1889.] 



on the Civilization of Ancient India. 



169 



Numerous illustrations might be quoted in proof of the proposition 

 that designs of this class are Roman in origin, but I shall content my- 

 self with referring to one, a frieze found in the Palestrina territory, 

 probably dating from the time of Constantine, which represents a very 

 large garland carried by boys* 



The same subject occurs repeatedly in the sculptures of Amara- 

 vati, though treated in more Indian style. A notable distinction be- 

 tween the methods of treatment in Gandhara and at Amaravati is that 

 the Gandhara artists always give the roll an imbricated surface, such as 

 is commonly seen in Roman art, whereas the Amaravati sculptors mark 

 the surface with lines in a manner of their own. But 1 suspect that at 

 Amaravati, as well as in Gandhara, the motive was borrowed from 

 Roman art. 



The Buddhist artists, following the usual Indian practice, con- 

 verted the foreign motive to the purposes of their own ceremonial, and, 

 as Sir A. Cunningham has pointed out, used the Roman garland to re- 

 present the light serpentine frame of bamboo covered with tinsel, which 

 was carried in procession at Buddhist festivals, as it is to this day in 

 Burma. 



I have already referred to the fact that the conventional re- 

 presentation of the parinirvana or death-bed of Buddha is borrowed from 

 the sculptures of Roman sarcophagi or Graaco-Ronian sepulchral reliefs 

 (ante, p. 126). 



I have also mentioned (ante, p. 136) that the representations of 

 winged animals, and marine monsters, and the comic friezes of boys 

 riding on lions and other boasts, so common in the early Buddhist 

 sculptures both of Gandhara and India Proper, are ultimately derived 

 from the works of the Alexandrian schools of Greek art, which are 

 supposed to trace their parentage to Scopas. 



The early examples of this class of subjects which occur in the 

 interior of India, and are prior in date to the establishment of the 

 Roman empire, must be imitations of Greek models. In all probability 

 the artists of Buddha Gaya and Bbarhut obtained their knowledge of 

 these foreign forms by means of the sea commerce conducted with 

 Alexandi-ia through the inland depot of Ozene (Ujjain), and the port 

 of Barygaza (Bharoch) .f At Amaravati it is possible that the channel 

 of communication was Roman. 



The Gandhara compositions dealing with similar subjects should bo 

 compared, not with Greek art, but with the representations of the 



* Visconti, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vol. VII, pi. XXXV. 



+ See the Introduction to MoOrindle's translation of the Periplus of tlio 

 Erythriuan Sea. 



