Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14.4

c14.4

The manner in which this current of Hellenistic art culture found its way into Central Asia there to take form on the walls of the Buddhist monasteries, was the outcome of the imagination and genius of Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia (356-323 B.C.). For it had its origin in the country of Bactria, one of the Greek colonies founded by this conqueror in the first half of the fourth century B C. as part of his ambitious scheme for a world dominion in the East. This extreme eastern outpost of the Macedonian Empire occupied a rich tract of land lying between the mountains of the Hindu Kush and the river Oxus, corresponding in a large measure to Northern Afghanistan, and now known as Balkh. The favourable position of such a powerful colony of Greeks enabled it to shed the living light of Hellenic culture over a wide area, and there can be few more romantic episodes than that of this European community making its home in so distant a land, where for nearly two centuries it maintained, as far as environment would permit, a close reproduction of the traditional Greek city-state. That it was a country of some consequence is shown by the fact that, at the height of its power in the third century B. C. Bactria boasted of as many as sixty large towns, and the legendary fame of its magnificent palaces was remarked on by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang as late as the seventh century A. D. For a time the colony kept in constant communication with the parent empire by means of a line of Greek cities across the west of Asia, so that direct stimulation of all forms of Hellenic culture was not lacking. As a proof of this contact the coins issued by the earlier rulers of Bactria are equal in artistic merit to the finest mintages of the Greeks, and from such evidence alone it seems clear that its satraps must have retained in their service artists of the first rank Moreover the rulers appear to have enriched their palatial abodes, and their subjects their sumptuous villas, with portable statues and reliefs, and thus by surrounding themselves with objects of Greek art endeavoured with considerable success to uphold the aesthetic instincts of their race. Unfortunately, owing to its situation, Bactria lay in the track of the invading hordes which from time to time swept across this portion of the continent, so that in effect all the material evidences of this remarkable colonization have long since been obliterated.