Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.105

c6.105

The earliest phase of Indian art in Tārānātha’s history which speaks of human masters with miraculous powers producing astonishing works of art, who flourished for a few centuries after the Buddha, then their mantle falling on the artists who were gods in human form, to be followed by the Yaksha and Nāga artists, is too nebulous and legendary to merit any serious consideration. I. Stchoukine⁵² puts forward a suggestion that the legend preserves in the names of the Devās, Yakshas and Nāgas, the memory of the Iranian, Greek and Dravidian artists. This is, however, a pure surmise, its only support being the presence of Iranian and Greek influences in Indian art, specially in the period of Aśoka and later on in Gandhāra sculpture and architecture.