154 



V. A. Smith — Gravo Roman influence 



[No. 3, 



favourable to their erection. In another place Sir A. Gunningham 

 speaks of "the first persecution of Buddhism by the S'aiva kings of 

 the Little Tuchi,"* but I do not know what evidence exists for this 

 alleged persecution. Whatever may have been the precise attitude of 

 the Little Yuchi kings towards Buddhism, it is certain that the latter 

 years of the fifth century were times of conflict and turmoil throughout 

 Northern India. The Bhitari pillar inscription records the struggles be- 

 tween the Gupta dynasty and the Huns (Hunas), and in or about A. D. 

 480, on the death of Skanda Gupta, the Gupta empire broke up.f A 

 few years later the stormy career of the II una chief Mihirukula dis- 

 turbed the whole of Northern India from Bengal to Kashmir.} In such 

 a period of anarchy and confused struggles for dominion the arts of peace 

 are perforce neglected, and it would be strange indeed if Gandnara in 

 those days was the scene of the peaceful development of a considerable 

 school of sculpture, as Mr. Fergusson supposed it to have been. 



I doubt also if the Grasco- Roman impulse retained any consider- 

 able force after A. D. 450, even on the north-west frontier. By that 

 time it had certainly spent itself in India Proper, both in the North 

 and West. The last faint traces of Greek skill in design are observable 

 in the Gupta gold coinage of Chandra Gupta II, which was minted in 

 Northern India about A. D. 400,— the later Hindu coinage is all barba- 

 rous in style. Corrupt and unmeaning Greek letters linger on the 

 silver coins of Kumara Gupta and Skanda Gupta struck in Western 

 India up to about A. D. 480, but the fact that these letters are corrupt 

 and unmeaning shows that Hellenistic culture had then dwindled down 

 to a dead tradition, even in Gujarat, which had been for centuries in 

 communication with Alexandria and Rome. 



In short, all that is known of early Indian history indicates the great 

 improbability of the existence of a flourishing Hellenistic school of 

 sculpture on the north-west frontier later than A. D. 450. 



Before proceeding to the discussion of the artistic relations of the 

 Gandhara sculptures, which will render the chronology more definite, 

 one other piece of external evidence may be cited to prove that the good 

 sculptures are much earlier than A. D. 600. 



* Archaol. Rep., Vol V, p. 42. 



t [See, however, on the dissolution of the Gupta empire, tho paper 'On an In- 

 scribed seal of Kumara Gvqsta, ante, p. 85. Ed.] 



% For the history of tho Gupta period see Mr. Fleet's work on the Gnpta inscrip- 

 tions, Vol. III. of tho Corpus Inscription u,n hulk-arum, 1 have given a very brief 

 Outline of it in my essay on the Gupta Coinage in the Journal Boyat Asiatic Socio!,, 

 for January 1889, to which refcrenco may bo made for the proof of the remarks in 

 the next paragraph. 



