a similar position as it is in the southern part
of the motherland. There too the Dravidian population
had a strong personal way of artistic expression. Yet this
was overcome by the aesthetic of Northern India. The
contact of South Asia with Indian culture dates hack in
historical times to the first Christian century for Java or even
to the age of Asoka with regard to Further India. Thus the
penetration of forms and ideas in the successive centuries
had that leisure which is necessary for a productive
assimilation.
84 STELLA KRAMRISCH

The propagation of Indian art, however, in north and north¬

eastern direction, though historically not less fragmentary, has
at least one cause in common. It is Indian art in the service
of Buddhism which supports the art school of Gandhara during
the first five centuries of the Christian era, and migrates to
Khotan where it is traceable at the close of this period, and
takes its way through the Turpom to the confines of China
where it reaches its climax in the caves of Vungkong and
Longmen and in the ninth and tenth century in the
caves of the thousand Buddhas at Tun Huang, while in Japan
at the same time the Buddhist frescoes of the Kondo of
Horiuji were painted and Eshin Sorn got inspired by Amida’s
glory. But the most essential links of this north-eastern
chain of Buddhist art are missing. Nepalese art is not known
before the ninth century and the earliest Tibetan painting
was found in China in the caves of Tun Huang, in the
ninth century, brought or painted there when Tun Huang was
under Tibetan domination.
We need not fight against the windmills of Gandhara
which appear to European eyes so huge because their Greek
features are so near to cherished reminiscences. The ques¬
tion for the present moment is : What did Indian art con¬
tribute to the International school of Gandhara for such it
was. as Indian, Parthian, Scythian and Roman colonial
workmen and traditions met there. It gave its plastic
conception, not at once yet in the course of time, and in this
way the syncretistic Gandhara sculpture became Indianised.
Buddhism and local mythology moreover supplied the sculptors
with Indian themes. The most ardent problem, however,
involved in Gandharan production is whether, as it is held up,
the pictorial type of the Buddha originated in Gandhara or
not. The question still has to remain open. But it is remark¬
able that such essential lalcshanas as the usnisa and the short
curves of hair turned to the right and the elongated earlobes
are met with in Indian sculpture of pre-Gandhara time, when
 ON INDIAN ART 85

the representation of the Buddha was still taboo to pious Bud¬

dhists. Examples of this type are carved as detached heads single
in lotus-medallions which adorn the railings from Bodhi Gaya;
there a standing figure of a Dvarapala exhibits the same
laJcshanas. There can be no doubt that these representations
did not represent the Buddha and it is difficult to say how
far the laJcshanas of the Mahapurusha were associated with
these unidentified heads. In any case Indian sculpture
was acquainted with a plastic form which is identical with
the latter usnisa at a time when neither the bodily
representation of the Buddha nor the Gandharan produc¬
tions had come into existence; and so much can be said that
these distinctly Indian bodily characteristics were not for the
first time translated in stone in the province of Gandhara ;
on the contrary the undulated hair of early Gandhara
Buddhas betrays Hellenism and is against the Indian
tradition. Similar as in the case of this monographic
detail is the general behaviour of the Gandhara artisans;
they took in every case the monographic suggestions from
India and as they were no longer fettered by any religious
or artistic scruples and had the entire tradition of Hellas
and India but also of Central Asia at their command, they
did their best in illustrating as well as they could the stories
and sacred heroes for which there was so much demand
amongst the Buddhist devotees. The artistic quality of this
market supply naturally cannot be but of the worst sort.
The suddenness of the Indo-Hellenistic clash could not cause
anything but disturbance on either side. The Hellenistic
importation on the other hand got no supply on the spot and
its fate was to be overcome and annihilated by the living force
of Indian art. Yet there is one scheme of composition which
was of greatest consequence in all future arts. This is the
symmetrical arrangement of the groups of divine personages
for the purpose of worship. The beginning of this frontal
symmetry can be found already in Barhut and also in Sanchi.
80 STELLA Iv RAM RISC H

There of course some symbol or the other takes the place

which later on is occupied by the icon. In Gandhara
for the first time however those triads as Buddha with
Brahma and Sudra are introduced and sometimes the
donors represented in an attitude of worship are admitted
into their circle. This strictly symmetrical form of composi¬
tion originated in Gandhara and spread from here in the
service of the Buddhist Church to the Bar East and reached its
height in Central Asia and Japan in the 10th century and is
alive in Tibet to the present day. This artistic achievement of
Gandhara is of an ecclesiastic type. Though Indian art is
religious and at times conventional the business spirit of a
clerical institution was needed to invent a way of representa¬
tion where the donor could enjoy to see himself brought into
direct contact with the object of his worship and where on
the other hand any number of new gods to be propitiated
and any combination possible was easy to be managed. This
economical mechanism was set into working order for the
first time in Gandhara. This way of representation
became the standing type for the representation of Sukhavati,
Amitabha’s Paradise in the West. The Mandala of Tun Huang
are based on Indian painting as far as the representation of
human bodies is concerned. Their curved outlines betray
Ajantesque tradition.
A drawing on paper gives the key how such compositions
were quickly supplied to the market. It was used as pounce ;
the one half of the pounce is pricked the other drawn in outline.
Variety was brought into the symmetrical monotony by a brilliant
display of symbolic colours. The mechanisation of Buddhist art
lead also to another way of rapid multiplication. Numberless
Buddhas were stencilled and formed geometrical pattern; for the
greater the number of images consecrated, the greater the
merit of the donor. The caves of the thousand Buddhas, the
caves of the million Buddhas are in this respect pure works of
Buddhist art, for Buddhism in India had no special art of
 ON INDIAN ART 87

its own. The forms were Indian and the iconography Buddhis¬
tic. But uprooted from the Indian soil, iconography, that is
the prescription becomes almighty, for the creative vigour
which soaks its strength from the soil of the motherland
had to be left at home. Buddhistic art fostered the various
techniques of reproduction. Clay models, stencils and pounces
were in use and the most ancient wood-cuts known were
current amongst the communities of Central Asia, though
their origin lay in the East.
No doubt Central Asiatic art grew up in local centres
of Buddhist worship. The forms of art we therefore meet
with are Central Asiatic conglutination3 of the neighbouring
zones of art. China and India, Persia and Greece were united
there. In this melting pot we find the Indian stuff to be
prevalent. The principle of decoration, for instance, peculiar to
the caves of Tun Huang is the well-known tapestry-like cover of
paintings (cf. Ajanta) extended all over the walls and the ceiling.
But the exuberant jungle of living forms has been cleared
and dried up. Only what is iconographically necessary
remained and covered the walls in stereotyped order. The
migration of Indian models into these centres of ecclesiastic
art is indicated by several paintings and sculptures which,
though made on the spot, keep up the Indian convention.
These finds represent a provincial museum of Indian art. They
mark movements of the Indian artistic evolution separated
by thousand years and more. An ink-drawing found at Tun
Huang for instance, repeats in free interpretation the design
of several reliefs of the Sanclii gateway. The crowded figures
which stand in rows and on top of one another according to
the Indian conception of space are Indian in spirit and
construction in spite of their Chinese features and costumes
and exemplify a tradition at least as remote as the Sanclii
monument.
A carved and painted wooden slab from Ming-oi Kara-
sliar introduces a new and nude type of the Buddha. The two
88 STELLA Iv RAM III SC II

upper pannels correspond with the style of sculpture in vogue

in India under the early Guptas, although the faces of the
figures do not try to hide their Mongolian origin of which the
lowest pannel is a frank confession. But composition and
movement, proportions and modelling, the treatment of cloth
and skin coincide with that of early Indian art where no
Hellenistic suggestions were accepted.
Some temple banners from Tun Huang painted on silk,
cotton or paper represent contemporary Bengal art as under¬
stood in Central Asia and China. The Avalokitas show differ¬
ent distances of interpretation from Bengal prototypes. The
Bodhisattvas on the banner to the left, apart from the
treatment of his toes and from the flower pattern on top,
could pass for a mediocre work of that school of Bengal paint¬
ing of which only examples three centuries later than the
Tun Haung banner have come to us.
But the most convincing taste of the archaeological and
ecclesiastic behaviour of Central Asiatic Buddhism towards
India is a large silk painting from Tun Huang; its inscrip¬
tion says that the different painted figures were intended to
reproduce sculptured images worshipped at various sites of
India. One of the figures is mentioned to represent a statue
in the kingdom of Magadha while others are either directly
copied from Indian originals as the lowest figure to the left, and
interpreted by the local painter. In none of these examples
any Hellenistic feature is traceable. Indian art migrated
via Nepal and Tibet and pictorial representation was the
most popular way through which Buddhism captured the
hearts of simple people of Central Asia, Its rapid success
is due to the avalanche-like course it took. Impelled by
missionary zeal it carried away within its movement
whatever forms came in its way. Whether they were
Hellenistic or Persian made no difference. And so we
meet not only with provincial but also with hybrid mixtures
where a Hellenistic modelling of the body mingles with
 ON INDIAN ART 89

the flowing style of Indian garments and Mongolian flatness

squeezes the heads into a distorted laughter.
The achievement of the various missionary schools of
Buddhist art in Central Asia thus has one artistic merit.
Subventioned by the wealth of Indian forms the local crafts¬
man was enabled to meet the demand of devotees, however, so
extravagant in their craving for numberless figures of Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas. But as the directions to be followed were all
more or less alike, symmetry resulted as the most dignified
but also as the cheapest and quickest way of satisfying
the donor. Thus a specific Buddhist art came into life in
Central Asia which established the type of ecclesiastic
art. The idiom of these paintings is Buddhistic and
derived from Indian art-language. It achieved the refine¬
ment of an old pictorial tradition when com’ng to Japan ; for
although Indian art brought the type of the Buddha to perfection
it wras left to Japan to make Buddhism visualised in the myth
of a landscape which has for its background the mood of Dhvani.
An inscription on the Hokke Mandala which was
added at the occasion of a restoration of that Japanese picture,
in the eleventh century does not forget to mention that this
Mandala is a real product of India although except the
Buddhistic composition in frontal symmetry, every brush stroke
is Japanese. Yet the sacredness of the picture was enhanced by
that suggestion, which reminded the Japanese worshipper of
remote ages, when emperor Ming ti of China had sent for the
first time to India to seek the truth about Buddhism and his
messengers brought back amongst other religious documents, the
first Buddhist image from India. This was in the year sixty-seven.
The earliest trace, however, of Indian art outside India
we find, strange to say, in a Greek work of art of the first half
in the second century B.C. It is the relief frieze from the
altar of Pergammu in Asia Minor, where in the war between gods
and giants the threefold goddess ITekate intervenes with many
arms. This is the most ancient document of the gods of India
12
90 STELLA IvRAM RISCH

•with multiple limbs and it is preserved in Greek surroundings.

And from this time onwards we meet with Indian motives
here and there and now and then, without any continuity but
brought to Europe just as pearls aud precious silk, for which the
taste of dying Rome had so much fondness. The other factor
which eagerly seized the oriental form are the early centuries
of Christianity, which were groping for some form adequate
to their contents, and Indian or Persian, Syrian and Egyptian
forms and symbols were welcome without discrimination for the
expression of Christianity, the oriental faith in Western lands
which could not be satisfied by Greek illusionism and which
could not derive any inspiration from a non-extant Jewish art.
A painted cloth of truly pagan pattern rapt round the
mummy of an early Christian lady was found in Egypt. There
Bacchus triumphs and Selene dances and all of them wore
Buddhist halos and their Greek limbs are curved with the
voluptuousness of Indian lines. The product of Egypto-Indo-
.Hellenistic design has a pagan freshness of vision. The later
examples of Europeanised Indian art of the middle ages appear
in Egypt and Byzantium, were made in the south of Erance,
in Germany and in Ireland. The Sanchi composition, of the war
of the relics, which did not miss amongst the treasures of
Tun Huang occurs again in an ivory carving from Trier in
Germany. The cherished motive of woman and tree, a
leading device throughout the centuries of Indian art may be
seen on the pulpit of the monastery at Aachen. There
however, the female figure is changed into a male and Bacchus
plucks the grapes whereas the Lakshmi touched the tree -with
her foot. The ivory creeper of Indian art which carried there
its life movement ornates the Kathedra of Bishop Maximian
from Ravenna. But it is needless to enumerate the ivory
elephant of Charles the Groat or to draw attention towards an
ivory carving in Orleans, where Christ and various saints figure
in the canonised scene of the great miracle at Cravasti. Most
of these medieval reminiscences of Indian art lingered in
 ON INDIAN ART 91

ivory reliefs and the material and the form might have
come from one source. Under the Karolingian and Ottoman
empire the Indianisation of European ecclesiastic hook
covers carved in ivory was at its height. One illustration
may stand for the rest of them. It shows an altar in so-
called bird’s-eye view according to Indian perspective, an
altar-cloth with early Indian lotus pattern, rows of worshippers
on top of each other, the lowest row turning their faces inside
the relief,—all this being early Indian conventions to visualise
the third dimension, that is, the continuity of the assembly round
the altar. This scheme belongs to the eighth century in Europe,
to the second century B.C. in India. It must have come to the
West at an early date and has preserved the memory of India
in the seclusion of an ecclesiastic tradition of work carried on
by the medieval monks.
A late Mahajanist conception in a fresco from Baraklik gives
the scheme of composition to an ivory sculpture in Germany
representing Christ under the form of the Armenian Yima. To
another period of Indian art belong the frescoes in the palace
of the Pope in Avignon. There the proportion of tree and man
and their peaceful and decorative harmony is of the same kind as
that which accompanied the representation of prince Vessantara
in one of the wall paintings of Miran and is akin to the
j tieatment of men and forest in early Mughal landscapes'.
The Indian element in European art was always inobtrusive
and of no consequence. In the structure of European art it had
the function of a loan-word. It remained a name of foreign
origin for contents which had become familiar to Western
thought. It disappeared completely with the Middle Ages.
Resuming we may state :—Indian form outside India
means: full unfoldment of the national genius of South¬
east Asiatic and Polynesian races; in Central Asia it created
the ecclesiastic type of composition for Buddhist art and
in Europe the Indian element acted through fourteen centuries
as a ferment in the abstract art of the middle a<ms
92 STELLA Tv RAM RISCH

II

In India.

Self-defence is a reaction of the living organism against

irritating or destructive intrusions from outside. Without
assimilation on the other hand life cannot maintain its exis¬
tence. The two processes act upon one another and keep the
individual vigorous. Their balance depends upon the
strength inborn to the individual. Artistic production as a
living organism is obedient to these two laws. But the mean¬
ing of self-defence and assimilation as applied to art needs
explanation. India, for instance, sending out her works and
traditions of art to East and West was free from either activity.
There it gave itself away to any context it entered and far
from assimilating new suggestions it accumulated them and
carried them on from country to country and from century
to century. Eor Indian art there was no longer immediate
expression of an inner experience, but it lived on its past
and used it as store from which convenient formulae could
be drawn. It had become petrified in the service of religion
and commerce and needed not the protection so necessary for
growing life.
The earliest art we meet with in India is that of the
Asokan age. At that time it is already fully matured so that
its early history remains veiled by ages and its movements lie
hidden under the cover of an unknown past. The science of
the creative genius and its work is new. Laws and periodicity
are not yet established, yet as far as from a comparative study
can be judged it appears that the art of every cultural unit is
open to extraneous influence either in its early infancy, when
to the groping spirit who wishes to express himself every form
wherever it comes from is welcome for that purpose, or again
after complete self-expression is reached and fatigue has
overcome intuition. At that stage again foreign forms are
 ON INDIAN ART 93

appreciated and accepted though they cannot rejuvenate the

senile body of art and a fresh impetus from within is needed
to start anew the game of self-defence and assimilation. 'I his
periodicity may be verified from the evolution of Greek art for
instance which affords the best example as its beginning, its
height and end are fully known. In the early stag*1 Mediterra¬
nean and Asiatic conventions supplied the stock of forms
to an imagination which had not yet grown sure of its own
trend. But after these external helps were assimilated and
digested sufficient strength was gained for self-defence against
a repetition of a similar invasion and Greek art from the
6th to the 3rd century B. C. attained its national form which
after having exhausted almost all resources looked round
to the same funds which it had used centuries ago, but neither
freshly imported subjects nor forms could stop its decay.
The case however of Greece is extraordinarily simple, for
there one well defined mentality, we may say one creative
individual, had lived its life. The evolution of Indian art
however contains many artistic individuals and what to the .
one may have the meaning of death reveals itself with regard
to some other as the beginning of new life. But this vicariate
of creative unities and personalities is not peculiar to India, and -
the same rule is valid for Europe in its entire artistic produc¬
tions. The marks of beginning or end are set in every case
by the dynamic power of artistic creation inherent in the
single national units. Indian art thus passed through three
critical ages, the Asokan and post-Mauryan age, the time of
the Moghul Empire and the present moment. It goes without
saying that apart from these well marked periods of foreign
contact some minor motives linger on and ooze down to the
devices of popular art and cottage industry where they remain
in the vocabulary of domestic crafts throughout the centuries
of its existence. In this way wTe find for instance some
i animal patterns as those of the heraldic two-headed bird or
fish-tailed human figures as devices known to the textile-arts
04 STELLA KRAMRISCH

all over Asia, Egypt and Eastern Europe and this early
Asiatic art cannot definitely be traced to one centre only,
though the Persian was apparently the most distinct. The
immortal Akanthos of Greek origin on the other hand occurs
at times as border on late medieval temple banners in Ceylon
and the same device is to be seen on semi-Europeanised Bengal
village architecture where it seems difficult to decide whether
its use is due to a more recent importation or whether it linger¬
ed on as one of the hereditary motives of the unwritten
grammar of domestic crafts. But we shall leave those un¬
essential details aside, and start from the beginning where
mighty stones tell their message in discordant tongues.
The lion capital from a broken pillar at Sarnath is
witness of a complex artistic process. Pour lions there are
united into an all-round pattern round the elongated shaft
of the column. They rest on a round plinth where four
wheels of the law are circumambulated by various animals,
the elephant for instance and the buffalo. This pedestal
with its load is superimposed to a bell-shaped flower-like bulb.
The structure seems organic because it is powerful enough
to overcome two discordant plastic principles. The one is
the modelling of the lions’ bodies, that is to say, their
artistic physiognomy. The other is the way how the bodies
are combined in the round and how this all-sided form is
linked to the rest of the capital.
The striking feature of head, mane and legs of the lions is
their distinct precision. How the face is kept apart in sharp
line from the mane and how neatly but also how abruptly the
mane ends on the legs. Inside the clear confines of every
essential part thus formed an equally precise, sharp and abrupt
modelling distinguishes forehead, cheeks and snout while the
eyes, moustache, teeth and mane are articulated by minute and
independent single shapes. Legs and paws show the leading
features of this kind of sculpture in the most convincing
way. Muscles and bones are firmly marked by high ridges
 ON INDIAN ART 95

and an interjacent channel, and each single tendon and joint

of the toes is as boldly represented as the carving of the claws
is minute. The effect of this plastic treatment is a vigorous
naturalism which perceives the living form as strained by
force and effort. No lassitude but also no softness is in these
abrupt, strained and firm limbs.
Compared with these lions the animals of the plinth are
tame and gentle beasts whose trot is full of swiftness and
lyrical tenderness. Yet their modelling is carefully articulated
with regard to joints and muscles although it is*obvious that
the fleshy part is no longer hard and strained, but has that
healthy roundness which betrays life at ease. The outlines of
these animals in relief though characterising every smallest
peculiarity, are as a whole continuous so that they can be
followed by our eyes in one uninterrupted gliding movement.
If now it has to be decided whether the structure of the entire
capital follows the artistic principle as incorporated in the lions
on the top or that which acts in the animals of the plinth, the
answer can be readily given. For one uninterrupted line glides
over the angular profile of each lion and links it with the curva¬
ture of the chest bedecked with mane, and curves from there
in negative way along legs and pauses in order to embrace
in a mighty bow the angle built by the plinth. From there
the complete succession of curves is repeated all over the floral
capital in a more compressed and more emphasised manner.
Thus it is established that the structural conception of the
capital coincides in its continuous rounded outline with the
plastic treatment of the animals on the plinth—while that of
the lions in its abrupt tension stands apart though it is in¬
cluded in the general scheme.
Keeping in mind that this capital belongs to a pillar set up
by emperor Asoka and thus represents an official work of art
or a work of court-artists, we shall analyse the contemporary
sculpture which has a more intimate character. The well
known early figure of a Yaksha shall be the starting point.
90 STELLA KRAMRISCH

The minute analysis of these early Indian works may seem

tiresome yet in this way only exact knowledge can be gained
once for ever whether, how far and in what respect Mauryan
art and henceforth the whole of ancient Indian creation was
indebted to or dependent upon Persian form. No inscription
and no written record can fully reveal this connection. The
monuments themselves have to be consulted and they unravel
their secrets to the observing eye. The animal representations
on the top of the columns excepted we do not hitherto know of
any other contemporary sculptured animals for comparison. But
this is irrelevant for we are not concerned with the subject
represented, hut with the way of plastic treatment. Any
contemporary sculpture whatever he its subject will throw full
light on the actual situation.
The Yaksha figure shows a fully developed modelling
in the round. Is it the same as that of the lion capital
from Sarnath ? Head and arms and legs obviously are isolated
from one another by sharp accents. Necklace and belt are
treated as independent plastic bands laid over the modelled
body. In so far the two sculptures under consideration fully
agree. The naturalism also of the Yaksha figure is not
less conspicuous than that of the lions. And yet the effect
of the whole figure is entirely different, for every detail of
it is shaped by a new kind of life. The treatment of the legs
for instance, makes them appear smooth and rounded.
Neither the knees nor the ankles are accentuated but
one organic movement in the round moulds them into- shape.
The plastic details on the other hand as for instance
ribbons and ornaments are, inspite of being well marked
within their confines, subordinated to the main modelling
of the body which they accompany and emphasize. They
have no value of their own and if taken from the
body their curves Avould lose all sense for they do not belong
to them but reflect those of the body. The curves of the
li< n’s mane on the other hand even if imagined apart from
 ON INDIAN ART 97

the lion retain their significance for they have a plastic volume
and movement of their own. The main difference in the
artistic treatment of the two sculptures amounts to an abrupt,
isolated and strained modelling on the one hand and a flowing
and therefore connecting and relaxed modelling on they)
other. Either of them however o<roes in the round with the
difference that within the style of the lion-treatment
every part whether important or subordinate is treated
equally as fully three-dimensional volume while within the
style of the Yaksha figure only those parts deserve a
modelling in the round towards which chief attention
has to be directed. In this way the subordinate parts
emphasise those of greatest importance and this principle
of subordinating extends equally over accessories as for example
hair, dress and ornaments, and the sides from which the figure
has to be seen. Thus front and side view give an impression
of bulky roundness while—in the case of this Yaksha figure—
the back view appears flat. This peculiarity however cannot
be generalised into a statement that Indian art within its own
resources is unacquainted with sculpture in the round and
treats its statue as a kind of two-sided relief. Other early
Indian statues, the Yakshini from Patna for sample, exhibit a
view as fully rounded as the corresponding front view.
In fact hair, back, scarf and sari display a plastic animation
which by its assymetrical arrangement has more charm
than the symmetrical rigidity of the front view. Moreover
the slight bend forwards of the back view from the
hips onwards suggests the alert movement of a youthful
walking body while the front view merely stands in
solemn symmetry. In every other respect however the
Yakshini figure belong to the same conception of form as
that of the Yaksha. The difference between the artistic
treatment of those two figures shrinks down to almost
naught if the cubic form peculiar to the lion capital
is compared with.
13
98 STELLA KRAMRISCH

Derived from the same source of plastic form are some of

Yakshini figures from Barhut. There however they are
made to recline against the octagonal post so that only the
front view is visible. Bat even then the plastic treatment
remains that of a sculpture in the round.
In sharp contrast to this Yakshini figure stand those of
other Yakshas and Yakshinis, Nagas and Naginis from Barhut.
The relief pannel representing Kuvera, one of the most accom¬
plished pieces of Barhut sculpture, is governed by that smooth
flatness of the modelled form which remains a leading feature
of Indian sculpture up to the Gupta age. Still the treatment
of the Kuvera figure from Barhut in all its novelty is impli-
cite contained in the Yaksha figure from Parkham and the
other statues belonging to that class. The relation of the
accessories to the bare body has remained unchanged while
the flowing modelling has become emphasized. But now
indeed the whole figure appears as if compressed between
two plates of glass and that this flattening is achieved with
full artistic consciousness is proved by the violent, and from
a naturalistic point of view distorting turn, given to the hands
joined in adoration and to the right foot turned outwards in
the knee, like that of an expert dancer.
The informations with which these early Indian sculptures
furnish us are of greatest importance. We learn that Indian
art in tjie moment when we make its first acquaintance
passed through an artistic crisis. It had reached the height
of one artistic evolution and was just on the way to evolve a
new trend.
The old tradition is represented in its best in the Yakshini
figure from the Patna museum ; the new trend has found
pure expression in the Kuvera figure from Barhut. This
critical age through which Indian art passed extends over the
rule of the Maurya and Sunga Dynasties. It was the natural
evolution of a strong and mature art which changed its
form according to the prevalent mood of new generations.
 ON INDIAN ART 99

But without going into hazy interpretations, so much can he

said that approximately one century brought about an
evolution from the full, heavy and stabilised form modelled in
the round, to the flattened, supple and flowing plastic. In
either of them however continuity of an unbroken outline was
the predominant feature.
In this critical moment and just at its opening another
mode of artistic expression sets in. Its best representative
is the lion capital from Sarnath. There we find a strained
and stagnant cubic form as peculiar to the treatment of the
lion quartette, while the plastic treatment of the animal
frieze in the plinth, though it shares the vigorous tension
with the li0n capital, yet has become subordinated to a
flowing and continuous outline, just as the structure of the
whole capital is obedient to that flowing line. The only
discordant feature therefore is the abrupt and vigorous
modelling of the lions which stands in strong contrast to
the smooth and flowing treatment of all other forms whether
fully modelled in the round as in the earlier examples or
flattened as in the later type, which may be called the Barhut
style. This fundamental difference testifies two different kinds .
of nervous energy of the artist’s hand. It also denotes a
different attitude towards the outside world ; it signifies an,
altogether different perception of nature. The one, that of
the lions is hold and energetic and laden with physical
strength; and accordingly those aspects of the visible world
attract its greatest interest which are full of nervous vigour,
bold, strong and commanding. The other treatment of the
following modelling is melodious and without effort and those
attitudes and forms of nature therefore are dear to it which
suggest a harmonious play of forms at ease. The one means
strain and the other repose, the one emphasises flesh and bones j
and the other suppresses either. The one sees and creates the
living form as compressed into the forceful tension of one
second of strained energy, the other feels and shapes the living
100 STELLA KRAMRlSCH

force as state of an all-pervading movement which is at

rest within its own activity. What lies at the root of this
difference ?
It is conspicuous that the animal figures which crown
the various capitals of Asokan age are treated more or less
in the same way. It further deserves notice that where
similar animals are introduced in the gateways of the railing
at Barhut or at San chi they have lost the vigour of brutal
bestiality and have turned tame and gentle though clumsy
animals. In no other connection however do we meet with
this kind of artistic treatment while that of the liquid modelling
abounds in all works of this and of the successive periods of
Indian art. The Yaksha-treatment thus is entitled to be
called purely Indian while the origin of the lion-treatment
has its parallels and ancestors in Mesopotamia, and this
connection apart from being obvious through the similarity
of form of ancient Assyrian sculpture, is also testified by
history. The hunting scenes for instance, the animals from
the palace of Persepolis exhibit a muscular strength, a
tremendous vital vigour in movement even when at rest.
The gulf which separates the early Assyrian prototypes from
Asokan art in India is bridged over by Asoka’s rock inscription
which were inspired by Achsemenian rock inscriptions as found
in Bahistan and elsewhere. The sculpture therefore of the
Asokan pillars is indebted to Mesopotamian art. These
pillars however are works of Court art and this being depen¬
dant largely on the will of one person, are freed from the
necessity of creative form, as peculiar to national genius. Por
in this case it is not the subconscious and therefore inevitable
intuition of the artist who is brought up in the tradition of his
country which is at work but the artist has become a tool in the
hands of a potentate who imposes his will on his employee.
And it also may be that he calls foreign artists into his country
to work according to his wish. The question however as to
the nationality of the artists who carved Asoka’s pillars and
 ON INDIAN ART 101

capitals must be answered thus. Design and outline that is to

say the structure of the capitals are Indian. With regard to
the plinth of the Sarnath capital it appears that an Indian
hand endeavoured to work a la Persian, though more or
less freely, while the crowning part, the lions either represent a
careful attempt of Indian artists to work in the desired
fashion or else they are the work of Persian craftsmen
called to India specially for this purpose. The Persian
influence therefore in Asokan art is restricted to the capitals
of the columns. Forms of art however carry some germs
of contagion with them, and so capitals which pretend
to be more or less after the court fashion, occur in Barhut
and Sanchi in a somewhat childish and clumsy translation
while the various winged monsters and combined animals
which assemble so joyfully round sacred altars appear as
Indian children of Mesopotamian or more likely Pan-Asiatic
parentage. The Persian element in Asokan art thus is born}
in and vanishes with Asoka’s court. This is the only
trace of foreign devices in Indian art of that age and
inspite of Alexander’s conquest of Bactria, no trace of
Greek art whatsoever can be discovered in pre-Christian
time.
The Persian way of modelling disappeared quickly. The
succeeding attempt of Hellenistic provincial art to intrude
India did not meet with more success. Gandhara as a province
of art represents a local centre, a melting pot so to say of
Hellenistic, Iranian and Indian forms, and the question is
whether and how far the Hellenistic element entered the stock
of Indian form. We must however assume two entrances
for the import of Boman Hellenistic forms. The one
from the North-west frontier and from there it reached as
far as Muttra. The other on the sea way from the South-west
where the port of Barukacha was a trading centre with the
Boman empire. From there Greco-Boman forms reached
most probably Amaravati (on the Kistna).
102 STELLA KRAM RISCH

The import of Roman arms was caused by reasons other

than those which brought Achaemenian forms. The Greco-
Roman forms came along with traffic and commerce and so
they were spread over distant monuments. But their effect on
Indian art was as ephemeral as that of the Mesopotamian
devices in Mauryan art. No praise has to be squandered on the
magnificent Akanthos ornaments of Amaravati. The fact that
they are of Greek'extraction is denoted by the name but their
vitality is as Indian as that of any lotus flower. Apart from
the Akanthos device no pattern bears any resemblance
with Greek form and the so-called honey-suckle is neither an
Assyrian palmette nor a Greek floral motive. It is one of
those uncounted Indian uevices which have not yet received
a name from students of Indian art. The modelling of the
human body on the other hand derived relatively stronger
impetus from the treatment as practised by Greco-Roman
artist. But here it is almost edifying to watch how the
conventional dullness of the Gandhara academy becomes
quivering with the delight of youth and suppleness. The
Mathura school of sculpture which is remarkable for its tri¬
viality of vision and for its lack of originality is satisfied with
and concentrates on the sensuous charm of forms of this world,
and so naturally forms of the Greek type had an allurement
for this indigenous school. The early work from Mathura
stands stilistically in one line with Barhut, with the difference
that it consciously exhibits the forms of the human body
while in the Barhut School they are accepted as a matter of
fact and do not receive special emphasis. Thus the Greek
sensitiveness to the softness of skin and elasticity of the flesh
were welcome to the school of Mathura which embodies
Indian plus Greek sensualism. The proportions of the figures
however with long waist and short legs are decidedly non-
Greek, and the softness of this naturalistic modelling is
also a contribution from the Indian side. The Mathura
school was a second-rate branch of Indian art ; but not because
 ON INDIAN ART 103

it admitted Hellenistic connections into its own repertory of

form ; it did so because it had not a self-reliant imagination.
The whole atmosphere however is changed in Amaravati.
There the pliable and intensely moved modelling is Indian,
though some faint flavour of Greece might be tasted.
The school of Mathura thus stands for a compromise of
Hellenistic and Indian form on the basis of an uninspired
sensualism, while Amraoti in the 2nd century A. I). by
digesting Hie imported Greek stuff achieves a perfection
of its own which may be seen in Indian purity at the early
parts of the railing. With these two schools Hellenism in
Indian art disappears as thoroughly as did the Persian element
in post-Asokan art.
These two factors, the Persian and European, make their
appearance once more at the time of the Moghuls. It is
however worthwhile noticing that artistic traditions of no *
other country had any contact with Indian art in India.
Egypt is out of question, but China which must have reached
its artistic height and stood at this time in close commercial
and religious relations with India left no trace in Indian
art in early medieval times. Eor just at that period India
was the giving part and was so full in its wealth that no room
was left for any for intrusion. The situation changes only
from the 16th century onwards when the Moghul rulers '
desired to establish an international court art. Eor almost
two thousand years Indian art thus maintained its integrity.
At the beginning and at the end of that period the admission
of foreign forms was due to the desire of the rulers with
regard to the Persian element while Western features entered?
Indian art almost at the same time in the earlier case un¬
invited yet called for by the Moghuls. The Moghul art paint¬
ing is an official affair just as were the capitals of Asoka’s
columns. That sometimes idioms of Moghul painting also
occur in Rajput pictures is no wonder as the two schools were
so near in time and space.
104 STELLA KRAMRISCH

In order however to realise to what extent and in which

combination the Indian, Persian and European tradition of
painting got fused in India it will be necessary to define the
leading features of the three components. The Chinese factor
has to be left aside, for although several Moghul paintings
are not only influenced but practically painted a la Chinese
and although even Rajput art, for instance the frescoes from
Bikhaner, exhibit Chinese elements it was not the Chinese
method of painting which was accepted but Chinese motives
entered the confines of Indian art and were rendered there in
the Indian way. Moghul art on the other hand is conspicuous
by the versatility of pictorial methods employed. The
European, the Indian and the Persian principles of painting
intermingled in the brush of the Moghul Court artist.
Contemporary and pure Indian painting as represented
by the various Rajput schools has to be examined first. It relies
on the effective contrast of coloured surfaces which are made
distinct in bold outlines. Pavilion and men, sky and interior
of the houses, action, movements and architecture are laid into
one severely observed plan and the eyes of all the figures
have to obey the same rule. Colours and outlines are the only
means utilized in this kind of painting. The colours are bold
in their contrast, the outlines are extremely simple and yet
significant and what in the first moment appears to be stiff¬
ness reveals itself on closer observation as the unavoidable
round lines of Indian painting, which get full scope in the
sitting figures while the standing ladies have to match the
elongated niches of the pavilion into which they are placed.
The thinness of the pavilion moreover is due to its
Islamic design. This work of popular art illustrates the
tendency of the painter to tell in a clear and dignified way
about the subject which lie represents, and his simple
language is satisfied with a pictorial world which is not more
than a surface deep, for all surroundings cease to exist in the
presence of the chief actors. This way of surface decoration
 ON INDIAN ART 105

is Indian but it is moreover popular Indian. The horizonless

field of the picture which is filled by the surface of one
vision we meet throughout the world in village art and
children’s designs. The early Rajput pictures thus represent
people’s art in India of the 16th century which, gets its distin¬
guishing mark by the curved outline of the figures, not
to speak of course of costume, features, architecture and the
like. A later Rajput painting—and the difference of schools is
here where the main features in common to all Rajput painting
are concerned out of consideration—though far more elaborate
and complex in design relies in its essential effect on the same
requisites as the earlier example. Again colour surfaces
within minutely defined outlines which embrace with delight
the animated figures of the painting. But the plan of action
has grown in width and the slanting surfaces of walls and
floor surround the actors, while at the back on top of the gate
a strap of landscape is inserted, where broad banana leaves
and distant hills with shrubs are laid in one plan and form a
pattern which repeats in its rounded outline the curves of all
the pots which serve Radhika for cooking. Again as in the
previous picture the architecture and the arch represented
are Moghul, but the way of representation is Indian, that is
to say Rajput.
The difference between Moghul and Rajput becomes
apparent when similar compositions are compared. Again
the story is told in an open courtyard with architecture
on the sides. The slanting surfaces have become less slanting
and the surfaces less of surfaces but looking more like illusions
of real walls which mark the front of the house and you can
go up the stairs and enter the hall and sit on one of the benches
or look out of the window or you may go to the second story
and join the peacocks or leave them and go further on
through the long corridor which leads you right into the inner
apartments. But it will be best if you imagine .yourself
sitting next to the two gentlemen, for there is room enough
14
103 STELLA KRAMRlSCli

for you in the spacious hall or else if you do not wish to

disturb them, just take your seat on the broad brim of the
wall or walk up and down the courtyard. This is what the
picture wishes you to do or at least to imagine that you were
doing, for otherwise for whom except the spectator would
the whole illusion be got up. There was however no room
for you in Radhika’s little courtyard nor was there room for
any house except for the one window from where Krishna’s
passionate glance was sent forth and cut off by its direction
the outside world and kept Radhika enclosed within his longing
and her garden and you the spectator through the painter’s
vision could steal a glance of their feelings and doings. The
space therefore in which and the composition with the help
of which the Rajput scene takes place are concluded within
themselves. They represent an objectified intuition. The
Moghul space and composition on the contrary include you,
the third person in their scheme and in order to make you
feel at home with what they represent, they must give you
as complete an illusion of the actuality of the scene as possible.
The figures represented in either of these paintings are treated
accordingly. Radha and her companion live one sort of life
and the rhythm of their action and the beat of their heart
is ruled by one fate. The two men of the Moghul picture
however show their widely different characters by physiognomy
and expression and their dress underlines and actually
visualises their different personalities. The figures of Rajput
art breathe in the thin and clear atmosphere of lines and
only the face has a conventional and faint modelling while
Moghul figures create the impression of living bodies dressed
in the folds of costly materials.
This fundamental difference of the Moghul and Rajput
way of painting is not due to Persian influence on the Moghul
side. In fact history alone is not to be held responsible for
the obvious distance between the two treatments, and it is
wrong to conclude that because the Moghul rulers came to
 ON INDIAN ART 107

India from Persia and also brought Persian artists with them,
•the foreign element in Moghul art must be first of all
Persian. The Persian influence was no doubt mighty at the
beginning of Moghul art and paintings like that of the
Hamzah nameh for instance are truly Indo-Persian art. Later
however the Persian element becomes less and less conspi¬
cuous in Indian art and it is the European treatment of
landscape and architecture, of man and space which prevails.
Whether this European style was fostered to a greater extent
in India itself or whether it came to India under the cloak
of Persian paintings is difficult to decide. In any case is the
European element in Persia for instance in the work of Riza
Abbasi net so widely used as it is in Moghul court art. We
must therefore first extract that what is European in Moghul
art in order to find the proportion of Indian and Persian
conventions as contained in the rest. We have already seen
that the illusion of spacious places, ample halls, massive walls
and full round bodies is one distinct feature. Another is
the treatment of landscape. If we recall the early Rajput
representation, some plain dark blue colour meant landscape,
night and vastness and timeless atmosphere of the picture.
The latter showed more detailed features of nature as a banana
garden and distant hills with shrubs and a pale sky on top.
But trees, hills and sky were simply names and design within
one surface as calm and broad as that of the blue of the
earlier picture. No distance had removed man from nature
and all of them shared one plan of existence and so it
remained wherever Rajput art was untouched by foreign
influences. But wTe must be aware that Rajput painting is
not to be identified with Indian painting as a whole. It is
nothing more but also nothing less than popular art, and
uses the simplest means possible. The cubistic as well as
the way of foreshortening achieved by Ajanta are completely
forgotten. Rajput painting is just a vernacular, expression
narrow in its expressions but nevertheless deep. The landscape
1 OS STELLA KRAMRISCH

of a Moghul painting on the other hand is something quite new

to India. There an attempt is made actually to surround the •
human figure so that it can move about and look around, and
chains of hills beset with trees denote the distance from the main
figure. The trees in fact are made into landmarks denoting
distance. The smaller they are made, the greater a distance
do they denote and their endeavour is just as absurd as that
of their Dutch or Italian prototypes which had not yet solved
the problem of perspective and overshot their new awakened
observation of nature which taught them that the greater
the distance the smaller the objects appear. They made
therefore trees or building of minute size as if far away, while
the hill which supported them appeared to be quite near.
This incongruity of vision and knowledge peculiar to Dutch
painting of the late 14th and early 15th century was taken
up by Italian painting where it is still to be seen in Raphaels’
early work and the Indian artists, if their distance is consi¬
dered, are not to be blamed for keeping up the same treatment
for one or two more centuries. This failure in an attempted
illusionism with regard to landscape was brought to India
from Europe ; in the field of architecture however Western
perspective and the Indian conception of space were fused on
the spot. Thus the illusionism of Moghul painting whatever
be its source was inconsistent a priori and remained so to the
end and the only escape from a complete artistic fiasco was
either personal genius of an artist or else utmost possible
Indianisation.
The illusionism suggesting the material out of which our
surroundings are built makes Moghul painting heavy and
earthbound. It subdues the frail charm of the Persian form
just as much as it hampers the melodious flow of the
Indian tradition. The treatment of trees illustrates best the
interference of Western with Eastern principles. The Ragini
for instance stands on a Persian lawn surrounded by flowers
Persian in arrangement and conception, under the shade
 ON INDIAN ART 109

of a tree of Indian art origin, facing a group of smaller

trees of the same artistic family while the top of the hills in
further distance is crowned by small specimens of trees
of European art extraction. The Persian way of treating
plants is to show stems and branches, thin and frail, spread
out in a motionless atmosphere and leaves and flowers
appear as so many gems and precious stones, cut into
minute shapes and stuck on to the branches where they
fit in best. The trees of Indian painting simply grow. The
sap which circulates through the tree and links its top
with the earth is visualised by a solid round stem from which
the top branches oil in a few but vigorous twigs. They are
bent with vigour and elasticity of growth and with the burden
of a large and abundant foliage. The European trees at least
at a distance wear a top summarised in one outline, as
one whole in light and shade. This Eagini picture is a museum
of various specimens of art trees. All of them are acclima¬
tised to the atmosphere of eclectic court art and have lost much
of their original freshness yet retained enough to denote their
origin. The varieties however gained by cross breed are
large in number. Persian trees for instance either remain
intact in their fragile aloofness or else and next to it they
suddenly grow fat and round with European modelling or at
last they incorporate the beauty of Persian leaves and flowers
and the European substantiality of the wood in the Indian
vigour of growing life which makes the branches turn
and twist in elastic curves. A painting where all the three
factors are assembled to equal parts, sets groups of men and
animals in a rocky landscape where tents and trees stand
in the Indian convention of space, where rocks derived from
Persia are invaded by European mass and Indian agitation
and where the single groups remind as much of Rogier van der
Weiden’s emotionalism as they stand near the scenes of
village life familiar to Rajput painting. But apart from
that quaint mixture not much is achieved in an artistic respect,
14
110 STELLA KRAMRISCH

for the decorative, that is to say Persian display of European

trees obstructs the construction of the landscape and the
agitated story could be told with less expense and in a simpler
way.
The only rescue for Moghul painting therefore is the
genius of an artist who as in the case of the “ Dying Man ”
achieved a masterwork international in its artistic language
and universal in its expressiveness. There all reminiscences
are merged into one personal and subtle vision. The other way
out of the whirl of imported conventions was Indianisation.
A night scene for instance speaks of the intercourse Indian art
had with Europe and yet no sound will be heard in the silence
of worship and night. Though the form is mixed, the inner
experience visualised is one and its nature is Indian. But
Moghul painting was spoiled from the beginning. Its combi¬
nation was artificial and therefore ephemeral. Unless a unique
genius found a solution of his own quite personal mode of
sentiment the Indian artist even where his vision was Indian
could not but translate it into the international court language
of Moghul art. It was only outside the circle of Court art
that Indian form was found for Indian contents and there
even where European allusions—and scarcely any of Persian
origin occur—they stand in the background and though they
appear as additions they are neither offensive nor of much
consequence. The episode of Moghul painting closes and with
it the import of Persian and European forms. After centuries,
that is, at the present moment Indian art for the third
time opens its gates, wider than before, for East and West have
come nearer and it means much for modern Indian art to have
realised the crisis and knowing all forms by which it is sur¬
rounded to go on the eternal path of art in its own way.
(jaxjlorcl:
PAMPHLET BINDER
Syracuse, N. Y.
Stockton, Calif.