The late Percy Brown needs no introduction to Indian students nor to those outside India who are acquainted with the arts of this country. His publications such as Indian Painting and Indian Painting under the Moghuls are authoritative works. He was the Secretary and Curator of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, and was formerly the Principal of the Government School of Art, and Keeper of the Govern-ment Art Gallery. Calcutta.
Mr. Brown had spent a life-time on the survey of the building art in Indian and the result of his researches are this volume and the accompanying Volume, "Indian Architecture, Buddhist and Hindu Periods." He has also contributed chapters on "Indian Architecture" in the Cambridge History of Indian.
Mr. Brown’s masterly review of the subject extends to every development of ideas of architecture in Indian and the sources from which they were derived. The volumes are illustrated by numerous photographic reproductions of the most important examples of architecture in this country. What makes this work so interesting is the number of plates of drawings and diagrams prepared under the directions of the author and explanatory of the text.
As an artist, Mr. Brown was in an unique position for explaining the subject of the well-known architectural remains of undivided India. These drawings, prepared from reliable sources, combined with his personal research, for the first time give a visual demonstration of many of the well-known monuments of the country, now in ruins and enable the reader to imagine what they must have looked like when they were in perfect condition.
There is no study of the entire subject of Indian Architecture so thorough and so definitive as this work, which promises to be for a very long time the last word on the subject.
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