1G8 Rajendrakila Mitra — On Greek Art in India. [August, 



refined, as it did at Amravarti, it became more vigorous and more local in 

 its manifestations." (p. 269.) Not wishing to rely upon my own judg- 

 ment in a case in which so great an authority had expressed a decided 

 opinion, I communicated the above remark to Mr. H. H. Locke, of the 

 Government School of Art, Calcutta, who has devoted his whole life to the 

 study of art professionally, and is the most competent to decide the 

 question without any native or patriotic leaning, and I got the following in 

 reply from him ; " I cannot at all support the quotation which you send me 

 from Fergusson. I do not perceive any more of " Greek feeling" in the 

 Ganes'a version of the fighting scene than in the Rani Gumpha rendering. 

 As to the Ganes'a carving being " first Greek attempt," and the Rani " a 

 degenerate local manifestation of it" there is absolutely nothing in the car- 

 vings themselves to support such a notion. The Ganes'a carving (so far as 

 can be judged of in its present very mutilated state) is rather the ruder of 

 the two." Without caring to decide who is right in the case you will, I 

 have no doubt, readily admit that the evidence which can yield such 

 diametrically opposite results, must be extremely faulty. 



" The next test is relative proportion. It has generally been accepted 

 as a very good test for determining the nationality of human figures ; but 

 seeing, that no two masters of the Hellenic art adopted the same relative 

 proportions, and further, that they are subject to extensive variations accor- 

 ding to age, sex, and other causes, not to advert to the fact that specimens 

 of ancient Indian art are generally of so primitive a character that they are 

 not amenable to technical rules, it is hopeless to deduce from them any reli- 

 able evidence for a general premiss. Doubtless there are certain peculiarities 

 in proportion, which if properly studied by experts, — such, for instance, as the 

 breadth of the head along the eyes, which in Greece almost uniformly mea- 

 sured five eyes, would doubtless be of value as collateral proofs, but they 

 can under no circumstance be accepted as well-established majors for any 

 universal conclusion. 



" But while denying general appearance and relative proportions to be 

 of much value as tests, I must admit that there are points in sculpture 

 which must be accepted as conclusive. These refer to the representation of 

 local peculiarities in art, and their value depends upon the amount of cer- 

 tainty with which their local character is established. Thus, for instance, 

 the disposition of the hair of the head, which differed greatly at different 

 times among different nations, and which, whenever the styles and their 

 ages are well-known, must at once determine the nationality of the figures 

 on which they are found. 



" In the same way, in well -finished statues the high cheek bones and 

 other peculiarities of feature, as also drapery, may be accepted as good tests 

 to that end. Posture or pose being generally dependent on the nature of 

 action intended to be indicated, and human nature being everywhere alike 



