1871, ] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 103 
deshabille ; while the latter insist upon decency, modesty and covering 
of the person as of the utmost importance. Looking, however, to the 
facts that in many instances clothing is represented on females, but 
not to cover their modesty ; men and even children are clothed, but 
wives and mothers are left without any covering ; horses are covered 
with housings, but female beholders of the highest rank, standing in 
the verandas of two-storied houses and decked with a profusion of 
rich jewels, are made to content themselves with the raiment of the 
atmosphere ; it is concluded that the prevailing character of the bas- 
reliefs and statues of Sanchi and Amardvati is due, not so much 
to ethnic or social causes as, to the exigencies of art. No doubt the 
scantily clad Tamulian aboriginal races formed the great bulk of 
Buddhist congregations, and were more freely and plentifully repre- 
sented on the monuments of their co-religionists than the Aryans, 
but their presence alone does not suffice to account for all the pecu- 
liarities noticed. It is supposed, therefore, that a conventional rule 
of art, such as has made the sculptors of Europe prefer the nude to 
the draped figure; or a prevailing desire to display the female contour 
in all its attractiveness; or the unskilfulness of early art; or the 
difficulty of chiseling drapery on such coarse materials as were 
ordinarily accessible in this country ; or a combination of some, or 
all, those causes exercised a more potent influence on the action of 
the Indian artist than ethnic or social peculiarities in developing 
the human form in stone. There was likewise, it is to be pre- 
sumed, a longing for variety, and a pruriency of imagination and 
design, which made the males appear in dresses of diverse kinds 
and the females in a state of nature. At Bhuvanes/vara a religious 
sentiment, that of veneration for the creative energy or phallic 
worship, was evidently also brought to bear upon art, and to 
produce an effect highly offensive to good taste. But whether so or 
not, it would, the author of the paper is of opinion, be as effectual 
to draw our conclusions regarding the costumes of the ancient In- 
dians solely and exclusively from the sculptures they have left 
behind them, as it would be for the New-Zealander of Macaulay 
to do the same with reference to the Europeans of the 19th cen- 
tury from the collection of modern statuary in the Crystal Palace 
at Kensington or the Louvre. 
