Calcutta University Readership Lectures. The Crisis of Indian Civilisation in the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. The Genesis of Indo-Muslim Civilisation

The more the economic and social orders stabilise, the more the style of cultural life gets a definite shape, the more also the possibilitiei of * free creative activity are *made difficult and limited, and with these the necessity and the joy of a healthy exertion of the creative will are restricted. [...] Among the Marathas the state of the public finances was precarious even before the battle of Panipat, and the same might be said of the relations between the great Watandars, especially the Peshwa, the Sindbia and the Blionsla (17:39). [...] of the sad ravishment of the Marsia in honour of Hassan and Hussain, of the revival of the m!,,stic ecstasies of Radha and Krishna, but also of their diabolic counterparts, the pepperea satire and the lascivious Rekhti poem. [...] I may, however, drawyour attention to the fact that the at- tempt to make use of pictures for the investigation of ancient civilisations has already been frequently made in Europe in the case of our own miniature paintings of the Middle Ages or of the works of the painters of the Renaissance and of the Baroque period. [...] Of all these caps and hats, as well as of the pointed cap of the Chagatai ladiesn which was related to the hennin of the ladies in France and the Netherlands of the 15th century, Turkestan or Persia must be regarded as the country of origin.