Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/68

 3 8 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. and continued to be executed, in considerable perfection, down to the middle of the i8th century. As we shall see in the sequel, the art of architecture continues to be practised with considerable success in parts of India remote from European influence ; so much so, that it requires a practised eye to discriminate between what is new and what is old. But the moment any figures are introduced, especially if in action, the illusion vanishes. No mistake is then possible, for the veriest novice can see how painfully low the art of sculpture has fallen. Were it not for this, some of the modern temples in Gujarat and Central India are worthy to rank with those of past centuries ; but their paintings and their sculptured decorations excite only feelings of dismay, and lead one to despair of true art being ever again revived in the East. To those who are familiar with the principles on which these arts are practised, the cause of this difference is obvious enough. Architecture being a technic art, its forms may be handed down traditionally, and its principles practised almost mechanically. The higher phonetic arts, however, of sculpture and painting admit of no such mechanical treatment. They require individual excellence, and a higher class of intellectual power of expression, to ensure their successful development. Architecture may, consequently, linger on amidst much political decay ; but, like literature, the phonetic arts can only be successfully cultivated where a higher moral and intellectual standard prevails than, it is feared, is at present to be found in India. MYTHOLOGY. Whenever any one will seriously undertake to write the history of sculpture in India, he will find the materials abundant and the sequence by no means difficult to follow ; but, with regard to mythology, the case is different. It cannot, however, be said that the materials are not abundant for this branch of the enquiry also ; but they are of a much less tangible or satisfactory nature, and have become so entangled, that it is extremely difficult to obtain any clear ideas regarding them ; and it is to be feared they must remain so, until those who investigate the subject will condescend to study the architecture and the sculpture of the country as well as its books. The latter contain a good deal, but they do not contain all the information available on the subject, and they require to be steadied and confirmed by what is built or carved, which alone can give precision and substance to what is written. It is remarkable that, with all the present day activity in every branch of Sanskrit research, so very little has been done for the illustration of mythology, which is so intimately