35 
sfone of various coiours. It was not until later thal Islamic art 
also took over the Hindu enthusiasm for luxuriant plant forms 
and created lotus pillars, lotus domes and arches wreathed in 
tlowers. 
Sculpture and Painting 
Architecture alone thus opened an exceptionally wide tield to 
the sculptor and painter. In addition Ihere were the bronze 
statues for use in processions, innumerable small figures of house- 
hold gods, ciay figures for various feasfs (fhese were subsequently 
thrown info the water), idols and foys of boked clay, terracotta 
reliefs for the smaller femples, tips for Standards decorated with 
figures, mirrors, jeweller's work and so on. For their pari, the 
painters had not only fo decorate the walls of the temples, 
palaces and courtisans' houses with trescoes from the myths and 
epics, but also had to illusfrate manuscripts of palm-leaf and 
later, of paper, and to execufe porfraits on wooden plaques 
and paper and larger painfings on cotfon cloth. 
The sculptor in stone generally designed his figure first on the 
outside of the sfone with a brush betöre setting to work with his 
chisel. For the temples, statues and reliefs were not let in: affer 
the stonemason had roughed fhem out, fhey were worked straight 
out of the wall. For this reason the easily transportable religious 
figures (murti) are found far more frequently in our museums than 
other sculpture, far more common but almosf irremovable. Bronze, 
mixed from eight metals, and later brass was cast by the cire- 
perdu process. Paintings were executed direct on the wall, using 
the fresco-secco technique, or palnfed on a thin layer of chalk 
over the very rough paper, using stone or vegetable coiours. 
Although fhey were familiär with drawing from nalure, the 
artisfs nevertheless generally worked from memory, idealised the 
figures and stylised fhem in poses and gestures taken from the art 
of dancing. The vifality of Indian figure work is traceable on Ihe 
one hand to frank and tactile sensualify, on the other hand to a 
sfrongly expressive rhythm and an equally sensitive reproduction 
of mood by the attitude of body, head and hands and a noble, 
if somefimes insipid facial expression. Coarse realism, offen 
exaggerated into the grotesque, was perfectly well known, but 
was only used for populär scenes, demons, and so on. Usually 
the landscape was only hinted at, but from the seventeenth 
Century, under European influence, it was given in greater detail. 
Ol the ancient painting, only fragmenfs have been preserved, af 
Bagh, Ajanta (Cat. 341—352), Badami, Kancipura, Sittanvasal, 
etc., or engraved on metal or stone; from the Middle Ages, as 
well as the frescoes of Tanjore, Lepakshi, Kanci, etc., we also 
have Buddhist and Jaina palm-leaf manuscripts. The great 
majority of Works sfill available originale from the period since 
the lifteenth Century, especially from fhe seventeenth Io fhe 
ninefeenth Century. Alongside historical porfraits and frequently 
unique illusfrated Persian and Hindi Works, certain sets of pic- 
fures recur almost regularly; a few populär religious books, like 
the Bhagavata-Purana and Devi-Mahafmya, the Hindu Epics, the 
Gifagovinda (the Indian "High Song"), the Rasikpriya of Kesha- 
vadas (a collecfion of erofic poems), hymns and music illus- 
Irations (Ragmala); these in the ninefeenth Century made up 
the library of every nobleman's home. 
Iconographic Symbolism 
The artisfs took from the art of dancing a fixed Canon of atli- 
ludes (sthana), seated poses (asana), arm positlons (hasfa) and 
hand gestures (mudra), of which each, either by ilself or in 
conjunction with another, bore a parlicular meaning, so thal the 
hand-play builds up the danced pantomime into a complete 
Story, even confaining psychological undertones. The affitudes 
are characterised by sirong body-bending movements (dvib- 
hanga, tribhanga, samabhanga) Inspired by women carrying 
children or water-pofs on the hip. The highly complicaied foot- 
work does not sfart at fhe loes buf af fhe heel, a result of 
wearing open sandals. The sealed poses include a represenlation 
of langour (lalita), meditation (yoga), feaching (pralambapada), 
attack (alidha), efc. The hand gestures indicate protection 
(bhaya), prayer (anjali), holding (ardhachandra, kataka), medi 
tation (jnana, yoga), threatening (tarjani), giving (varada), 
explaining (vitarka), preaching (oyakhyana), and others. Thus, 
with the addition of characteristic cosfumes, crowns (kirifa- 
mukuta, royal crown; jata-mukufa, ascetic's hair-style; karanda- 
mukuta and kundula-bandha, hair-style for goddesses and queens 
and so on), and jewelry, especially fhe large belfs (makhala) 
nearly every lype of human being or god could be indicafed. 
Many arms expressed divine power, many heads divine omni- 
science. This was nof regarded as freakish because fhe person 
of a god was not experienced as anafomical reality buf as a 
Vision (Sadhana); in good Indian works of art, Iherefore, many 
arms never give the effecl of a single physical mass but as the