have been known to the Hindus for centuries. The Mogul Emperors also fostered the shipping industry and even the British East India Company in its early career helped build the Bengal Marine, thus carrying forward the work of generations past. In 1811, Lieutenant-Colonel A. Walker wrote: "Many ships Bombay-built after running fourteen or fifteen years have been brought into the (British) Navy and were considered as strong as ever. The Sir Edward Hughes performed, I believe, eight voyages as an Indiaman before she was purchased for the Navy. No Europebuilt Indiaman is capable of going more than six voyages with safety." The Indian Navy was utilized in the First and Second Burmese Wars and in the First of the two Chinese (or Opium) Wars. But since 1840 the British government began to discourage the ship-building industry and in 1863, shortly after the direct assumption of power by the British Crown, the Indian shipping was entirely abolished.

Thereby, the premier industry of India was destroyed, millions were thrown out of employment and the people have had to pay large sums of money to British shipping companies. The disappearance of Indian shipping furnishes an illustration of how other age-old industries of India, such as indigo and vegetable dye-stuffs, rich fabrics and textiles, were also destroyed by the British.

Now we shall have a hurried glance at the monuments of:

VII. INDIAN ART

Whereas, Europe can boast of but one ancient art gallery in the Hellenic Parthenon, Asia may well be proud of having two art galleries: (1) The Ajanta

*"In ancient times the Indians excelled in the art of constructing vessels, and the present Hindus can in this respect still offer models to Europe-so much so that the English, attentive to everything which relates to naval architecture, have borrowed from the Hindus many improvements which they have adopted with success to their own shipping. The Indian vessels unite elegance and utility, and are models of patience and fine workmanship."-"Les Hindous," by F. Baltazar Solvyns, quoted by Professor Mookerji.

Caves in India, and (2) the Borobudur Temple in Java constructed by Hindu sculptors. The vital impulse to be has an irrestible tendency to transfer and transcribe itself on some other manifestation of being, some other material-such as earth, rock, wood, marble or paper. The more exalted the life of a people, the more exuberant their art. From the earliest time, the people of India gave a full and free expression to their artistic emotion. But "nearly all Indian sculpture previous to the Buddhist epoch was in wood or other impermanent materials." The Vedic Period laid the foundations, and thereby provided the background of Buddhist Art.

(1) "Indian Art was conceived when that wonderful intuition flashed upon the Indian mind that the soul of man is eternal and one with the Supreme Soul, the Lord and cause of all things. * *The creative force generated from those great philosophical conceptions has not ceased to stimulate the whole art of Asia from that time to the present day." (2) "Art thus became less the pursuit of beauty than an attempt to realize the life which is without and beyond by the life which is within us-life in all its fullness and mystery, which is, and was, and is to come." These, in the words of Mr. E. B. Havell,* constitute the "leading motif" of Indian Art.**

The British Museum in London carries elaborate bas-reliefs from the Buddhist stupa at Amaravati, southern India, constructed about the 2nd Century A. C. Fergusson thinks that they represent "the culmination of the art of sculpture in India;" no doubt they hold a high place in the esteem of critics, both foreign and native. They offer, says Mr. Havell, "delightful studies of animal life, combined with extremely beautiful conventionalized ornament." And

†The non-discovery of the existence of any art-monument in pre-Buddhist period does not prove its barrenness in artistic expression.-H. T. M.

*Mr. Havell's book, "Indian Sculpture and Painting" is very remarkable.-H. T. M.

**The Dance of Siva," by Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami, is also very illuminating.-H. T. M.

though he regards some of the work as "skilled craftsmanship rather than fine art," Vincent Smith thinks that the sculpture as a whole "must have formed, when perfect, one of the most splendid exhibitions of artistic skill known in the history of the world." And critics agree that "the most varied and difficult movements of the human figure are drawn and modelled with great freedom and skill."

The reliefs at Bharhut and Sanchi in the plains of Northern India have commanded the admiration of all critics. Vincent Smith, in his "Oxford History of India," says: "The relief structures at Bharhut and Sanchi, some of which are little, if at all later than the time of Asoka (i. e., 3rd century B. C.) and may be regarded as pictures executed in stone, exhibit most vividly all the details of the life of the age. It was a bustling, cheerful life, full of wholesome activity and movement. The artists delighted in representing it with frank realism, and in decorating their panels with ornaments of charming design treated with good taste."

The charge sometimes made that Hindu art was indebted to Hellenic influence is disproved by the following assertion of Mr. Havell: "The great culture-centers of Asia at this time (i. e., 3rd century B. C., to 3rd century A. C.) were the Indian universities of Takshasila (Taxila), Benares, Sridhanya Kataka, on the banks of the Krishna, and Nalanda: their influence was supreme, and compared with it the whole influence of Hellenism in Indian art may be taken as a negligible factor."*

""What Cluny and Clairvaux were to France in the Middle Ages,' says Fergusson, 'Nalanda was to Central India-the depository of all true learning and the foundation from which it spread to all other lands of the faithful.' The whole range of education in these great universities was schemed and coordi

*Hellenic ideas of art influenced only one school with some success, namely the Gandhara school in the northwestern parts of India. Even so, it was a drop in the ocean.-H. T. M.

nated with a breadth and largeness undreamt of in modern India. There were schools of painting, sculpture, and handicrafts as well as of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other sciences; at Nalanda religion and philosophy were taught from a hundred chairs. Not less greatly planned were the equipment and environment of the colleges. Houen Tsang (650 A. C.) who resided at Nalanda for several years, says it was 'an enchanting abode.' It had been in existence for seven centuries when he visited it. * * *""

Mr. Havell continues: "The groves of mangotrees and the immense tanks still remain as memorials of this splendid convent. There were thousands of these convents, though this was the finest of them all. To them flocked students from all parts of Asia, and from them went out missionaries who brought Indian religion, philosophy, science, and art to the most distant parts of the continent-China, Korea and Japan.

"Among such surroundings and by such influences were nurtured and developed the culture and ideals which created the great monuments of Indian art."

The Ellora and Elephanta caves have commanded universal admiration. Ellora contains, says the Cyclopedia Americana, "remarkable cave temples excavated in the solid rock, which in magnitude and perfection surpass all other constructions of the kind in India." It contains three series of temples, twelve Buddhist, five Jain and seventeen Brahmanical. The construction of Ellora temples is placed between the fifth and ninth centuries after Christ. The Elephanta contains the Hindu Trinity: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Siva the Destroyer (rather, Transformer-by-Destruction).

The finds of Tut-Ankh-Amen's tomb in Egypt are creating a stir abroad. But nobody in the outside world knew anything of the remarkable finds of art and furniture, excavated at Taxila a few odd years ago. Taxila was probably a great seat of learning at the time of Buddha (500 B. C.) and we have records

of its existence as a university until the 7th Century A. C. When the remains have been all dug out and pieced together, we shall have the living history of a thousand years' activities in actual records.

The pyramidal stupa at Borobudur in Java is called "The Parthenon of Asia"-and well may it be so described. The Hindus who migrated to Java in the beginning of the 7th century devoted their energies to peaceful activities and artistic pursuits. Here in Java, away from the burning sun of India, Buddhist art found its highest expression. Mr. Havell describes it thus: "The whole of the great building, from the basement to the seventh story, was adorned with a series of wonderful sculptures and bas-reliefs, extending in aggregate for a length of nearly three miles, and expounding in ordered sequence the history, mythology and philosophy of the Buddhist faith. For the devout Buddhist pilgrim who paced these sculptured galleries, they were illustrated scriptures, which even the most ignorant could read, telling in living words the life-story and message of the Master." Both inside and outside, the temple is "profusely ornamented with bas-reliefs, representing battles, sea-fights,* processions and chariot races, carried to an extent unrivaled by any other building in the world." The Americana further says that it is "the most elaborate monument of Buddhist style existing anywhere." The Borobudur temple, pervaded by gracious humanity, is the supreme triumph and glory of Indian art. The construction lasted about 400 years from the 7th to the 10th century, inclusive.

Ajanta is the national art gallery of India and unfolds many forgotten chapters of Indian history. Under the peace-loving Asoka, no more war materials had to be manufactured, so the artists and artisans betook themselves to the wild ravines and the basaltic rocks of Ajanta-there to fly away from the distract

*The Philadelphia Museum has a most interesting exhibit of the model of one of the Hindu-Javanese ships. an "outrigger," copied from the Borobudur Temple.-H. T. M.