Portrait Sculpture in South India

In at least one portion of India, the southern, there have survived enough examples of portrait sculpture to compel us to abandon, in so far at least as that part of India is concerned, the theory of Hindu  disinclination to realism, all too confidently asserted. Even in the nooks and corners of south India and in its earliest monuments we come across sculptures which are indubitably portraits. We know no reason for supposing that the instinct for portraiture was stronger in the south of India than in the north, and if as many examples of the art of the portrait sculptor are not traceable in the north as in the south, it must be due to causes other than temperamental.