1889.] 



on ihe Civilization, of Aiirii at ho/in. 



10fi 



is very strong evidence that their native astronomy was, froffl fchi 

 purely scientific point of view, extremely imperfect. 



The knowledge of actual Greek books displayed by tho Indian 

 astronomers also shows that there is no improbability in supposing thai 

 a limited class of readers in India had studied the texts of Greek plays. 

 Dr. Windisch is content to believe that the Greek elements in the 

 Sanskrit drama, the existence of which he demonstrates, were assimi- 

 lated by the Indian authors through the agency of performances oi 

 Greek plays on the stage. It is not necessary, he says, to assume that the 

 texts were known in India. It seems to me impossible that the resem- 

 blances between the Greek and Indian dramas should have been brought 

 about in this casual way. It would be nearly as easy to believe that 

 A'ryabhata learned tho signs of the zodiac and the term ' diameter ' from 

 chatting with ship-captains on the quays of Barygaza. I can see no 

 reason whatever to feel sceptical about the reality of the diffusion to a 

 limited extent of Greek books in Greek among the learned classes of 

 India during the early centuries of our era. 



Tho coins and the manuals of astronomy are incontrovertible evi- 

 dence that some people there could read Greek, and why it should be 

 supposed incredible that Kalidasa could read the plays of Menander 

 I cannot imagine. 



We are not bound to accept as literal statements of fact the 

 rhetorically expressed assertions of Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom that 

 the Indians sang the poems of Homer, and that the children of the 

 Gcdrosians recited the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles, and may 

 yet feel full assurance that Indian scholars who studied and assimilated 

 Alexandrian manuals of astronomy cannot have been altogether un- 

 acquainted with the classic literature of Greece. 



i have now reached tho bounds to which a general survey of the 

 action of Hellenic influence on ancient India can be conveniently ex- 

 tended at present. The adequate discussion of the Gandhara sculptures 

 alone would fill a goodly volume. The imperfect account of them given 

 above is only intended to stimulate curiosity, and to indicate the direc- 

 tions in which more exhaustive investigation will reward the student. 



I do not desire to exaggerate the intrinsic merit of these sculptures, 

 though I feel assured that it is amply sufficient to justify their critical 

 study, and that, even if it wore much less than it is, the historical 

 interest attaching to the productions of a school which links together 

 Hellenic and Indian art gives them a right to claim the attention both 

 of Orientalists and of classical scholars. 



The discovery of the linguistic and literary treasures of Sanskrit 

 so charmed the imagination of the earlier. Orientalists that they lent 



