184 



V. A. Smith — Grceco-Roman influence 



[No. 3, 



to suggest that Greek was ever commonly spoken or read in India, but 

 it must certainly have been understood by many of the court officials. 

 The language in the time of Kanishka and Huvishka probably occupied 

 a position similar to that of the English language in India forty or fifty 

 years ago, previous to the development of the existing system of public 

 instruction. 



The knowledge of Greek seems to have lingered longest in Gujarat. 

 Corrupt Greek letters are found on the silver coins of Skanda Gupta 

 struck in that region as late as A. D. 450, and they also occur on similar 

 coins of his father and grandfather. The letters on these coins are 

 unmistakeably Greek in form, but meaningless, and are evidently imi- 

 tations of legends, which were once significant, executed by men unable 

 to read Greek. It is plain, therefore, that even on the western coast, 

 where the agency of maritime commerce had for centuries maintained 

 an active intercourse with the Hellenistic world, all knowledge of the 

 Greek language had died out by A. D. 400, In Northern India such 

 knowledge seems to have been lost two centuries earlier. 



It is ctfrious that not a single Greek inscription, other than coin- 

 legends, has yet been discovered either in India or in Af gh anistan. 



The numismatic facts, to which I have briefly referred, help to 

 render credible and intelligible the allegod Greek influence on Indian 

 literature, science, and philosophy, to tho consideration of which I shall 

 now devote a few pages. 



Section VIII. The Origin of the Indian Dkama. 



Tho existence of a considerable ancient dramatic literature in the 

 Sanskrit language was made known to European readers at the close 

 of the last century by Sir William Jones' translation of S'akuntala, a 

 charming pastoral play, which is, perhaps, the only Sanskrit work that 

 has taken a place among the literary classics of the world. 



Since Sir William Jones' time the Sanskrit plays have attracted 

 many students and translators, notably Horace Hayman Wilson, whose 

 well-known work, Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, is still the 

 leading authority on the subject. 



The question of the origin and affinities of the ancient Indian 

 drama has excitod tho curiosity of scholars, from the time of its dis- 

 covery until the present day, and various attempts havo been made to 

 solve the problem. 



The circumstance that the Sanskrit name for a dramatic composi- 

 tion is derived from a root which conveys tho idea of dancing naturally 

 suggested the theory, which readily found favour, that " the Indian 

 drama arose, after the manner of our modern drama in the Middle Ages, 



