V. A. Smith — Gneco- Roman influence 



[No. 3, 



If then the Hashtnagar inscription is dated in the era either of Moga 

 or Gondophares its approximate date is 274 — 57 = A. D. 214. 



Though demonstration that Kanishka used the S'aka era is still 

 wanting, there is no doubt that the era of his inscriptions does not differ, 

 at the most, more than about twenty years from the S'aka, and for the 

 present purpose the era of Kanishka may be taken as identical with the 

 S'aka, A. D. 78. Assuming that this era was used in the Hashtnagar 

 record, its date is A. D. 352. The alternative approximate dates, there- 

 fore, are A. D. 214 and 352. 



The style of the Hashtnagar alto-relievo appears to me to be de- 

 cidedly inferior to that of most of the Mian Khan, Jamalgarhi, Nuttu, 

 and Sanghao sculptures. The figures in it are not undercut, as they 

 are in the best specimens of Grseco-Buddhist art, and the execution, 

 on the whole, is poor. So far as I can judge, the work cannot well be 

 older than the middle of the fourth century. 



This dubious conclusion is the only assistance given by epigraphic 

 evidence for determining the problem of the ago of the Gandln'ua 

 sculptures. 



The numismatic testimony is nearly as scanty and weak as the 

 epigraphie. 



Tho undisturbed hoard of the coins of Azos buried below tho 

 Taxila temple with the Ionic pillars indicates, as argued above (p. 115), 

 that that edifice is to be dated from about the beginning of the Chris- 

 tian era, and this inference is in harmony with the reasoning based on 

 considerations of architectural stylo. It is, as I have already observed, 

 impossible to decide whether the plaster statues found in the Taxilun 

 temple are contemporary with it or not, for no information concerning 

 their style has been published. The coins of Azes found at Taxila, 

 therefore, give no clue to tho chronological position of the Gandhara 

 school of sculpture, excepting a few of tho earliest works, especially 

 the Pallas, already discussed (p. 121). The only localities, so far as I 

 can ascertain, where coins have been discovered in close association 

 with remains of Gra3co-Buddhist, or Romano-Buddhist, sculpture, are 

 Jamalgarhi and Sanghao. 



Lieutenant Orompton in his report on excavations at the former 

 site says nothing about coins beyond the unsatisfactory remark that "a 

 few silver and copper coins were turned up ;"* but Sir A. Cunningham 



tho epoch B. C. 57 merely as a short expression for any era which began somewhere 

 about the middle of the first century B. 0., and about which more accurate know- 

 ledges is wanting. Tho Avian inscriptions from the (iandhara countiy have not yet 

 been properly edited, and the published translations arc quoted with reserve. 

 * Indian Aulv t iutnj, Vol. Ill, p. 144. 



