and explorers had sent also chests of Buddhist works, which, not falling within its compass, had been excluded from the exhibition, but were placed at my disposal in the so-called Library Department reserved for students.
Indian art has been greatly neglected by archeologists and connoisseurs at the expense of the so-called classic style, and explorers seem to be more interested in the geographical and political conditions of the country, or even look down with contempt and lack of understanding on the early artistic monuments of India, although they have enriched our European middle ages. Thus there are great gaps in the history of Indian art which I was obliged to fill up for myself, and certainly a very different kind of study was needed to illustrate a Gospel of Buddha than for a pictorial construction of the life of a Plato or a Jesus.
Fräulein Emily von Kerckhoft, an artistic and highly cultured lady of Laren in "Northern Holland, sailed on November 9, 1909, to join her family in Java where she remained for some time. Her journey occurring just at this time was of great help to me, for she complied with all my wishes in the most accommodating manner and filled up many gaps in my knowledge of India.
In Colombo she became acquainted with the Dias Bandaranaike and other refined Singhalese families, who were very friendly in answering my questions. Further she met Sister Sudham Machari of Upasikarama, Peradeniya Road, Kandy, a prominent Singhalese nun, who with the assistance of Lady Blake, the wife of a former governor, had founded the first modern Buddhist nunnery in Ceylon where she now lives as lady superior. She is well posted on Buddhism, for she has studied Pāli, Sanskrit, and Burmese for nine years in Burma, and has received ordination. Through her, Fräulein von Kerckhoff had an opportunity to visit the temple in Kandy where the strange relic of the "Sacred
