Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/65

 INTRODUCTION. 35 Chera sovereign and, as yet, know very little for certain of their history. With the other southern states, they were, however, superseded, first by the Cholas, about A.D. 1000, and finally eclipsed by the Hoysala Ballalas, a century or so afterwards. These last became the paramount power in the south, till their capital Halebid was taken, and their dynasty destroyed by the Muhammadans, in the year 1310. With the appearance of the Muhammadans on the scene the difficulties of Indian chronology disappear in the south, as well as in the north. From that time forward the history of India is found in such works as those written by Firishta or Abul Fazl, and has been abstracted and condensed in numerous books in almost every European language. There are still, it must be confessed, slight discrepancies and difficulties about the sequence of some events in the history of the native principalities. 1 These, however, are not of such importance as at all to affect, much less to invalidate, any reasoning that may be put forward regarding the history or affinities of any buildings, and this is the class of evidence which principally concerns what is written in the following pages. SCULPTURE. In order to render the subject treated of in the following pages quite complete, it ought, no doubt, to be preceded by an introduction describing first the sculpture and then the mythology of the Hindus in so far as they are at present known to us. There are in fact few works connected with this subject more wanted at the present day than a good treatise on these subjects. When Major Moor published the ' Hindu Pantheon ' in 1810, the subject was comparatively new, and the materials did not exist in this country for a full and satisfactory illustration of it in all its branches. When, in 1832, Coleman published his 'Mythology of the Hindus,' he was enabled from the more recent researches of Colebrooke and Wilson, to improve the text considerably, but his illustrations are very inferior to those of his predecessor. Moor chose his from such bronzes or marbles as existed in our museums, and from an important private collection he formed principally in western India. 2 Coleman's were generally taken from modern drawings, or the tawdry plaster images made for the Durga puja of Bengali Babus. 3 By the aid of photography Much information on the history of : descendants in Suffolk, these states will be found in Elliot and j 3 Similarly the small work ' Hindu Dowson's 'History of India,' and in other recent works. 2 His collection, brought from Bombay a century ago, is still preserved by his Mythology, Vedicand Puranic,' by W. J. Wilkins (Calcutta, 1893), is illustrated solely from modern bazar pictures.