766 
THROUGH ASIA 
is Indian. Here are the same almond-shaped eyes, the 
same dignified curve of the eyebrow, the same full cheeks, 
slightly arched nose, barely perceptible projecting chin, 
and frequently too the same manner of doing up the hair, 
as are exhibited in the representations of women on the 
reliefs of Barahat and Sanchi (Bhopal), and on the cliffs of 
Amaravati, in India. The last-named are assigned to 
the period of Asoka, king of Behar, or the period when 
in matters of art India stood under the influence of 
Persian models, that is to say the beginning of the third 
century b.c. 
The characteristic head of a man, about inches high, 
in the middle of the picture, with its long, narrow, well- 
ordered beard, the straight eyes, both in one line, and the 
big Roman nose, points to a very different type from the 
Indian ; in fact, it bears a striking likeness to the portraits 
of the great kings of the Achaemenian dynasty of Persia 
depicted on the ruins of Persepolis. But the long ears 
and the stigma or mark on the forehead have nothing 
in common with these unambiguous Persian traits, but 
are peculiar to Indian artistic ideals. The so-called ilrna, 
represented in so many images of Buddha by a gem 
between the eyes, owes its origin, according to Grtinwedel, 
to the erroneous idea, that people whose eyebrows meet 
so as to form a single straight line are exceptionally 
talented. It is reasonable to suppose that the figure in the 
picture was intended to represent a Persian king or hero, 
and was painted by an Indian artist; or else that it was 
intended to represent a great personage of Borasan, and 
was executed by an artist who worked under the domi- 
nance of Persian ideas. 
It is a fact, that during the Achcemenian period Persian 
artistic ideals did exercise a great influence upon Indian 
architecture and sculpture ; although it is equally the fact, 
that the Indian artists preferred to adapt their Persian 
models to their own iconograjjhic ideas, or in other words 
localized them and acclimatized them. At what date the 
political connection between Persia and India began, we 
do not know with any degree of certainty, any more than 
