108 . V - A - Smith— Gnvxo-Eoman Influence [No. 3, 



fain believe that all light comes from the east, have been compelled to 

 admit the rays of the western sun. 



In the dim mist of prehistoric ages we can discern faint indications 

 that India, in common with all regions of Asiatic and European civiliza- 

 tion, drew supplies from those stores of Egyptian, Assyrian and Baby- 

 oman antique lore, which were, so far as we know or probably ever can 

 know, the ultimate sources of the knowledge which distinguishes civi- 

 lized man from the savage. 



The history of those long past times is lost, and, save perhaps in 

 some faintly sketched and dubious outlines, can never be recovered. 



The Indian expedition of Alexander the Great in B C 327—326 

 was, so far as our definite knowledge extends, the first occasion of close, 

 conscious contact between East and West. The arms of the conqueror 

 it is true, subdued no more than a mere corner of India, and that only 

 for a moment, but the Hellenic culture, to the diffusion of which Alexan- 

 der devoted attention, as great as that bestowed by him on his material 

 conquests long survived his transitory empire in Asia, and, even in 

 secluded India, made its presence felt in many and different directions. 



I shall not attempt to penetrate the thick darkness which conceals 

 the relations between India and the western world in the ages before 

 Alexander, but propose to consider the kind and degree of post- Alexan- 

 drian influence on the ancient civilization of India, and to invite my 

 readers attention to an obscure and little known chapter in the ever- 

 interesting history of Greek ideas. 



The working of these ideas on Indian soil, although discernible in 

 the fields of rehgion, poetry, science and philosophy, is most obvious in 

 the domain of architecture and plastic art, and I shall devote the greater 

 part of this essay to the consideration of Indo-Hellenic architecture and 

 sculpture. 



_ No Indian example in stone either of architecture or sculpture, ear- 

 lier than the reign of Atoka (circa B. C. 260-223), has yet been dis- 

 covered and the well-known theory of Mr. Fergusson, that the sudden 

 introduction of the use of stone instead of wood for the purposes both of 

 architecture and sculpture in India was the result of communication 

 between the empire of Alexander and his successors, and that of the 

 Mauryan dynasty of Chandra Gupta and Atoka, is, in my opinion, cer- 

 tainly correct. The change from wood to stone indubitably took place, 

 and no other explanation has ever been suggested. 



I shall not, however, now discuss Mr. Ferguss'on's theory, but shall 

 proceed to examine particular cases of undoubted and incontestable 

 Hellenistic, mcluclmg Roman, influence on the Indian development of 

 the arts of architecture and sculpturo. 



