THE AIMS AND METHODS OF INDIAN ART. 41

-entirely in spirit from the imitative decorative art of
modern Europe.

Take Indian jewellery as another illustration of
idealism in decorative art. The traditional forms have
distinctive names, just as a * curb bracelet ' or a * gipsy
ring' may be spoken of in England. In India the names
are usually those of special flowers or fruits, or generic
terms for flowers or seeds, as i rid-flower thread,' * cocoanut-
flower garland,' i petal garland/ ' string of millet grains,'
4 ear-flower,' ' hair-flower.' These names are reminiscent
of the garlands of real flowers, and the flowers in the hair,
tha,t play so important a part in Indian festal dress. These,
with the flowers and fruits worn as talismans or as
religious symbols, are the prototypes of the flower forms
-of Indian jewellery, which thus, like all other Indian art,
reflects the thought, the life and history of the people by
-and for whom it is so beautifully made.

The traditional forms, then, are named after flowers;
but it is highly characteristic that the garlands and flowers
.are in. design purely suggestive, not at all imitative of the
prototypes. The realism which is so characteristic of
nearly all modern Western art, in jewellery producing the
unimaginative imitations of flowers, leaves, and animals of
the school of Lalique, is never found in Indian design.

The passion for imitation may be taken a,s direct
evidence of the lack of true artistic impulse, which is
always a desire, conscious or sub-conscious, to express or
manifest Idea. Why indeed imitate where you can. never
rival ? Nor is it by a conscious, intellectual effort tha,t a
flower is to be conventionalised and made into applied
ornament. Ko Indian craftsman sets a, flower before him
and worries out of it some sort of ornament by taking