The Development of Hindu Iconography c19.s6.4.1

c19.s6.4.1

Another important contributory factor to the growth of cult-syncretism was the mental attitude of the early foreign immigrants into India, the Śakas, the Pahlavas, the Kuṣāṇas and the Hūṇas. They were presumably less cultured than the Indians, and were very prone to be influenced by the latter, especially in matters of religion. But from the beginning they showed a proneness to pay equal homage to gods and goddesses of more than one creed. This eclectic tendency among them is very interestingly illustrated by the extant coins of these early alien rulers of India. The kings often used as devices on their coins the figures of deities belonging to different pantheons, and it can be presumed that they had some feelings of respect and veneration for at least some of the originals of these devices. At first most of the deities were recruited from the Greek pantheon, and this was natural, for the Saka-Pahlavas succeeded the Greeks in the sovereignty over parts of Northern and North-Western India, and imitated many of their coin devices. P.