to become stereotyped in his practice. All foreign designers, painters and craftsmen who had been attracted to India by the great works carried out by Akbar, Jehangir and ShahJahan left the country, and their places were taken by no successors The indigenous artists left to themselves in the isolated courts of small Indian princes, or collected in schools in remote districts, employed themselves mainly upon repeating the works of a previous age, instead of seeking new motifs for artistic treatment. So purely mechanical did the work become that in some of the schools or guilds of painters, the execution of a single picture was subdivided; one craftsman painting the face, a second the drapery, and a third the background. Such methods could only lead to deterioration and decay. At the time when the British East India Company ceased to be only a guild of merchants and became a great administrative power in 1757, very little vitality survived in the ancient art of the country. During the century of its administrative history between the battle of Plassey and the Indian Mutiny, the "Company" was too fully occupied in fighting for its existence, extending its borders and settling the internal economy of its ever increasing territories, to be able to give much attention to conserving any remnant of artistic practice which had survived. Without any deliberate intention of introducing western art into the country, Greek and its derivative styles of architecture were adopted for public and private buildings in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras because these were found to be more suitable for their purpose than buildings of indigenous pattern. The practical result was the same for the Indian craftsmen employed upon their erection were confronted with styles affording no scope for the application of their traditional ornament and concerning which they had no knowledge or sympathy. As there were no sculptors in India capable of modelling or carving civil sculpture, the monuments to distinguish public servants were all imported from England; and the portraits, or other paintings which decorated the interior walls of the buildings, were furnished by European painters who visited India or by artists in England. Although a considerable amount of research work of a voluntary nature was done by Archaologists, no official interest was taken in artistic education until the Government of India was transferred to the British Crown in 1859. England itself, the first fifty years of the nineteenth century was a period of gross commercialism and artistic degradation; but with the advent of the International Exhibition of 1851 the eyes of the nation were opened to the value of art as applied to industry. In The Schools of Art then instituted throughout England were imitated in a timid and tentative manner in India: and were attached to the educational system, which had been previously modelled upon a definitely European basis. These schools of art, it should be remembered, were specially established to assist the artistic industries of the country, and not to provide instruction in architecture, sculpture and painting. In fact at a subsequent period they narrowly escaped extinction by the Secretary of State, upon the ground that they had become schools of painting and had thus been diverted from performing the original function for which they were established. The work of the Schools of Art in regard to indus trial art is referred to elsewhere; and as two of them, that at Madras and that at Lahore, have confined their activities almost exclusively to this branch of the subject it is necessary to mention only the work of the Schools at Calcutta and Bombay in the present article. The Calcutta school, except for occasional experiments in the application of the graphic arts to lithography, engraving and stained glass, has become a school of painting and drawing. That at Bombay covers a wider field; for in addition to classes for modelling, painting and design it possesses a special school of architecture; a range of technical workshops, in which instruction is given in the applied arts and research laboratories and studios devoted solely to the improvement of the Pottery industry. It is in the principles underlying the instruction in painting that the schools at Calcutta and Bombay have taken almost diametrically opposite roads to reach the end they both have in view, namely, the revival of the art of painting in India by means of an indigenous school of Indian painters. Mr. Havell, who several years ago was the Principal of the Calcutta School, banished from within its walls every vestige of European art; and claimed that the traditional art of India, in its old forms, is not dead, but merely sleeping or smothered by the blanket of European culture laid upon it for the last 150 years, and needed but to be released from this incubus to regain its pristine vigour. Well equipped with literary ability; backed by intense enthusiasm for the views he held, which he advocated with admirable persistence; he imposed upon his students an exclusive and severe study of the Moghul and Rajput schools of painting. He was fortunate in finding a willing and equally enthusiastic disciple in Mr. Abinandranath Tagore, an artist of fine imagination and fancy, endowed with technical ability of a high order, combined with a serious devotion to his art. He with other Bengal painters, inspired by Mr. Havell's precepts, founded, about fifteen years ago, what has since become known as the Calcutta School of painting. In their early work the painters of this school closely adhered to the conventions of Moghul and Rajput artists, whom they took as their models; and these early examples made a great impression upon all European critics who saw them. They were welcomed as the first sign of a genuine revival of Indian painting, based upon traditional lines, and it was confidently hoped that the movement would meet with the support it merited from Indians of all classes. Interesting as many individual works of the school undoubtedly are the anticipations which greeted its inception have scarcely been fulfilled by the Calcutta school. The painters themselves have never reached the high technical standard of the artists who produced the best works of the Moghul or Rajput school: and, as time has passed, their outlook appears to have shifted, and, while stemming the flood of western influence, they appear to have drifted into a backwater of Japanese conventions. The Indian public bas failed to give the school the support it was hoped they would afford and the movement has had to depend for encourage ment mainly upon Europeans in England and Connected with this school is a students' archiIndia. Bombay School of Art.-The attitude towards the development of art in modern India taken by Mr. Cecil Burns, who long guided the policy of the Bombay school, was diametrically opposite to that favoured by Mr. Havell. While yielding to no one in his admiration for the ancient art of India, and giving every encouragement to his students to study its masterpieces, the view he takes is that with European literature dominating the system under which tectural association designed to keep past students in touch with the school and with one another. As architecture embraces and influences every branch of decorative and industrial art, it is to be hoped that this school may be the means whereby the ancient glories of Indian architecture will be some day revived in new forms, bringing in its train a vitalising influence upon every other form of artistic activity. Life Solomon, the present Principal, has studiously Mural Painting.-Mr. W. E. Gladstone the educated classes in India are trained; with avoided any dogmatic theories as to the European ideas, and science permeating the ultimate end which Indian art is destined professional, commercial, industrial, and to attain, though he has consistently political life of the country, it is not possible pointed out the Indian's for modern Indians now to recapture the spirit the decoration of wall spaces. The guiding pre-eminence in which alone gave vitality to the great works principle with Mr. Solomon has been to teach of the past; that without this spirit, the con- the students to draw and to paint what they ventions the ancient artists adopted are mere dead husks; and that to copy these would be as see; and further to encourage by all possible unprofitable as it would be for the artists of towards which their inherent instinct most means their natural progress in the direction Europe to harness themselves to the conven- obviously urges them. He has always maintions of the Greek and Roman sculptors or to tained that theory in regard to the training those of the medieval painters; that with Euro- of Indian Art students is in itself unproductive, pean pictures, often of inferior quality illustrat- and can only be proven by practice; and as ing every educational text book, and sold in the Mr. Solomon has now held the post of Principal shops of every large city, it is essential for the for several years it is possible to gauge the results proper education of art students that they should achieved by his system of training. The have before them the masterpieces of European Classes which were started at the end of 1919 have art; and that, with the wide adoption of Euro- recently been pronounced by competent judges pean styles of architecture in India, it is necesas well up to the level of the Life Classes of the sary for a school of art to possess the best European Schools of Art. But proficiency in examples of ornament applicable to the great technique forms only one side of the present historic styles, for the purpose of study and refe-system of training; for even in Europe, too much rence. There are certain basic principles com- of the study from Life is quite capable of negativmon to the technique of all great art, such as ing its own object. In India, where the decorafine and accurate drawing in its widest sense, tive instinct is inherent, and where the possibilities composition and design, and the science of of freehand drawing are still understood, the colour harmony. By means of these an artist danger of overdoing the Life Class is even more can express his individuality and emotions, and palpable. So side by side with these realistic School of Art is to equip its students with the aids to study, and at the same period, a Class of Indian Decorative Painting was inaugurated in power of expression, untrammelled by any set the Bombay School of Art. As this class conventions, so that when they leave the school, specialises in Mural Painting, it has long been they do so with the capacity to employ their faculties in any direction their sympathies and popularly known as the Class of Mural Painting. This class has executed the decorations for many tastes may impel them to take. Which of these two very divergent theories will produce ceiling and panels of a specially constructed public and private buildings, and painted the the result both these gentlemen unite in wishing Indian Room which was exhibited at Wembley to see brought to pass, time alone will show. in 1924. A great deal of controversy, which Certain it is that the driving force of any artistic impulse must come from within the nation, than its practical note, has centred round these has been characterised by its academic rather and that India, like every other country, in its new movements in art training in India; but the art, as in other matters, must work out its own Bombay School of Art has retained the patrosalvation. nage and support of the public, and the increase in the numbers of its students has been large and continuous since it took its present line. It is significant that the widespread revival of public interest in Art in Western India has synchronised with these activities. Mr. Burns held that the main function of a One striking success of hopeful augury has been achieved by the Bombay School in recent years. This is the establishment of a flourishing school of architecture in which the study of Indian architecture takes an important place. Indian Architecture. I. ANCIENT. An The architecture of India has proceeded on lines of its own, and its monuments are unique among those of the nations of the world. ancient civilization, a natural bent on the part of the people towards religious fervour of the contemplative rather than of the fanatical sort, combined with the richness of the country in the sterner building materials-these are a few of the factors that contributed to making it what it was, while a stirring history gave it both variety and glamour. Indian architecture is a subject which at the best has been studied only imperfectly, and a really comprehensive treatise on it has yet to be written. The subject is a vast and varied one, and it may be such a treatise never will be written in the form of one work at any rate. The spirit of Indian art is so foreign to the European of art culture that it is only one European in a hundred who can entirely understand it, While art criticism and analysis is a branch of study that the modern Indian has not as yet ventured upon to any appreciable extent. Hitherto the one, and with a few exceptions the only recognized authority on the subject has been Fergusson, whose compendious work is that which will find most ready acceptance by the general reader. But Fergusson attempted the nearly impossible task of covering the ground in one volume of moderate dimensions, and it is sometimes held that he was a man of too purely European a culture, albeit wide and eclectic, to admit of sufficient depth of insight in this particular direction. Fergusson's classification by races and religions is, however, the one that has been generally accepted hitherto. He asserts that there is no stone architecture in India of an earlier date than two and a half centuries before the Christian era, and that "India owes the introduction of the use of stone for architectural purposes, as she does that of Buddhism as a state religion, to the great Asoka, who reigned B.C. 272 to 236." Buddhist Work. Fergusson's first architectural period is then the Buddhist, of which the great tope at Sanchi with its famous Northern gateway is perhaps the most noted example. Then we have the Gandharan topes and monasteries. Perhaps the examples of Buddhist architecture of greatest interest and most ready access to the general student are to be found in the Chaitya halls or rock-cut caves of Karli, Ajunta, Nasik, Ellora and Kanheri. A point with relation to the Gandhara work may be alluded to in passing. This is the strong European tendency, variously recognized as Roman, Byzantine but most frequently__as Greek, to be observed, in the details. The foliage seen in the capitals of columns bears strong resemblance to the Greek acanthus, while the sculptures have a distinct trace of Greek influence, particularly in the treatment of drapery, but also of hair and facial expression. From this it has been a fairly common assump. tion amongst some authorities that Indian art owed much of its best to European influence, an assumption that is strenuously combated by others as will be pointed out later. The architecture of the Jains comes next in order. Of this rich and beautiful style the most noted examples are perhaps the Dilwara temples near Mount Abu, and the unique "Tower of Victory" at Chittore. Other Hindu Styles. The Dravidian style is the generic title usually applied to the characteristic work of the Madras Presidency and the South of India. It is seen in many rock-cut temples as at Ellora, where the remarkable "Kylas" is an instance of a temple cut out of the solid rock, complete, not only with respect to its interior (as in the case of mere caves) but also as to its exterior. It is, as it were, a life-size model of a complete building or group of buildings, several hundred feet in length, not built, but sculptured in solid stone, ar undertaking of vast and, to cur modern ideas, unprofitable industry. The Pagoda of Tanjore, the temples at Srirangam, Chidambaram, Vellore, Vijayanagar, &c., and the palaces at Madura and Tanjore are among the best known examples of the style. " The writer finds some difficulty in following Fergusson's two next divisions of classification, the Chalukyan of South-central India, and the "Northern or Indo-Aryan style." The differences and the similarities are apparently so intermixed and confusing that he is fain to fall back on the broad generic title of Hindu "-however unscientific he may thereby stand confessed. Amongst a vast number of Hindu temples the following may be mentioned as particularly worthy of study:-Those at Mukteswara and Bhuvaneswar in Orissa, at Khajuraho, Bindrabun, Udaipur, Benares, Gwalior, &c. The palace of the Hindu Raja Man Singh at Gwalior is one of the most beautiful architectural examples in India. So also are the palaces of Amber, Datiya, Urcha, Dig and Udaipur. Indo-Saracenic. Among all the periods and styles in India the characteristics of none are more easily recognizable than those of what is generally called the "Indo-Saracenic " which developed after the Mahomedan conquest. Under the new influences now brought to bear on it the architecture of India took on a fresh lease of activity and underwent remarkable modifi cations. The dome, not entirely an unknown feature hitherto, became a special object of development, while the arch, at no time a favourite constructional form of the Hindu builders, was now forced on their attention by the predilections of the ruling class. minaret also became a distinctive feature. The requirements of the new religion,-the mosque with its wide spaces to meet the needs of organized congregational acts of worshipgave opportunities for broad and spacious treatments that had hitherto been to some extent denied. The Moslem hatred of idolatry set a tabu on the use of sculptured represent. ations of animate objects in the adornment of the buildings, and led to the development The of other decorative forms. Great ingenuity yet remained in its essence what had alwa came to be displayed in the use of pattern and been, indigenous Indian. The minaret, t of geometrical and foliated ornament. This dome, the arch, they contended, though de Moslem trait further turned the attention of loped under the Moslem influence, were the builders to a greater extent than before to proportion, scale and mass as means of giving beauty, mere richness of sculptured surface and the aesthetic and symbolic interest of detail being no longer to be depended on to the same degree. The art was thus the gainer by the new conditions. It gained in power and variety much as "Classic" architecture gained under the Romans. But it equally lost something too. The Indo-Saracenic is apt to appear cold and hard. The writer was impressed by this on his first view of the Gwalior palace already mentioned. Though a Hindu building that palace has yet much of what might be called the more sophisticated quality of the IndoSaracenic work as well as some similarity of detail. It has, being Hindu, a certain amount of sculptured ornament of animated forms, and the general effect of roundness, richness and interest thereby imparted seemed eloquent in suggestion as to what is lacking in so many of the Mahometan buildings. Foreign Influence. There would appear to be a conflict between archæologists as to the extent of the effect on Indian art produced by foreign influence under the Mahometans. The extreme view on the one hand is to regard all the best of the art as having been due to foreign importation. The Gandharan sculptures with their Greek tendency, the development of new forms and modes of treatment to which allusion has been made, the similarities to be found between the Manometan buildings of India and those of North Africa and Europe, the introduction of the minaret and, above all, the historical evidences that exist of the presence in India of Europeans during Mogul times, are cited in support of the theory. On the other hand those of the opposite school hold the foregoing view to be due to the prevailing European preconception that all light and leading must come by way of Europe, and the best things in art by way of Greece. To them the Gandharan sculp: ture, instead of being the best, is the worst in India even because of its Greek tincture. They find in the truly indigenous work beauties and significances not to be seen in the Graeco-Bactrian sculptures, and point to those of Borobuder in Java, the work of Buddhist colonists from India, wonderfully preserved by reason of an immunity from destructive influences given by the insular position, as showing the best examples of the art extant. It is probable that a just estimate of the merits of the controversy, with respect to sculpture at any rate, cannot be formed till time has obliterated some of the differences of taste that exist between East and West. To the adherents of the newer school the undisputed similarities between Indo-Mahometan and Hindu buildings outweigh those between Indian and Western Mahometan work, especially in the light of the dis-similarities between the latter. They admit the changes produced by the advent of Islam but contend that the art, though modified, rece so far as their detailed treatment and crat Agra and Delhi. Agra and Delhi may be regarded as t principal centres of the Indo-Saracenie style the former for the renowned Taj Mahal, Akbar's deserted capital of Fatehpur Sik his tomb at Secundra, the Moti Musjid ar palace buildings at the Agra fort. At Del we have the great Jumma Musjid, the For the tombs of Humayon, Sufdar Jung, & and the unique Qutb Minar. Two other gre centres may be mentioned, because in eac there appeared certain strongly marked ind vidualities that differentiated the varieti of the style there found from the variety see at Delhi and Agra, as well as that of one fro that of the other. These are Ahmedabad i Gujarat and Bijapur on the Dekhan, both i the Rombay Presidency. Ahmedabad. At Ahmedabad with its neighbours Sirkhe and Champanir there seems to be less of a depar ture from the older Hindu forms, a tendency t adhere to the lintel and bracket rather than t have recourse to the arch, while the dom though constantly employed, was there neve developed to its full extent as elsewhere, o carried to its logical structural conclusion. Th Ahmedabad work is probably most famous to the extraordinary beauty of its stone "jali"or pierced lattice-work, as in the palm tre windows of the Sidi Sayyid Musjid. Bijapur. The characteristics of the Bijapur variety of the style are equally striking. They ar perhaps more distinctively Mahomedan than those of the Ahmedabad buildings in that here the dome is developed to a remarkable degree, indeed the tomb of Mahmud-the well-known "Gol Gumbaz"-is cited as shew ing the greatest space of floor in any building in the world roofed by a single dome, not even excepting the Pantheon. The lintel also wa here practically discarded in favour of the arch The Bijapur style shews a bold masculine quality and a largeness of structural concep tion that is unequalled elsewhere in India though in richness and delicacy it does not attempt to rival the work of the further North. In this we recognize among c'her influences at of the prevailing material, the hard anmpromising Dekhan basalt. In a similar anner the characteristics of the Ahmedabad ork with its greater richness of ornamenta on are bound up with the nature of the Gujarat bestone, while at Delhi and Agra the freer choice of materials available-the local red and white sandstones, combined with access to marble and other more costly materialswas no doubt largely responsible for the many easily recognizable characteristics of the archi tecture of these centres. II. MODERN. The modern architectural work of India assumed some years ago the form of a mild ivides itself sharply into two classes. There controversy centring round the question of the first that of the indigenous Indian "Master then much discussed project of the Government ailder" to be found chiefly in the Native of India's new capital at Delhi. It was urged states, particularly those in Rajputana. that this project should be utilised to give the lecond there is that of British India. or of required impetus to Indian art rather than all those parts of the peninsula wherever that it should be made a means of fostering Western ideas and methods have most strongly European art which needed no such encourage. pread their influence, chiefly, in the case of ment at India's expense. The advocates of architecture, through the medium of the De- this view appear for the most part to have been artment of Public Works. The work of that adherents of the "indigenous Indian" school lepartment has been much animadverted of archaeologists already mentioned, and to Ipon as being all that building should not be, have based their ideas on their own reading of sm, considering it has been produced by men the past. They still muster a considerable of whom it was admittedly not the metier, and following not only amongst the artistic public who were necessarily contending with lack of of England and India, but even within the Expert training on the one hand and with de- Government services. Their opponents, holding partmental methods on the other, it must be what appears to be the more official view both Conceded that it can shew many notable build- as to archæology and art, have pointed to the ings Of recent years there has been a tend- "death" of all the arts of the past in other eney on the part of professional architects countries as an indication of a natural law, and to turn their attention to India, and a number of deprecate as waste of energy all efforts to resist these has ever been drafted into the service this law, or to institute what they have termed of Government as the result of a policy ini-"another futile revival" The British in India, tiated in Lord Curzon's Viceroyalty. In time, they contend, should do as did the ancient therefore, and with the growth of the influence Romans in every country on which they planted of these men. such of the reproach against their conquering foot. As those were wont to the building of the Pritish in India as was just replace indigenous art with that of Rome, so and was not merely thoughtlessly maintained should we set our seal of conquest permanently as a corollary to the popular jape against every-on India by the erection of examples of the best thing official, may gradually be removed. If of British art. This is the view which, as we have this is so as to Government work progress should indicated, appears to have obtained for the Se even more assured in the freer atmosphere moment the more influential hearing, and the outside of official life. Already in certain of task of designing and directing the construction the greater cities, where the trained modern of the principal buildings in the new Capital has architect has established himself in private accordingly been entrusted jointly to a London practice, there are signs that his influence is and to a South African architect, neither of beginning to be felt. He still complains, how- whom can be unduly influenced by either past ever, that the general public of India needs or recent architectural practice sc far as India much educating up to a recognition of his is concerned. value, both in a pecuniary sense and otherwise. It is also to be observed that the survival of a relic of the popular idea of the time the interests of the country's architecture, is But this controversy, however vital to before his advent, to the effect that though, too purely technical and academic for its merits an architect might occasionally a building it was always an engineer who built to be estimated by the general reader or disis still indicated by the architect in some lies in the fact that it affords an added interest cussed here. Its chief claim on our attention "ases deeming it advisable to style himself "architect and engineer." to the tourist, who may see the fruits of both schools of thought in the various modern build. ings of British India as well as examples of the To the work of the indigenous "master-master builders" work in nearly every native bilder" public attention has of recent years town and bazaar. The town of Laslikar in been drawn with some insistence, and the sug- Gwalior State may be cited as peculiarly rich estion has been pressed that efforts should be in instances of picturesque modern Indian directed towards devising means for the pre street architecture, while at Jaipur, Udaipur, servation of what is pointed out-and now benares, etc., this class of work may be studied universally acknowledged-to be a remarkable i. many different forms both civil and religious. survival-almost the only one left in the world-The extent to which the "unbroken tradition of "living art," but which is threatened with from the past" exists may there be gauged gradual extinction by reason of the spread of by the traveller who is architect enough for Western ideals and fashions. The matter the purpose. " "design" |