* 90 V. A. Smith — Grmco-Boman influence [No. 3, 



is needed to discern the hidden foreign element. So it is with the 

 drama. The plays are Indian, but the idea of composing such plays is 

 Greek. 



The case of the sculptures of the Gandhara or Peshawar school, 

 which I have discussed at such length, is on the contrary, analogous 

 rather to an Indian free translation or adaptation of a Greek play. 

 Those sculptures are close imitations of the contemporary, especially 

 the Christian, art of the Roman empire in the third and fourth centuries, 

 and this fact lies on the surface, visible to any commonly attentive 

 observer. The Roman or Christian subjects have been made to serve 

 Buddhist purposes, but have been transferred bodily to India with 

 little change, save that of name. 



Section IX. Giueco-Roman influence on the Religion, Mythology, 

 Science, and Philosophy of India. Conclusion. 



A smile will, I fear, pass over the gentle reader's countenance 

 when he compares the promise of the title with the performance of the 

 few pages of this section of my essay. A discussion, in any degree 

 adequate, of the topics mentioned in the heading would require the 

 ample room of an octavo to itself, the writer of which should be equipped 

 with a store of varied knowledge to the possession of which I can make 

 no pretension. So far as I am aware, no one has yet attempted such a 

 survey of the religion, mythology, science, and philosophy of India as 

 would give a general view of the boundaries which divide the indi- 

 genous components from the foreign. A slight, rough sketch of a survey 

 of the kind will be found in Weber's History of Indian Literature, but 

 a map drawn in more distinct colours is much wanted. I cannot 

 attempt to draw it. The preceding pages will, perhaps, have succeeded 

 in convincing at least some readers that the best elements in the plastic, 

 pictorial, numismatic, and dramatic arts of ancient India are of foreign', 

 chiefly Graco-Ronian, origin. In these concluding pages I merely wish 

 to point out that the foreign influence was not confined to those fields, 

 where I have traced its workings in somo detail, but extended also to 

 other regions of thought. I am not prepared to follow in detail its opera- 

 tions within those regions, nor to catalogue the instances where its 

 presence may be discerned, and can only offer some unsystematic ob- 

 servations. 



The Indo-Seythian coin series affords obvious and conclusive evi- 

 dence that about the beginning of the Christian era the religions of India 

 and those of the neighbouring countries to the west were acting and 

 rc-aeting upon each other. 



The worship of S'iva was certainty then established ainon^ 



