GS Bajendralala Mitra —On Representations of [No. 1, 
of the foremost figure. The coat of the man with a helmet is probably 
short. 
The complexion of these persons, except the first, is markedly fair. 
Studying the group carefully the conclusion appears inevitable that it 
represents an embassy from a foreign country. The foremost person is the 
ambassador, who is presenting his credentials in open court to the Indian 
potentate. Behind him is his secretary, and then follow the bearers of the 
nazr or presents from the foreign court. 
But whence is this embassy P and what is the nationality of the persons 
who compose it ? We are aware of no Indian race or tribe which differed 
so materially and markedly in complexion, features, and dress from the natives 
of the country as represented in the court. From beyond India on the 
north and the east, there was no nation which, two thousand years ago, could 
have presented such a group. We must look to the North-West, therefore, 
for the birth-place of the ambassador and his suite. Now on that side we 
had the Afghans, the Bactrians, the Scythians, and the Persians. But 
the Afghans never had the peculiar sugar-loaf hat, nor the flowing gown, 
nor the crescented helmet. -Their features too, were, as shall be presently 
shown, coarser and rude. The Bactrian and the Scythian dresses, to judge 
from numismatic evidence—the only evidence available in the case,—were 
also different. The coat was short, the trousers tight-fitting, and the 
head-gear very unlike a sugar-loaf hat. The Persian dress, however, as we 
now have it, is the exact counterpart of what appears in the picture. The 
hat, the gown and the jacket are identically the same. 
The helmet appears repeatedly in the sculptures of Khorsabad and 
Nineveh, and the features and the beard are in no way different. We may, 
therefore, safely conclude that the picture represents a group of Persians, 
either merchants, or an embassy from Persia to an Indian court, probably 
the latter, as the letter in the hand of the foremost person would be redund¬ 
ant in a merchant. I am not aware of any mention of such an embassy 
in Buddhist religious history ; but I have read but a small portion of Bud¬ 
dhist literature, and as it is abundantly evident that the frescoes of Ajanta 
were not confined to representations of religious history, it is not necessary to 
hunt up any relationship with it of Buddhist legends. Nor is it material to 
know whether the representation is historical or an ideal one. In either case 
it shows that the Indians of old had free intercourse with the Persians, and 
were thoroughly familiar with their features and dress. Literary evidence 
on this subject may be had in abundance in Sanskrit literature, but it is not 
necessary to adduce it here. 
The second scene I have to describe is a domestic one, and three editions 
of it occur in the collection of photographs before me. There is no indica¬ 
tion, however, to show whence they have been taken. The scales attached 
