No More Learning

Free alike from artificiality and idealism, its purpose was to glorify religion,
not by seeking to embody spiritual ideas in terms of form, as the medieval
art of India did, but by telling the story of Buddhism or Jainism in
the simplest and most expressive language which the chisel of the sculptor
could command, and it was just because of its sympathy and trans-
parent sincerity that it voiced so truthfully the soul of the people, and still
continues to make an instant and deep appeal to our feelings.
To complete our survey of the arts of early India, we must retrace our
steps, finally, to the North-East and pick up once more the threads
of Hellenistic and Western Asiatic culture which became established there in
the second century B. C. , and subsequently led to the development of an in-
fuential school of Buddhist art. The all important part played by Bactria
and Persia in connexion with the monuments of Açoka has already
occupied our attention. Forty years after the death of that Emperor the
Bactrian armies of Demetrius overran the north of the Punjab and paved
the way for the foundation of an independent Greek rule, which remained
paramount in the North-West for nearly a hundred years and lingered on
still longer in the hills of Afghānistān. The antiquities which these Eurasian
Greeks and their immediate successors, the Scytho-Parthians, have
bequeathed to us, are not numerous, but one and all consistently bear
witness to the strong hold which Hellenistic art must have taken upon
this part of India. Most instructive, perhaps, among them are the coins, the
stylistic history of which is singularly lucid and coherent (Pl. XXX, 83,
a-1). In the earliest examples every feature is Hellenistic. Their standard
is the Attic standard ; their legends are the Greek; their types are taken from
Greek mythology, and designed with a grace and beauty reminiscent of the
schools of Praxiteles or Lysippus ; and their portraiture is characterised by
a refined realism, which, while it is unmistakably Greek, demonstrates a
remarkable originality on the part of the engravers. With the consolidation,
however, of the Greek supremacy south of the Hindu Kush, the Attic
standard quickly gave place to one- possibly based on Persian coinage -
more suited to the needs of local commerce ; bilingual legends were
substituted for the Greek, and little by little the other Hellenistic qualities
gradually faded, Indian elements being introduced among tbe types and the


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xxvi]
INFLUENCE OF GREEK ART
585
portraits losing their freshness and animation. And so the process of
degeneration continued, relatively slowly among the Eurasian Greeks, more
rapidly when added barbarian elements came to be introduced from
Parthia. The testimony of these coins is specially valuable in this respect :
it proves that the engravers who produced them were no mere slavish
copyists of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expres-
sion to their own ideas ; and it proves further that, though the art which
they exhibit underwent an inevitable transformation in its new environment
and as a result of political changes, its influence, nevertheless, was long
and well-sustained on Indian soil.
Nor does this numismatic evidence stand alone. It is endorsed also
by the other antiquities of this age which have come down to us, though
in their case with this notable difference - a difference for which political
considerations readily account-that, whereas the coins of the Indo-
Parthians evince a close dependence on Parthian prototypes, warranting the
presumption that the kings who issued them were of Parthian stock, the
contemporary architecture and other antiquities show relatively little
evidence of the semi-barbarous influence from that region. Of the buildings
of the Eurasion Greeks themselves no remains have yet been brought to
light save the unembellished walls of some dwelling houses, but the
monuments erected at Taxila and in the neighbourhood during the Scytho.
Parthian supremacy leave no room for doubt that architecture of the
classical style had long been fashionable in that quarter of India ; for,
though by that time the decorative features were beginning to be Indianised,
the Hellenistic elements in them were still in complete preponderance over
the Oriental. Thus, the ornamentation of the stūpas of this period was
primarily based on the Corinthian' order, modified by the addition of Indian
motifs; while the only temples that have yet been unearthed are
characterised by the presence of Ionic columus and classical mouldings. In
the example of the former class of structures shown in Pl. XXXI, 85, the
Indian elements in the design are more than usually conspicuous, but even
in this stūpa, which is referable to the reign of Azes, they are restricted to
the small brackets over the Corinthian capitals, and to the subsidiary
toranas and arched niches which relieve the interspaces between the
pilasters.
As with the architectural, so with the minor arts ; they, one and all,
derived their inspiration from the Hellenistic School, and in the very
slow'ness of their decline bear testimony to the remarkable persistency of its
teachings. Of earlier and purer worksmanship a charming illustration
is afforded by some fragmentary ceramic wares from the neighbourhood of
Peshāwar, the designs on which are singularly human, and singularly
Greek, in sentiment. On one of them are depicted little Amorini at


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586
[Ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
a
play ; on another, a child reaching for a bunch of grapes in the hands of
its mother ; on a third, a scene from the Antigone, where Haemon
is supplicating his father Creon for the life of his affianced bride. Equally
Hellenistic in character, and equally devoid of any Indian feeling, is
an ivory pendant adorned with two bearded heads from Taxila, and
the vine-wreathed head of Dionysus in silver repoussé (Pl: XXXI, 84) from
the same site. Then, a little later - about the beginning, this is to say, of
the Christian era-we find Indian forms appearing among the Hellenistic,
just as they did in the case of architecture. Witness, for instance, the relic
casket of gold encrusted with balas rubies, which was found in a tope at
Bimarān (Pl. XXXII, 87). Here, the figures of the Buddha and his
devotees—the chief and central features of the design-are in inspiration
demonstrably Hellenistic ; but the arches beneath which they stand are no
less demonstrably Indian in form ; while th: sacred Indian lotus, full
blown, is incised beneath the base of the casket. Doubtless, it was in the
sphere of religious and more particularly of Buddhist art with its essentially
Indian associations, that Indian ideas first began to trespass on the domain
of Hellenism in the north-west, and this partly explains why the monu-
ments which betray the first encroachments of indigenous art, belong with-
out exception to that faith, and why other objects of a non-religious
character, such as engraved gems or the graceful bronze statuette of a child
from Taxila (Pl. XXXII, 86), preserve their classical style intact until a much
later date. But it must be borne in mind, also, that it was in architectural
forms that the earliest symptoms of Indian influence appeared, and that at
the time of which we are speaking India was already in possession of
a national architecture of her own and likely, therefore, to exercise more
influence in that particular sphere than in the glyptic or plastic arts,
in which she had then made less independent progress. The engraved
gems referred to are found in Jarge numbers throughout the whole north-
western area and are proved by the presence of legends in early Brāhmi or
Kharoshthi, as well as in Greek characters, to be the work of retident
artists. Some typical specimens are illustrated in Pl. XXXIII, 88, a-k.
The first is a cornelian intaglio from Akra in the Bannu district, of
pure Hellenistic workmanship, designed and executed with a fine sense of
composition and relief. Judging by the persistency with which it was
reſeated, the motif of the fighting warriors on this gem must have
been almost as favourite a one in India as it was in Greece. Next to it and
of about the same date is a remarkably spirited elephant cut on a pale sard.
Then comes a jacinth (c), the jugate heads on which recall to mind
the busts of Heliocles and Laodice on coins of Eucratides, though it
is slightly later than they. The lion, also, on pale sard (d) is a fine
example of delicate technique ; but in fig. e-a singularly beautiful sardoine


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xxvi]
ENGRAVED GEMS
587
-- the style shows incipient signs of falling off, and in the three following
specimens, a black garnet and two sards, we watch its slow and sure deterio-
ration until the beginning of the Christian era. The next two gems of
the series (i and j) are still more decadent. The treatment of the drapery
and other details of the seated Athena in the former remind us irresistibly
of coins struck about the time of Hermaeus, and we cannot bear wrong in
assigning this gem to about 50 A. D. , and the one which follows it to the
close of the same century. The latter is a cornelian from the Hazāra
District, engraved with a figure of Aphrodite and bearing a legend in
corrupt Greek characters. Finally, in fig. k, we have a representative of a
large gro
of gems executed in a meretricious and distinctive style, which
appears to have been fashionable in India in the first and second centuries
A. D. and which, taken in conjunction with other facts, suggests that a
strong wave of influence - due, perhaps, to Roman expansion-set in
about that time from Asia Minor.
It was during the Scytho-Parthian supremacy that the local school of
Buddhist art, known as the Gandhāra School, must first have sprung into
being. The story of this school belongs to a subsequent chapter; for it was
under the rule of the Kushāņa kings that it produced the majority of the
sculptures which have made it famous. But that it had taken shape
long before the Kushāṇas came upon the scene, is 'evident from the fact
that the types of the Buddha peculiarly associated with it, and the
evolution of which presupposes a long period for its achievement, were
already fixed and standardised in the reign of Kaniskha, and that the in-
fluence of the school had penetrated by that time as far as the banks of the
Jumna. Unhappily, among the many thousands of sculptures by which it
is represented, there is not one which bears a date in any known era, nor do
considerations of style enable us to determine their chronological sequence
with any approach to accuracy. Nevertheless, it may be taken as a general
maxim that the earlier they are, the more nearly they approximate in style
to Hellenistic work, and, accepting the relic casket from the stūpa of Shāh.
ji-ki-dheri as a criterion of age, it may safely be asserted that a number of
them, distinguished by their less stereotyped or less rococo character, are
anterior to the reign of Kanishka. One of the earliest of these, if we
accept the judgment of Prof. Foucher, is the Buddha image reproduced
in Pl. XXXIV, 89, which is certainly conspicuous among its fellows for
its graceful and restrained simplicity. Yet, even of this image the type is
demonstrably a well matured one, and, if we would seek for the beginnings
of the school, we must look still further back and learn from the Bimarān
casket and other antiquities of that time the process by which Hellenistic
art came into the service of Buddhism.
The question of the role played by classical art in India has been a


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588
[ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
much disputed one in the past some authorities maintaining that it was
almost a negligible factor, others that it underlay the whole fabric of Indian
art. The truth, as so often happens, lies between the two extremes. In
Hindustān and in Central India it took, as we have seen, an important part
in promoting the development of the Early National School both by clear-
ing its path of technical difficulties and strengthening its growth with new
and in vigorating ideas. In the north-west region and immediately beyond
its frontiers, on the other hand, it long maintained a complete supremacy,
obscuring the indigenous traditions and itself producing works of no mean
merit, which add appreciably to our understanding of the Hellenistic genius;
here, too, as Indian influence waxed stronger, it eventually culminated in
the School of Gandhāra, which left an indelible mark on Buddhist art
throughout the Orient. Nevertheless, in spite of its wide diffusion, Helle-
nistic art never took a real and lasting hold upon India, for the reason that
the temperaments of the two peoples were radically dissimilar. To the
: Greek, man, man's beauty, man's intellect were everything, and it was the
apotheosis of this beauty and this intellect which still remained the key-
note of Hellenistic art even in the Orient. But these ideals awakened no
response in the Indian mind. The vision of the Indian was bounded by
the immortal rather than the mortal, by the infinite rather than finite.
Where Greek thought was ethical, his was spiritual ; where Greek was
rational, his was emotional. And to these higher aspirations, these more
spiritual instincts, he sought, at a later date to give articulate expression
by translating them into terms of form and colour. But that was not until
the more spacious times of the Guptas, when a closer contact had been
established between thought and art, and new impulses imparted to each.
At the age of which we are speaking, the Indian had not yet conceived the
bold and, as some think, chimerical idea of thus incarnating spirit in
matter, Art to him was a thing apartma sensuous, concrete expression of
the beautiful, which appealed intimately to his subconscious aesthetic sense,
but in which neither intellectuality nor mysticism had any share. For the
rest, he found in the formative arts a valuable medium in which to narrate,
in simple and universal language, the legends and history of his faith ; and
this was mainly why, for the sake of its lucidity and dramatic power, he
welcomed with avidity and absorbed the lessons of Hellenistic art, not
because he sympathised with its ideals or saw in it the means of giving
utterance to his own.


## p. 589 (#627) ############################################

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Av.
A. Anguttara Nikāya.
Dhp. A. or Dhp. Comm. Commen-
Abh. Abhandlungen.
tary on the Dhammapada.
Āçv. Āçvalāyana.
Die ar. Per. Die arische Periode.
Air. Wb. Altiranisches Wörterbuch. Dip Dīpavamsa.
Alt. Leb. Altindisches Leben. Divy. Divyāvadana.
Āp. or Āpast. Āpastamba.
El. Elamite version.
A. S. R. Reports of the Archaeo- Ep. Ind. Epigraphia Indica.
logical Survey of India.
E. R. E. Encyclopaedia of Religion
(Cunningham). and Ethics.
Arch. Sur. Ind. Archaeological F. H. G. Fragmenta Historicorum
Survey of India. (Annual Reports. ) Graecorum.
Arch. Sur. West. Ind. Archaeologi- Gaut. Gautama.
cal Survey of Western India.
G. G. N. Nachrichten v. d. k. Gesells.
Avesta.
d. Wissenschaften zu Göttingen.
Bab. Babylonian version.
G. S. Gșihya Sūtra.
Baudh. Baudhāyana.
Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil. Grundriss
Bh. Bahistān inscription.
der indo-arischen Philologie und
B. M. Cat. British Museum Cata. Altertumskunde.
logue of coins.
Grund. d. ir. Phil. Grundriss der
. .
Břih. Brihaspati.
iranischen Philologie.
Brihannār. Bțihannārāyana. Hir. Hiranyakeçin.
Buddh. Ind. Buddhist India. Hist. Num. Historia Numoium.
Çata. Br. Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa. Imp. Gaz. Imperial Gazetteer of
Cull. V. Cullavagga.
India.
D. Digha Nikāya.
Ind Alt. Indische Alterthumskunde.
Dar. Pers.
Inscription of Darius at Ind. Ant. Indian Antiquary.
Persepolis.
Ind. Stud. Indische Studien.
Dar. Sus. Inscription of Darius at J. A. or Jour. As. Journal Asiatique.
Susa.
J. A. O. S. Journal of the American
Dh. Ç. Dharma Çāstra.
Oriental Society.
Dh. S. Dharma Sūtra.
J. A. S. B. Journal of the Asiatic
Dhp. Dhammapada.
Society of Bengal.
589


## p. 590 (#628) ############################################

590
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
J. Bomb. Br. R. A. S. Journal of the Rev. Num. Revue Numismatique.
Bombay Branch of the Royal Asia. Rh. D. Rhys Davids.
tic Society.
Rv. Rigveda.
Jāt. Jātaka.
Rvp. Rājavikrama-pravșittiya.
J. H. S. Journal of Hellenic Studies. S. Samytta Nikayau.
J. P. T. S. Journal of the Pali Text S. B. E. Sacred Books of the East.
Society.
Sitz. K. P. A. Sitzungsberichte d. k.
J. R. A. S. Journal of the Royal Asia- preuss. Akad. d. Wissens.
tic Society.
Sitz. Wien. Sitzungsberichte d. k.
Kali Age. The Purāna Text of the Akad. d. Wissens zu Wien.
Dynasties of the Kali Age.
Smp. Samanta-pāsādikā.
Le Z. A. Le Zend Avesta.
S. N. Sutta Nipāta.
M. Majjhima Nikāya.
Sum. orSum. Vil. Sumangala-vilāsini
Mārk. Pur. Mārkandeya Purāna. Thag. or Therag. Theragāthā.
· Mbh. Mahābhārata.
Thag. A. Commentary on the
Mhv. Mahāvamsa.
Theragāthā.
Mil. Milinda pañha.
Thig. or Therig. Therigāthā.
Msr. Mahāsammata-rājāvaliya. Thig. A. Commentary on the Theri-
M. V. or Mah. Mahāvagga.
gāthā.
N. C. or Num. Chron. Numismatic Trans. Transactions : Inter. Or.
Chronicle.
Cong. International Congress of
N. H. Naturalis Historia.
Orientalists ; R. I. A. Royal Irish
NR. Inscription at Naksh-i-Rustam. Academy.
Num. Zeit. Numismatische Zeits- Ud. Udāna.
chrift.
Vas. Vasishțha.
obv. obverse.
Vd. Vendidād.
0. P. Old Persian.
Vin. Vinaya.
Pāc. Pācittiya.
V. 0. J. (=W. Z. K. M. ) Vienna Orien-
Pār. Pāraskara.
tal Journal.
Peta-v. A. Commentary on the Vr. Vijaya-rājāvaliya.
Peta-vatthu.
Vrv. Vijayarāja-vamsaya.
Proc. Proceedings : A. S. B. Asiatic W. Z. K. M. (=V. 0. J. ) Wiener Ziet-
Society of Bengal ; R. I. A. Royal schrift für die Kunde des Morgen-
Irish Academy.