1889.] on the Civilization of Aneimt India. 19:? 



the hold speculation that the multiform idolatry of modern India is due 

 to contact with the image-worshipping Greeks. Mr. Fergnsson thus 

 expresses this daring hypothesis in his latest work :— 



" I suspect that when the matter comes to be carefully investigated, 

 it will be found that the Indians borrowed from the Greeks some things 

 far more important than stone architecture or chronological eras. It 

 is nearly certain that the Indians were not idolators before they first 

 came in contact with the Western nations. The Vedas make no mention 

 of images, nor, so far as I can learn, [do] any of the ancient scriptures 

 of the Hindus. 



" Buddhism is absolutely free from any taint of idolatry till after 

 the Christian era. So far as we can at present see, it was in the 

 Buddhist monasteries of the Gdndhara country, where the influence of 

 Gravo-Bactrian art is so manifestly displayed, that the disease broke 

 out, which was afterwards so completely to transform and pervade the 

 outward forms, at least, of all the ancient religions throughout India."* 



The propositions thus stated with Mr. Fergusson's customary direct- 

 ness cannot be implicitly accepted, although they embody a considerable 

 amount of truth. It is not safe to affirm that Buddhism before the 

 Christian era was absolutely free from idolatry, for the Taxilan Buddhist 

 temples, adorned with plaster images, were probably erected at the close 

 of the first century B. C. and we do not know, though we may reason- 

 ably suspect, that the images are of later date. Statues found at 

 Mathura, and certain coins of Kanishka (circa A. D. 78 to 110) prove 

 conclusively that images of the teaching Buddha in his conventional 

 attitudes, both seated and standing, were well known at the close of the 

 first century A. D.f It is rash to affirm that they were unknown a 

 hundred years earlier. A colossal statue of the standing Buddha dis- 

 covered by Sir A. Cunningham at Sravasti (Sahet-Mahet) in Oudh 

 seems to be slightly older than the Mathura images.! 



It is however, quite true that in Bihar, Central and Western India, 

 no image of Buddha earlier than the Christian era, or perhaps than 

 A. D. 150, is known, and Mr. Fergusson appears to have been right in 

 holding that the worship of images of the founder of Buddhism was 

 introduced from the North West ; and it is probable that the develop- 

 ment of sculpture, which was undoubtedly stimulated by Hellenic 

 influence, gave encouragement to idolatrous practices. 



Among all the departments of Sanskrit literature the elaborate 



* Archwolmjy in India (London, Triibner and Co., 1884). 



f Cunningham, Archaol, Repstta, Vol. V, p. vii ; and Gardner's CutoUhiue., 

 pji 1 30, 175. 



% Cunningham. Arcfoml. Hep., nt x«pr«, and Vol. I, p. 339. 



