"Everywhere in India, in the millennium before the coming of the Moslems, the art of the sculptor, though limited as well as inspired by its subservience to architecture and religion, produced masterpieces. The pretty statue of Vishnu from Sultanpur,47 the finely chiseled statue of Padmapani, the gigantic three-faced Shiva (commonly called “Trimurti”) carved in deep relief in the caves at Elephanta, the almost Praxitelean stone statue worshiped at Nokkas as the goddess Rukmini, the graceful dancing Shiva, or Nataraja, cast in bronze by the Chola artist-artisans of Tanjore, the lovely stone deer of Mamallapuram, and the handsome Shiva of Perur—these are evidences of the spread of the carver’s art into every province of India."