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 fempo- 
rary residence of the Kushana Emperor, this influence met with 
the nationalist resistance of highly cultivated Indians. In conse- 
guence 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 clas- 
sical 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 de 
veioped 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, ex- 
pression, movement and Ornament. If claimed divine origin and 
everlasting validity, but this high level could only be main- 
tained for a short time. In the crisis of the sixfh to eighfh 
cenfuries Gupta art became pompous and baroque, finally frivo- 
lous and mannered, designed by fhe arfists for shorf-lived mili- 
tary 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 wood- 
carvings 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 plat- 
form 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 round- 
ed 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 large- 
scale 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 tra 
dition. 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 cathe 
dral 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 Cha- 
lyukas 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