138 



V. A. Smith — Grceco-Boman inflncme 



[No. 3, 



and would certainly extend this paper far beyond the limits to which 

 I desire to confine it. The Hellenistic influence on India Proper was 

 slight, and no site in the interior of India contains the remains of a 

 distinct, well-established Greek, or Grreco-Roman, school of art, such 

 as existed in Gandhara. I shall, therefore, content myself with a mere 

 passing reference to most of the Indian cases in which the marks of 

 western art teaching have been detected, and shall describe in detail 

 only a few specially interesting works. 



The honeysuckle ornament on the capitals of some of the monoliths 

 of Asoka (B. 0. 250) is the earliest example of a Greek form of decora- 

 tion applied to Indian work. Mr. Fergusson has suggested that Asoka 

 borrowed this ornament direct from its Assyrian or Babylonian hirth- 

 place, and not from the Greeks,* but, considering the fact that, even 

 in Asoka's time, Assyrian and Babylonian art belonged to a distant 

 past, it seems much more natural to suppose that the Ionic honeysuckle 

 ornament was introduced into India from the Greek kingdoms of Asia 

 with which Asoka was in communication. 



I have already alluded to the tritons, hippocamps, and other marine 

 monsters which formed part of the ordinary Greek decorative stock-in- 

 trade, and passed into Indian art. 



The centaur, another characteristic Greek form, is found among 

 the sculptures at Bharhut, dating from about B. 0. 150, and among 

 those at Buddha Gayii, which are somewhat earlier. f 



The chariot of the sun, in Indian mythology, is drawn by seven 

 steeds. At Buddha Gaya in Bihar, and again at Bhaja in the Bombay 

 Presidency, we find it represented drawn by four steeds, as in Greek art. J 

 Mr. Fergusson also draws attention to the Greek look of " the figure 

 of the spear-bearer" in the Bhaja cave temple.§ The same writer 

 detects the presence of a distinctly Greek element in the well-known 

 sculptures of Amaravati on the Krishna river, and such an element may 

 certainly be traced in them, though its presence is not very obvious on 

 casual inspection. || 



* Gave Temples, p. 521. 



t For a full descriptive account of the sculptures at Bharhut, seo Sir A. Cun- 

 ningham's special work on the subject. Centaurs at Buddha Gaya and Bharhut aro 

 described in Anderson's Catalogue, Part I, p. 129, whero further references aro 

 given. 



J For tho Buddha Gaya sun chariot, see Cunningham, Archaiol. Rep., Vol. Ill, 

 p. 97; Buddha Gaya by Rajendralal Mitra, Plate L; Fergusson and Burgess, Care 

 Temples, p. 521. For tho Blnija. example of the same design boo Arclucol. Surrey 

 of W, India, Vol. IV, p. 5, PI. VI, 



§ Care Temples, p. 521, PI. XCVI, 5. 



|| See Tree and Serpent Worship, 2nd od., pp. 10G, 172. 



