1889.] on the Civilization of Ancient India. 163 



Whatever be the cesthetic merits or demerits of the practice of 

 introducing human figures into the Corinthian capital, it was a Roman 

 practice. No one will contend that the capitals in the Baths of Cara- 

 calla are imitations of those in the Gandhara monasteries. It follows 

 that the Gandhara capitals are imitated either from those in the Baths 

 of Oaracalla, or others of similar design of the same period. The reign 

 of Caracalla extended from A. D. 211 to 217 ; and the necessary infer- 

 ence is that the Jamalgarhi capitals with human figures are later than 

 A. D. 217. 



This inference as to the date of the Jamalgarhi sculptures derived 

 from the character of the capitals is in complete accordance with the 

 conclusions deducible from an examination of the style of the sculptures 

 in relief. 



Before quitting the topic of the Indo- Corinthian capitals, it is only 

 just that I should complete the account of Mr. Fergusson's views as to 

 their date. He argues that their form argues a date later than the reign 

 of Constantino (A. D. 306—337), after which time " the design of the 

 capitals went wild, if the expression may be used. The practice of 

 springing arches from them, instead of supporting horizontal architraves, 

 required a total change, and in the West it produced exactly the samo 

 effects that we find in Gandhara* The capitals for instance, in the 

 churches of St. Demetrius and that now known as the Eski Jounia of 

 Jouma at Salonica, both built in the early part of the 5th century, are 

 almost identical in design with these, and many of the churches in Asia 

 Minor and Syria show the same ' abandon ' in design, through frequent- 

 ly in another direction." 



I have no doubt that Mr. Fergusson is right in comparing the 

 Gandhara capitals with those of the two Syrian churches belonging to 

 the early part of the fifth century which he names, and that a general 

 resemblance exists between the objects compared. Such a general re- 

 semblance is quite natural, even if there be an interval of fifty or a hun- 

 dred years between the Syrian and the Indian pillars. But, if Mr. 

 Fergusson intended to suggest that the Jamalgarhi pillars were exe- 



of the Christian era," and thenoo argues for the early date of the soulptures. Mr- 

 FMgasaon, hi correcting this accidental error, allowed himself to fall into a similar 

 one, and dated the baths of Caracalla in the reign of Constantino. 



* Indian and Eastern Architecture, p. 178, with references to Texier and 

 Pullan's Byzantine Architecture, and De Vogue's Syrie Centrals. The Syrian 

 pillars figured by De Vogue display certainly a great ' abandon ' of design, but they 

 have no resemblance whatever to the Gandhara forms. I except, of course, the 

 comparatively regular Corinthian capitals at Palmyra and Baalbec, which are not 

 much dissimilar from the Uumlhani varieties. 

 W 



