Hariti and her children. Greco-Gandharan sculpture, 300 AD.
Photo from Jennifer Gowan, U of Oregon

Few cultures have as long a history of their artistic expression as India and even fewer have shown a comparable resilience: Over five millenia India has successively absorbed the creative impulses of the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indo-European and Vedic tribes, of the Greeks who followed Alexander of Macedonia, Kushans, Parthians, Mongols, and.Turks and melded them into a syncretic artistic idiom which eventually even turned 400 years of Islamic influence into an thoroughly Indian product: When we think of India today it is the Taj Mahal and 1001-Nights that come to mind.

The Indian icon, the Taj Mahal in Agra, 17th cent.
Photo Wikipedia

An examination of the sculptural record of this development shows another pecularity of Indian art. In no other culture does the female play a comparable role: from the early Greek-Gandharan depictions of Hariti and the temples of Kajuraho to the Taj Mahal woman is celebratated with a sensous voluptuousness and an explicit power, that may well be the chief characteristics of Indian art - and its secret source of strength.

The western side of the Kandariya Mahadev Temple, Kajuraho, 1050 AD.
Photo by RWFG.

It was left to the British Victorians to turn this Indian exuberance into a narrow-minded Christian morality in exchange for economic success and a Western education. Cricket replaced the Kamasutra....

This post traces the development of Indian art and architecture across the subcontinent, shows their varied sources and the up and downs of their development. I primarily tried to present pictoral evidence and avoid loaded arguments about Aryan vs. Dravidian styles or the non-identity of Indus, Harappan and Vedic cultures. I also tried to find dates for all objects, buildings and periods - which is not the greatest strength of Indian archeology and art history.