The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

THE
2l6
•
GOLDEN AGE AND END OF BUDDHIST ART
stylistic and iconographic - elements inseparable
in importance.
Sanskrit became the official language of the
Gupta court. The great Indian epic, the
Mahdbhdrata, underwent a final recension as a
document of a unified India under a godly * finally, painting.
Imperial race ; the Rdmdyana enjoyed a renewed A\ In architecture we meet with a final developpopularity
because it was regarded as emble-
'mcnt of many types already found in earlier
matic of the virtues of the Kshatriya prince
conquering in the service of Vishnu. It is in this
period that the Indian theatre, which, just like
Western drama, traced its origins to the performance
of church spectacles or miracle plays,
reached the extraordinary perfection of dramatic
structure and richness of metaphor that
characterize the Toy Cart and the famed
Kalidasa's rich and sensuous poetic drama,
Sakuntala. King Harsha himself was a dramatist
and a distinguished grammarian. This is a
period when for the first time we find the
amateur not only as patron but as practitioner
of the arts. As Coomaraswamy has stated, this is
a period when the works of the classic Sanskrit
dramatists and the wall-paintings of Ajanta
'reflect the same phase of luxurious aristocratic
culture'. 1
We may be sure that the aesthetic of
Indian art expressed in the Vishnudharmottaram
was only finally formulated in the Gupta Period,
and that the sdstras governing the arts of architecture
and sculpture received their final codification
in this age of universal accomplishment.
As in the Maurya Period, the very political
unity of India made for an artistic unity
transcending regional boundaries, so that examples
in sculpture and architecture differ on
the whole only in the local materials used in
their manufacture. From the Gupta Period
onward we are fortunate in having preserved
intact many more examples of architecture,
complete with their sculptural decoration. All
the arts are now so much a part of a single
unified expression that a completely separate
treatment would be not only difficult but misleading.
We find it best, therefore, to deal with
this interrelated material by discussing first the
chief architectural monuments by location and
types, together with their plastic ornament, if it
is still in situ; then, free-standing cult images
and separate pieces of typical carving; and,
periods. Thus for example, the rock-cut
chaitya-hall that we have analysed in its
beginnings continues as an accepted architectural
type. Cave XIX [151] at Ajanta is a
work of the Gupta Period and will serve to
reveal the changes that have taken place since
the dedication of the shrines at Bhaja and Karli.
The essential basilican plan is perpetuated in
this Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary. Inside, the
round shafts of the pillars of the nave arcade are
decorated with bands of foliate ornament, and
151. Ajanta, Cave XIX, interior