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

BUDDHIST

ICONS

in

men as

Sri—is there. Indra upon

his

elephant, the rain-

cloud

;

Dtirga upon

her

tawny

lion, the

scorchingheat of

the

Indian

plains

—all the

Vedic

gods are

there as witnesses

of

the Truth.

But Buddha, the Blessed

One Himself,

is only

represented

by the precious relics

placed within

the Vedic

altarupon

thechaityaofthePari-Nirvana.

Suddenly, about the beginning of

the Christian

era, the

chaitya becomes something more than

anature-symbol

and

a

reliquary: it is transformed intoa

shrine for the

Buddha as

theDeity, and

everywhere images ofthe Blessed

Oneas the

Preacher, or as the

Great

Yogi,

appear within

the chaitya-

houses and

monasteries of the Sangha. Are

we to suppose

thatduringthefivecenturieswhich had

elapsed sincethe

first

preachingoftheLaw,allthefollowers of

the Buddhahad

kept

strictlytothe spiritofAryanphilosophy,

as expounded

in the

DeerParkatSarnath,andevenrefrained

frommakingfor

them-

selvesgravenorpaintediconstokeepin

memorythe

personality

of theirbeloved Master

?

As human

nature is,this

wouldbe

altogether incredible. There must have been

numbers of

pious Buddhists,outside the strict rules of

the Sangha,

who

kept among their household gods His pictured

and graven

image, beforewhich theywould sitin silent

adoration as

they

meditateddailyupon Hisinspired precepts.

All thatwe

really

know

is

that from

the chaitya-houses

andmonasteries

ofthe

orthodox Sangha, uponwhich the finest artistryof

theAryan

geniuswas lavished, suchpicturesand imageswere

excluded.

It is easyto understand, also, that a close

restriction of

this kind upon the

highest imagination

of the painter

and

sculptor is sufficient in

itself toaccount

for the comparative

barrenness of Indo-Aryan fine art during the centuries
when

the Western

branch of the same family tree was

producing

such wonderful fruit

in the temples

of

ancient

Greece. In

latertimesithad thesamesterilisingeffectupon the Muham-