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124
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JUNE, 1914.
Indies are dull and Delhit indechone of
MISCELLANEA. PAINTING AND ENGRAVING AT AGRA
of Indian artists is so rarely obtainable that I am
unable to say whether UdQt Singh and Ghulâm AND DELHI IN 1666.
Raza belonged to the Agra School or not. The ONE of the best and mont instructive of the old lasciviousness of that school may be ascribed travellers was Monsieur Joan de Thevenot, who reasonably to the evil example set by Shahjahan.. visited India in 1666 and 1667, dying near Tauris When Indian painting becomes better underor Tabriz in Persia in November, 1667. His
stood than it is at present, critics probably will travels were translated into English and published
be able to distinguish at sight the productions of in that language in 1687. Writers on Indian art
Delhi from those of Agra. The traveller's high have not yet noticed, 80 far as I am aware, bis
praise of the colouring is fully justified, but his criticism of the Agra and Delbl paintings, which I censure that the Indian painters " make faces ill", transcribe as being of considerable interest -
does not apply to the better portraits. "One may see a great many pictures in the Indies upon paper and pasteboard, but generally
His statement that there were tolerably good they are dull pieces, and none are esteemed but
engravers at Delhi is new to me, and I shall be those of Agra and Delhi : however, since those of
much obliged if any body can produce a specimen Agra are for the most part indecent, and represent
of seventeenth century engraving done by an Indian Lascivious posturee, worse than those of Aretin,
artist. there are but few civil Europeans that will buy 1 A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon them" (Part III. p. 39).
p. 336. "The painters of Dolbl are modester than those
VINCENT A. SMITH, of Agra, and spend not their paine about lascivious
Oxford. pictures, as they do. They apply themselves to the rendering of Histories, and in many places, one
KAUTILYA AND THE ARATTAS. may meet with the Battels and Victories of their In the Bibliotheca Indica edition of the Vayu. princes, indifferently well painted, Order is observed
Purana the passage (37, 324) about the succession in them, the personages have the suitableness that
of Chandragupta stands as follows: is necessary to them, and the colours are very lovely, but they make faces ill. They do things उद्धरिष्यति तान् सर्वान् कौटिल्यो वरिष्टभि* :। in miniature pretty well, and there are some at
चंद्रगुप्नं नृपं राज्ये कौटिल्यः स्थापयिष्यति॥ Delbi who engrave indifferently well also ; but speing they are not much encouraged, they do not
"Kautilya will uproot all of them (Sahasu or apply themselves to their work, with all the ex
Sahasva and others, the 8 sons and successors of ctness they might : and all their care is to do Ag the Mahipadma, 323), through Dvirash a . . . Thuuch work as they can, for present money to subsist un'. (Ibid., p. 46).
What were thene dvirashtas3? Apparently some The traveller, it will be observed, had a poor people. I propose to read the word as Virashtraopinion of the work of the contemporary artists bhi. Virashtras would be the same as .ratlas, seven or eight years after the accession of Aurangzeb, whose puritanical opinions no doubt
On this datum of the Vayu, it appears that much discouraged art. When I examined hundreds
Chandragupta was mainly helped by the Arattas in of specimens of Mughal and Indo-Mughal art
his war, which has been related, though no doubt three years ago, I found only four, namely, throe
in exaggerated terms, in the Milinda-panho, es by Udot Bingh and one by Ghulam Raza, which
fought between Bhadrasala, the Nanda's general. could be reproached for indecency. The wholesale
and Chandragupta. They were the band of accusation of indecency brought against the artists
mbbers" of Justin, as Cunningham guessed years of Agra, no doubt quite justified, has been a surprise
ago. But Cunningham thought that Chandragupta to me. The explanation of the absence of such
used them against the Greeks. That might or objectionable works from the London collections
might not have been the case ; here we have must be that suggested by de Thevenot, namely,
evidence to hold only this much that they were that civil,' or decent Europeans seldom bought
used against the Nandas. the indecent paintings. Information about the lives
K. P. JAYASWAL. Between these lines the second half of the preceding sloka intervenes :
मुक्तां महीं वर्ष शतं नन्देन्तुः सभविष्यति : . Sumalya and others, in the Vishnu. 3 Changed in the Brahmanda into ir : • A confusion between dvi and vi.
Probably it was originally "itter: implying that with Arashtans or Aratthans, Kautilya exterminated the Nandas, not all at one and the same time, but in two different attempts.-D. R. B.
5 And further there was Bhaddasala, the soldier in the service of the royal family of Nanda, and he Waged war against king Chandragupta. Now in that war, Någasena, there were eighty Corpse Dances ii, p. 147.
" It was this prodigy which first inspired him with the hope or winning the throne, and so having collected a band of robbers, he instigated the Indians to overthrow the existing Government." (V., 4.). The Ceylon tradition also says that he was helped by "robbers. Cf. Maldbhdrata, Karna-Parva. xliv.. (31-32) the Arattas are shorn of virtue, (37) they are to be avoided; (44, 21) they are robbers by habit.
7 Buddhist tradition implies that he started his operations by first conquering or winning over the frontier
