Page:Art-manufactures of India.djvu/23



ICTORIAL art is said to have made considerable progress in ancient India. A very high efficiency in the science of painting is attributed to Yakshas and Nágas, who lived in the mythological age, and are described as half-human half-supernatural beings. They could produce "such exact copies that these could not be known from the things painted." In later times, their place was taken by a class of men called Chitrakars, or picture-makers, who followed the profession from father to son. Mention is made of their work in various old books. Among these may be cited that in Sakuntalá, a celebrated drama written by Kálidása, one of the greatest of Sanskrit poets who flourished about two thousand years ago.

Sakuntalá was the name of a pretty maiden who lived all her life in the forest-home of her adopted father, a hermit of great sanctity. One day the king of the country came to hunt in the neighbourhood, and seeing this beautiful flower of the forest, he fell in love with her. His love was returned, and the sage was not unwilling that his adopted daughter should wed a sovereign over whose head rested the imperial umbrella of India. So the king came back to his home rejoiced, and presently sent costly jewels for his beloved. But the simple girl did not know how and where to wear these precious things. For she only knew how to make garlands of jasmine and other flowers, or to make a bracelet out of the soft