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

112

THE NEW

DEPARTURE

madan artofEuropeand

Asia. But

forthis

restriction early

Aryansculpture

and painting

might

have grown

to thesame

height in India as it

did in

Greece; for

the ideal gods of

Hellaswere of the

same aesthetic

growth as

the earlyhymns

of

the Rig-Veda, sung by

the Aryans

in their

Eastern home

to the

nature-gods they

worshipped.

Here,

however, the

artistic

genius of theWestern

Aryans stopped

short. They

never were

inspired with a

more profound

metaphysic than

the

Homeric gods

;

for

Greece lost her

freedom, and her

artists

becametheservants of

foreignpatrons

less intellectual

than their

own countrymen

before that

consummation was

reached.

Itwaslefttotheir

brother-artistsintheEastto

proceed

fromthe

primitivenature-godsofthe

Rig-Vedatothe

inspired

conceptions of the Upanishads; but

there never was

at any

time that irreconcilable

antagonism between the ideals of

Greece and of India which modern

classical scholasticism

fondly imagines—becausethe

inspiration bothof Greeceand

ofIndialies beyondits aesthetic

comprehension.

Thefirstgreatimpulseof

the newmovement, withinthe

jurisdiction of the Buddhist

Sangha itself,was synchronous

with a considerable readjustment

of political conditions in

Northern India. In the year 184

B.C. the Mauryan dynasty

founded by Chandragupta

became extinct, and a new one,

known asthe Sunga,was

establishedupon

the

imperialthrone

of

Pataliputra. Pushyamitra, the first of the line, wasnota

follower of the

Buddha,

but

celebrated

his

accession and a

decisivevictoryover Menander, a Baktrian

monarchwho,

like

Seleukos,

was

ambitious

of repeating the

conquestsof Alex-

ander,

bytheoldVedicrite

of

thegreathorsesacrifice.

ButthedominionsoverwhichPushyamitraruled

were

of

smallextentcomparedwith thoseofAsoka. After

the

death

of the latter, the glory of the Mauryan

empire was

soon

eclipsed bythe rise of another dynasty,

that of the Andhras,