Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/169

 and especially in the south. In 68 a number of Jews, fleeing from Roman persecution, seems to have taken refuge among the friendly coast-people of South India, and to have settled in Malabar." In respect of the same period, Dr. Bhandarkar, also, remarks, "trade and commerce must have been in a flourishing condition during this early period."

In the north, under the Kushans, there was a great development of the intercourse of India with the West. "During the Kushana period the Roman influence on India was at its height. When the whole of the civilized world, excepting India and China, passed under the sway of the Caesars, and the Empire of Kaniska marched, or almost marched, with that of Hadrian, the ancient isolation of India was infringed upon, and Roman arts and ideas travelled with the stream of Roman gold which flowed into the treasuries of the Rajas in payment for the silks, gems, and spices of the Orient."

The result of it was the rise of a new school of Indian art, the school of Gāndhāra, which is admitted on all hands to be closely related to the art of the Roman Empire in the Augustan and Antonine periods, and was at its best between 100-300. Indian coins were also affected like