Identifier: indiaindians00elwiiala (find matches)
Title: India and the Indians
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Elwin, Edward Fenton
Subjects: India -- Social life and customs India
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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gh polish. Native jewellery; beautiful examples invillages. Incongruous pictures from Europe. Indian oilpaintings; effect of Christianity on Indian art; walldecorations. Womens taste in colour. Indian art is sadly degenerating through theintrusion of inferior Western designs. Modernhouses in most Indian cities lack the artisticgrace which distinguishes many of the old housesof wealthy people. Part of the beauty of manyancient dwellings in Poona City is to be found intheir admirable proportions. Modern houses inIndia are often built in a pseudo-Gothic style, withbarbarous innovations in the shape of base metal-work and glaring coloured glass, and in which allsense of proportion has been hopelessly lost. Some of the modern palaces of Indian Kajahsare built and furnished in this style, at an immensecost, and with most incongruous results. Whereasmany of the old palaces, and those of northernIndia in particular, afford beautiful examples ofroyal residences, well adapted to the needs of 60
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A Modern House in Poona Citv, Built hv one ofTHE Indian Clekgv. (To face p. 60. ARTISTIC EXAMPLES 61 Indians, and yet capable of being modified for theuse of modern-minded rulers who have adoptedsome of the household arrangements of the West.Sir Swinton Jacob has shown in the fairy-likepalace which he built at Jeypore, but whichinternally you find exactly suited to the require-ments of a modern museum, how possible it isto adapt Indian architecture to present-day needs.There is a good deal of carving, effectively placedand graceful in design and skilfully executed, bothon the outside and inside of old houses in the Cityof Poona ; and the balustrades that form the frontof the narrow verandahs, which run along so manyof the houses with happy effect, afford charmingspecimens of what the turners craft can accomplish.But nowadays ironwork, such as adorns a cheapbedstead, more often than not is substituted for thegraceful balustrade, and some tawdry decoration,or coarsely-cut stone corbel,

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