Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/13

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. 163 Afghanistan it is strikingly Byzantine in general character ; and the storks or cranes with outstretched wings in the spaces between the arches in which the apostle-like figures are niched, recall at once the figures of angels carved in the spaces between the arches in Christian churches. Yet in drawing attention to this remarkable relic in a letter in the Pall Mail Gazette of June 3, 1875, written on the subject of Dr. Leitner’s collection of Bud- dhistic sculptures from the Panjab, which were then on exhibition at the Albert Hail, I maintained that it afforded clear evidence of the influence of Alexander’s invasion on the arts of India. The Greeks had conquered all this part of India, and established a monarchy there, and issued a coinage, which was at first purely Greek in its character. In The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana [Priaulx], about a.d. 50, he is related to have found Phraotes, who ruled over what of old was the kingdom of Porus, not only speaking Greek, but versed in all the literature and philosophy of Greece. The villagers of a neighbouring kingdom, somewhere in the Panjab, are also said to have still used the Greek language. There may be the grossest exaggeration in all this, but it proves at least that such statements were the common- places of Indian travel in the first century of our era. The conclusion therefore is that the remarkable European character of the Buddhistic sculptures in the Panjab and Afghanistan, is due, not to Byzantine, but to Greek influence ; and it is confirmed by the discovery of this casket. They are unmistakably Buddhistic sculptures, and therefore may date from b.c. 250 to about a.d. 700 ; and any of them which are later than the fourth century, a.d. may have been executed under Byzantine influence. But the date of this golden casket proves that its Byzantine and mediaeval look is due to Greek inspiration ; and the probability is that the Buddhistic remains existing in the neighbourhood of Peshawar in the Pan jab were also directly influenced by Greek art ; and may, some of them, therefore, be of an earlier date than is usually admitted. Dr. Leitner was the first to insist on describing