1889.] 



on the Civilization of Ancient India. 



107 



of an appreciable amount of Christian infhience on the later development 

 of Buddhism, but I cannot venture at present to embark on the tempt- 

 ing, though perilous, sea of conjecture to which such speculation would 

 lead me. 



I have shown above that no difficulty exists in supposing that Indian 

 art may have been affected by the Palmyrene variety of the cosmopolitan 

 Roman style. Inasmuch as that style was cosmopolitan, it is impossible 

 to say that any given Indian adaptation of a Roman model was bor- 

 rowed from the art of Palmyra or any other particular locality. If we 

 find an Indian sculpture nearly identical with one at Palmyra, all that 

 can be safely asserted is, that both have a common origin, and date 

 from approximately the one period, while there is no reason why the 

 Indian imitation should not have been copied directly from a Palmyrene 

 model. 



Bearing in mind these explanations, it is interesting to observe that 

 a frieze from the iipper monastery at Nuttu, reproduced in Major Cole's 

 Plate 16, figure 1, is substantially identical with the Palmyrene frieze 

 engraved in Wood's Plate 41. 



The latter adorns a building which bears an inscription recording 

 the execution of repairs during the reign of Diocletian (A. D. 284 — 305), 

 who kept a garrison at Palmyra, but the building, and the frieze with 

 which it is decorated, probably were erected about the middle of the 

 third century. 



The Nuttu design consists of a vine stem, knotted into five circles, 

 forming small panels ; the first of which, to the left, contains leaves only, 

 the second is occupied by a boy or Genius plucking grapes, the third 

 exhibits two boys playing with a goat, the fourth displays a rudely 

 executed goat sitting up and nibbling the vine, and the fifth represents 

 a boy plucking grapes. 



At Palmyra, the figures of the boys and goats are wanting, but the 

 design of the knotted vine is absolutely identical with that in the frieze 

 from Nuttu, and the two works cannot be far apart in date. Somewhat 

 similar scroll patterns are common in Roman art, and occur occasionally 

 in other works of the Gandhara school. 



The porphyry sarcophagus of St. Constantia, executed in the reign 

 of Constantine (A. D. 306—337), to which I have already referred 

 {ante, p. 165), is adorned with a relief exhibiting the pressing of grapes 

 by winged enpids, set in scrolls of vine stems, bearing a general resem- 

 blance to the design of the Nuttu frieze. The subsidiary garland, 

 acanthus leaf, and animal decorations of St. Constantia's sarcophagus 

 all have a strong likeness to the Nuttu sculptures and other works of 

 the Gandhara school. 



