PLATE LXXXIV.

INDIAN EMBROIDERY ON BLACK CLOTH.

On the threshold of an analysis of the art displayed in the specimens contributed to the Great Exhibition from the continent of India , the student is met by two obvious and distinct varieties; one of which he willfind to emanate from the ancient Hindoo traditions, and the other, through the Mahommedan conquerors ofthe soil, from the far-off glories of ancient Persia and the imperial court of Byzantium. In the presentarticle we shall attempt to note a few peculiarities concerning the former of these styles, reserving for asubsequent paper a similar brief investigation of the latter.

It is impossible to read the accounts of Arrian, Herodotus , and other ancient historians, without perceivingthat, even in the days of Darius Hystaspes and Alexander the Great , the population of Ilindostan had madeconsiderable advances in the cultivation, if not of the arts of civilisation, at least of those of barbaric magni-ficence. The Greeks of the Bactrian kingdom, on their assumption of independence from the dominion of theSeleucidfc, opened intimate commercial relations with India , and continued to maintain them from the year 254to the year 126 n.c. A mutual influence was thus exercised over the arts of the two countries, and manypeculiarities of mythic tradition became common to each. To attempt to follow Sir William Jones in his

chronological researches into the history of the Hindoo races, would, in our present inquiry, be as superfluousas it would be difficult; for, even if we were enabled to trace distinctly the succession of those races, thematerials for discriminating the arts peculiar to each are utterly wanting. Numerous traditions, however,justify us in believing that the early conquerors of Malwah, of Berar, of Ghuzerat, and of Delhi , were chiefsextraordinarily addicted to the pleasures of the senses; for we find that the city of Canouj, which was evenmore extensive than that of Delhi , contained at one time no fewer than 50,000 betel-shops, and 60,000 handsof musicians and singers, paying tax to Government.

The ancient possessions of the Greeks in Bactriana , as well as in the provinces of Cabul, Caiulahar, andCashmere , were at this period (which shortly preceded the incursions of the Mahommedans,) under thedominion of the Tatars; and Lahore , and the other countries on the left bank of the Indus, were tributaryto the Kings of Persia. The Rajahs of Canouj, Delhi , and Ajmeer, were the earliest to bow to the

conquerors; while the Rahjpoots, strong in their natural fortifications, continued for very many centuriessuccessfully to repel their advances. Although it has been asserted that Mahommedan warriors had penetratedinto India as early as the eighth century, the fact appears exceedingly questionable. There can be nodoubt, however, that, at that period, commercial relations of considerable importance existed between the

inhabitants of India and the Arabs . It appears pretty certain, nevertheless, that the arts of the Hindoos

were preserved integrally free from any admixture of the Mahommedan element until about the year 1000of the Christian era, when the fierce assaults of Mahmoud subdued the native independence of the people,and laid a foundation for the domination of those races whose arts differed from those of the Hindoos noless than did their faith.

It has been well and frequently observed, that a remarkable coincidence may be universally tracedbetween the religion and the arts of every people; and that, as the former changes from time, to time,so do the modes in which art manifests itself. In examining the ancient Hindoo monuments we find this tobe peculiarly the case, since all those which date from the middle of the sixth century n.c. (the epoch in