70 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



To return to the figure (Plate IX., Fig. 3), above it, at the 

 corners of the slab, are what I take to be Devas bringing garlands. 

 Two winged animals appear, one on either side, beneath. Around the 

 head of the figure there is a nimbus or halo ; but the ornamentation 

 around the outer portion of this is unusual. In the Buddhistic sculp- 

 tures found in the North- West of India the representation of the nimbus, 

 or halo, is extremely common. That it comes from the later Greek 

 sculptors is undoubted. Subsequent to the time of Alexander the Great 

 it was customary to represent the heads of the Olympian Deities as 

 surrounded by a nimbus or halo. The sculptors of the Greek school 

 in India gave this ornamentation to the figures of Buddha, who had, 

 by that time, practically become a God. The pictorial and glyptic 

 representations of Buddha travelled northwards and eastwards with 

 Buddhism. In earlier days I have often wondered at the figures of 

 Buddha in Japan, with the nimbus or halo around the head, and how 

 this resemblance to figures of the Saviour and the Christian saints 

 had come about. There can be no doubt whence the resemblance has 

 come ; both classes of figures are, in this respect, ultimately derived 

 from the later representations of the Olympian Deities. 



In view of some things which we thus see in the ornamentation 

 of these remains, and shall see in the Sanchi sculptures, it may be 

 noted here that Greek and Greek-taught artists and artisans were 

 to be found in India after the days of Alexander, and that intercourse 

 with the West was maintained. Megasthenes was the Ambassador 

 of Sciences Nikator at the Court of Pataliputra, and a daughter of this 

 Macedonian King of Syria was married to the Emperor of India. In 

 the subsequent reign also a Greek Ambassador was received at this 

 Court. In the North- West of India kingdoms dominated by Greeks 

 existed for centuries after that. The special field of what has been 

 called the Greco-Buddhist remains is in the North- West of India, 

 which we do not touch. 



Before leaving the Sarnath sculptures and ruins, I ought to 

 mention that General Cunningham assigns them to, say, between 150 

 and 600 A.D. ; but Fergusson brings down the decorations of the 



