The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

ANTIQUITY OF

HINDU CRAFT

TRADITIONS

41

for so many
centuries. The fact that
the earliest have not

hitherto
been discovered is
only an instance of how a false

premiss mayobscure
the mentalvision of experts

;

but

when

thefine
workoftheIndianmaster-builderinthe
nineteenthand

twentieth
centuries has entirely
escaped the notice of Anglo-

Indians,itisnaturaltoexpect

that theyshouldoftenlosetheir

wayinmoreremotefields of

observation.

"

Noone,"

saysFergusson,

"

canaccusethe pureAryans

ofbuildingtemplesatall, orofworshippingimagesofSivaor

Vishnu."

'

He ignoressuchpassages in the Mahabharata as

that

inBhishmaVadhaParva,

sect,

cxiii.":

"

Theidols of the

Kuru

Kingin his

templestrembleand

danceand

weep."

The

Saivism andVaishnavism which run through the whole of

the

Hindu epics Fergusson treats as modern corruptions of

the

"

pure

Aryanfaith

"

asexpounded

intheVedas,andexplains

awaythe evidencewhichconflicts

withhisstatementsas falsi-

fications

of the Hindu sacredtextsmadeby

thewilyBrahman

of medieval

times. But the architectural

theories which he

brought forwardasevidence

breakdownatevery

pointonclose

examination. I hold no brief for

Hindu theologians.

All

schoolsoftheology

writehistoryfroma

theological

ratherthan

ascientific standpoint; but

when one considers

how Hindu

religious

traditionswere handed

downfromone

generation to

another, the

probabilitiesofany

extensive

deliberate falsifica-

tion seem to be very

remote. It is

easyto falsifya

written

statement of

which only a few

copies are

made, but

that a

nationaloraltradition,

theprecision

ofwhich

wasscientifically

maintained bya most

elaborate

mnemonic system

in which

everywordand

syllablewas

counted,couldbe

deliberately

falsi-

fied bya few

unscrupulous

priests

is less

credible than the

assumption that

amateur

archaeologists

sometimesmake

fatal

mistakes.

J "

IndianArchitecture

"

(revisededition),

vol.i.

p.42-

^ Roy's

translation.