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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  household
  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  cireperdu
  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  picfures
  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  Keshavadas
  (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  atliludes
  (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  (dvibhanga,
  tribhanga,  samabhanga)  Inspired  by  women  carrying
children  or  water-pofs  on  the  hip.  The  highly  complicaied  footwork
  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),  meditation ­
  (jnana,  yoga),  threatening  (tarjani),  giving  (varada),
explaining  (vitarka),  preaching  (oyakhyana),  and  others.  Thus,
with  the  addition  of  characteristic  cosfumes,  crowns  (kirifamukuta,
  royal  crown;  jata-mukufa,  ascetic's  hair-style;  karandamukuta
  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  omniscience.
  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