hundred  years.  The  Gandhara  style  finally  succumbed  (seventh
Century  A.  D.)  in  a  tnixfure  of  Hellenistic,  Sasano-Persian  and
Gupta-Indian  derivations.
The  Hellenistic  intluence,  however,  did  not  extend  further  than
the  Western  Panjab.  In  the  great  trading  and  pilgrimage  city  of
Mathura  (Cat.  102—129)  (between  Agra  and  Delhi),  the  femporary
  residence  of  the  Kushana  Emperor,  this  influence  met  with
the  nationalist  resistance  of  highly  cultivated  Indians.  In  conseguence
  the  Sunga  art  tradition  underwenf  a  complefe  change.
Whaf  had  been  naive  became  deliberate,  and  an  Indian  canon
came  into  being,  a  consciously  Indian  and  antihellenist  ideal  of
beauty,  fhaf  of  the  fertility  of  man  and  fhaf  of  the  performance
of  music  and  rhythm.  Under  the  Gupta  Emperors  (fourth  fo  sixfh,
and  particularly  the  fifth  Century)  this  deveioped  into  the  classical
  art  of  India,  valid  for  the  whole  sub-continent,  even  for
the  Buddhist  art  of  eastern  and  central  Asia  and  for  the  early
art  of  the  Indian  cultures  in  south-east  Asia.  They  also  bullt  huge
palaces  in  broad  gardens,  imitations  of  the  Palace  of  the  Gods
on  the  Kailasa  (Meru)  imitations  of  which  can  still  be  seen  in
Ceylon.  Gupta  art  (Cat.  153)  deveioped  the  Hindu  temple,  a
Cella  with  a  world-mountain  supersfructure,  surrounded  by  entry
halls,  circular  paths,  smaller  temples,  with  an  entrance  partly
inspired  by  Roman  art.  New  types  of  figures  and  Ornaments  were
worked  ouf,  also  partly  after  Roman  patterns.  Gupta  art  deveioped ­
  the  iconography  of  the  Hindu  gods  and  of  the
Buddhist  Heaven  and  also  gesture  language  deveioped  from
the  ballet,  and  strove  for  absolute  perfection  in  form,  expression,
  movement  and  Ornament.  If  claimed  divine  origin  and
everlasting  validity,  but  this  high  level  could  only  be  maintained
  for  a  short  time.  In  the  crisis  of  the  sixfh  to  eighfh
cenfuries  Gupta  art  became  pompous  and  baroque,  finally  frivolous
  and  mannered,  designed  by  fhe  arfists  for  shorf-lived  military
  dynasfies  with  the  aid  of  models,  patterns  and  handbooks,
and  the  handbooks  which  prescribed  every  detail  now  laid  claim
fo  divine  revelafion.
After  the  decline  of  Gupta  culfure,  Indian  arf  disintegrated  into
five  styles.  The  Kashmir  style,  sfarting  in  the  eighth  Century  with
huge  buildings  and  gigantic  picforial  works  in  mixed  Gupta,
Gandhara,  Roman,  and  Chinese  styles,  degenerafed  after  fhe
middle  of  the  tenth  Century  into  a  rococo  of  decorative  woodcarvings
  and  pretentious  painfings,  finally  faken  over  by  the
Tibefans.  Bengal,  under  the  Palas  the  last  stronghold  of  sivaitic
reformed  Buddhism  with  a  teeming  pantheon,  refined  late  Gupta

architecture  and  sculpture  into  highly  decorated  icons  which,
under  the  Sena  Kings,  were  also  used  for  Hindu  gods.
In  the  heart  of  norfhern  India,  however,  the  temple  cathedral
grew  under  the  Pratihara  Emperors  and  their  Rajput  vassals;
massive  and  rieh  as  a  Gothic  cathedral,  soaring  on  a  high  platform
  over  flights  of  steps,  enfry  halls  and  halls  for  dancing  and
religious  observances  to  the  skyscraper  tip  of  the  Holy  of  Hohes,
covered  according  to  a  carefully  designed  plan  over  and  over
with  picforial  work.  For  this  purpose  all  the  motifs  of  Gupta  art
were  re-casf  in  about  the  same  way  as  Roman  art  was  turned
into  Romanesque.  The  picforial  work,  at  first  stiff,  became  rounded
  in  the  ninth  Century,  slender  and  fashionably  elegant  in  the
tenth  and  eleventh,  finally  an  affected  filigree  of  Ornament.  The
deep  religious  feeling  soon  yielded  to  a  sensuous  wordliness  and
öfter  fhe  fwelfth  Century  sank  into  fhe  inexpressiveness  of  a  largescale
  mass  production.
ln  the  Deccan  this  same  development  was  introduced  by  the
Calukyas  of  Badami.  At  first  it  remained  rudimenfary.  Brahmin
cave-femples,  adopted  from  Buddhist  cave  monasferies  of  the
Gupta  period,  remained  customary  into  the  ninth,  Jaina  caves
unfil  the  tenth  to  eleventh  Century.  The  sfone  temples,  built  round
the  hall  for  religious  observances  in  place  of  the  Holy  of  Hohes,
remained  faifhfui,  at  first  to  a  modest  degree,  to  the  Gupta  tradition. ­
  Great  temples  were  first  built  at  Paftadakal  under  Pallava
influence,  and  the  Kailasanatha  at  Elura,  a  cliff  temple  in  the
Paftadakal  style,  was  exfended  by  the  Rashirakufas  to  a  cathedral ­
  of  huge  size,  and  only  under  the  later  (western)  Calyukas
was  this  mediaeval  cathedral  completed.  Sculpture  flucfuated  to
the  same  degree,  following  the  Gupta  style  into  the  early  eighth
Century,  then  developing  grandiosify  and  mystic  vision,  from  the
tenth  Century  light  and  elegant,  and  lurning  under  the  late  Chalyukas
  and  Hoyshalas  into  filigree  work.
In  the  Tamil  South  the  Pallavas  also  started  with  late  Gupta  art.
The  Siva  and  Vishnu  temples  at  Mamallapura  (seventh  Century)
and  many  other  places  were  still  highly  modest,  but  the  eighth
Century  state  temples  at  Kanci  (Conjeevaram),  particularly  the
Kailasanatha,  grew  large,  their  style  baroque  and  restless,  the
figures  heavy  and  passionate,  the  frescoes  painfed  in  sfrong
colours.  After  a  classical  renaissance  the  Cola  Emperors  took  up
this  tendency  and  built  giant  temples  with  a  towering  Holy  of
Holles,  gate  struefures,  and  furfher  halls  for  religious  observances
at  Tanjore,  Gangaikondacolapura,  Darasuram,  Tirubhuvanam,
etc.  AI  the  same  time  fhe  picforial  work  became  coarser.  In  the