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The following Paper is a Report to the Government of Madras under whose orders and by whose sanction the excavations at the Amaravati Tope were conducted in 1877. It is printed by the kind permission of the Secretary of State for India in Council, with the view of obviating the inconvenience and delay which would be caused by submitting it in manuscript. It is earnestly to be desired that the marbles still in India belonging to this magnificent monument should be transmitted to England. The defaced and damaged specimens now in the British Museum are considered of such value by that great Antiquary and Architect, James Fergusson, that he has devoted half his splendid work on “Tree and Serpent Worship” to their consideration; but the exquisite specimens still existing in India, are as superior to them as highly polished marble is to very inferior stucco. The stones in India have clear, polished, smooth surfaces, many of them with every line of carving as fresh as when they left the sculptors’ hands. Those in England are so defaced as to be almost unrecognisable, while the marble has so deteriorated by careless exposure that it looks like badly whitewashed limestone. If the slabs in England are so valuable, what would not be thought of those now in India? It is impossible to exaggerate the difference in their condition.The book contains four illustrations to delineate the text properly. The book is the product of extensive study and research of this report which is proved to be handy to the students and researchers.
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ISBN : 9788121221160
Pages : 81
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