132 V. A. Smith— Grivcu-Tu, man mflumce [No. 3, 



thus described by Dr. Anderson in his Catalogue (Part T, p. 210): — 

 "A triangular fragment, with two figures in relief, one lying on the 

 ground with its back towards the spectator, the upper portion being 

 the body of a human being, but the legs terminate from the hips 

 downward in two snake-like coils ; the other figure, which is quite 

 nude, has grasped the end of the left coil with his right hand, while 

 •with his left hand he has seized the head of the monster, which swings 

 a heavy club to destroy his foe." 



I think that it is impossible to doubt that the group last described 

 is a Buddhist adaptation of the Greek myth of the Gigantomachia, the 

 battle of the gods and giants, which continued for centuries to be a 

 favourite subject of Greek aud Roman sculptors and gem-engravers. 

 In Greek and Roman art the giants are represented ns winged, aud 

 snake-legged, and their figures are generally characterized by exag- 

 gerated development of the muscles. 



No Indian example appears to reproduce exactly the conventional 

 form of the Greek giant, but the characteristics of that form are all 

 found in the Jamalgarhi carvings, though not all combined in a single 

 figure. 



The action of the group which Sir A. Cunningham rather rashly 

 entitles " Herakles fighting with a snake-legged giant" is obviously 

 tho same as that of the Greek representations of the Gigantomachia, 

 and the very peculiar conception of the snake-legged giant cannot have • 

 been independently invented by the Jamalgai-hi sculptors. In this caso 

 the wings seem to be wanting, but the Atlantean statuettes, which have 

 not the snake legs, are fitted with wings, and display the exaggerated 

 muscular development of the pattern Greek giant. Tho little %twes 

 with tails, from the fifteenth step, appear related rather to the Tritors 

 than the Giants. Their tails seem to be intended rather for those of 

 tishes than to represent snakes. 



The Gigantomachia was so frequently the subject of Greek and 

 Roman works of art that it is impossible to name the precise channel 

 by which a knowledge of it reached India. One of the finest examples 

 of the treatment of the subject is the principal frieze of the great altar 

 of Pergamon, the giants of which are winged, snake-legged, and pro- 

 vided with enormously developed muscles* It is quite possible that 

 the fame of this great composition may have spread through Asia, aud 

 stimulated the imitative faculties of a host of minor artists, including 

 those of Gandhara, but the Gigantomachia was such a hackneyed sub- 

 ject that we cannot venture to name any particular example of its 

 * Oasts of tlio JVrgameno frieze arc at South Kensington. Engravings of it 

 will ba found in many recent books, s. g. Perry's Hi,tonj of Greek and Roman 

 Sculpture. 



