Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/94

70 the law that governs the whole; yet so it is, for the measurements of the Minar would have failed signally to give any clue to the law, for the simple reason that the law which governs it is a complicated law, derived from and based upon the apparently trifling distances of a few lines (not very prominent or remarkable ones) that adorn the ruined and to all appearance unimportant gateway. It was solely because I thought I could trace a definite interdependence between the various lines on the gateway that I proceeded to measure minutely other apparently unimportant details, and finding the law hold throughout, I then alone ventured to take in hand measurements of the distances of the ornamental bands of the great Minar, and to apply to them the proportion already discovered, but for some time in vain, owing to the complicated nature of the law that there holds sway. Thus, then, it is impossible at starting to point to any particular series of measurements as useless; but if this be so, all possible measurements have to be made with rigid accuracy, and this is a work of time. Let us take the Buddha Gaya temple. In the first instance, I have to reach the place; then extensive scaffolding has to be put up, and it is only after this that the series of measurements can begin at all. I need, therefore, materials and workmen; for these, in a place where I go for a few days, and necessarily possess no acquaintance with the men or resources obtainable, I have to pay for heavily either in time or in money, or in both. It is therefore impossible that half a province can be explored in a single season by a single individual with the care and minuteness necessary to obtain materials for deducing the principles that govern the structures visited.

But although the structures visited cannot be measured with the accuracy and minuteness necessary, it becomes possible to judge, even in a rapid tour, which are the buildings most likely to yield results of value to detailed measurements; and these alone need at a subsequent period to be re-visited, measured in detail, and carefully examined. The rapid and extensive tour accordingly becomes, as it were, a preliminary survey, but I wish it to be distinctly understood that, if results of solid value are to be obtained, this preliminary survey must be followed up by a detailed examination of particular portions of the country and of particular structures.

It must, accordingly, be evident that a critical essay on Indian art, or even on a particular temple, cannot now be