PREFACE
The speech of H.M. the King at the opening of the School of Oriental Studies in London, and the efforts now being made by the India Society to endow a permanent Lectureship in Indian Art at the School, suggest the need of a suitable handbook for the subject. Public interest in Indian art, both in India and in Europe, has increased greatly since I made the first attempt to explain its ideals and modes of expression in my Indian Sculpture and Painting, now out of print.
The present work, embracing architecture, sculpture, and painting in its scope, aims at giving such a concise survey of the whole subject, free from dry technicalities, as will interest both the student and general reader, and serve as a useful handbook for travellers in India. At the same time it attempts a solution of several interesting problems which have exercised the minds of archæologists for many years, and gives the results of further researches in a field which still offers unlimited scope for the art student.
In this respect, therefore, it enlarges upon and sometimes revises the conclusions arrived at in my previous works. It may serve as the foundation of a full and competent history of fine art in India, which still remains to be written.
In the architectural section I have aimed at giving such an explanation as will enable the reader to perceive
