98 ESSAYS IN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

strength; the guilds of artists little by little lost their
power and culture, and at the same time the corrupt-
ing influence of Europe was felt, until at the present
day neither the old traditions nor any new develop-
ment, except in special cases, reveal the real artistic
Instinct of the Indian people. Such, from the Indian
point of view, is a brief reading of the history
of Hindu art. That history in all its detail remains yet to
be written; the day is far distant when we can date a
bronze or a stone sculpture with certainty even to a
century, lacking the evidence of inscriptions; but when
the history of Indian art is thus at last made known, and
correlated with the life and ideas of the people, it will be
abundantly clear how small was the ultimate importance,
of the classic influence in the development of all that
is most essential in it. Indeed, if originality be regarded
as of so much importance, it is certain that no art in the
world is further removed in aims and in form from
that of Greece, than is the art of the Dravidian South
or even the Buddhist art of Borobodur. And it
must always be borne in mind that if a survival of
Greek influence is anywhere traceable in later
Indian art, this no more itself invalidates a claim for
genius and originality in that art, than the fact that all '
his plots are borrowed makes Shakespeare a poor dramatist.
"No mature art stands absolutely alone, or lacks an inheri-
tance from other arts. It is the nature and extent of this
inheritance in Indian art, which have been misunderstood
and exaggerated. The qttestion, moreover, is one at issue
essentially between archaeologists and artists who accept
their facts but question their interpretation; it is not a
question between patriots claiming originality—obvious
in any case—and foreign students denying it. Compared
with the vital significance of Indian art as a manifestation
of the Indian genius, the question is, indeed, of hardly
more than academic importance.