The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c10.29

c10.29

Thus, then, we obtain a first classification of all our texts. Theoretically it is unassailable; practically we must not form any illusions as to its historical value. If notwithstanding we proceed to arrange the figured monuments according to the same criterion, the chances of arriving by their intervention at a less conjectural result assume immediately a better aspect. In fact we are not long in perceiving that the order thus obtained coïncides exactly with that already forced upon us by the purely archæological data. At the head of them there always comes, in its simplicity, the medallion of Barhut: on the left the hunter, having put down his bow and arrows, sets about cutting off the elephant's tusks with a rude saw (¹). The latter has kindly crouched