Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/82

 them to use rose diamonds and brilliants in the ornamentation, but necessarily so scantily that all effect of splendour is lost Where in other examples worthless Indian stones have been set in machine-made English gold work, the effect is flat and mean beyond belief. If, therefore, Indian jewelry should become mechanical, and hard, and glittery in character, it will at once cease to be artistic, and sink to the level of the extravagantly priced vulgar trinketry of Birmingham, Paris, and Vienna.

The battle-axes used by the wild tribes are identical in form with those found among the prehistoric remains of man in Europe, perhaps because they have all been instinctively modelled from the teeth of carnivorous animals. It is impossible also to overlook the strong resemblance of the forms of Persian and Arabian arms, and of Indian arms shewing Persian and Arabian influence, to those represented on the sculptures of Assyria and Babylonia, and in the hieroglyphic painting of Egypt, as figured in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies and Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians. This is especially marked in die typical fiddle- shaped handles of the daggers. The Arabian arms are distinguished by their fine filigrain work and the absence of gems, the Persian by their superb damascening, enamelling, and carving, and the rare employment of gems in their decoration, only tur- quoises and pearls being generally used, except in the incrustation of jade mountings ; while the Indian arms are characterised by the high relief of their elaborately hammered and cut gold work, and the unsparing use of the precious gems with which they are all over embellished. It is the special defect of Indian, particularly of Erahmanical art, to run into this excess and satiety of decorative details. It is the exclusive prerogative of Greek art to produce beauty without the use of ornament.

The interest of the India Museum also culminates in its collection of arms, which have been arranged with the most imposing effect, according to the plan adopted by the Hon. Wilbraham Egerton, M.P., in the Hand hook Indian Arms which