The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c7.310

Language: English

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Supposing, however, for the sake of agrument, that he did send for, or somehow get, the aid of foreign artists, he could obtain it from one of four nations, viz., Greeks, Persians, Assyrians, or Egyptians. Now, of the Greeks in connexion with India, authentic history for our purpose here begins with the invasion of Alexander; but there is nothing to show that Alexander himself did much in the way of architecture on this side of the Indus, besides erecting a few altars, and building two cities, one to the memory of his favourite horse Bucephalus, and the other to that of his pet-dog Peritas, and History is silent as to the nature of those cities, and the nationality of their architects; Mrs. Manning says, "he left behind him Greek and foreign artists," but we know not on what authority this statement has been made. Looking to the recent British expeditions to Abyssinia no one would assume that he invaded India with any large number of architects and workmen, to leave some of them behind in the country to lay the foundation of Indian architecture. The total period of his sojourn in India extended to only a few months, the greater part of which was devoted to marching from place to place, his stay at any one spot not exceeding a few days, and that under circumstances of military pomp and array which could not possibly afford any opportunity to the conservative Hindus to see and appreciate enough of Grecian civilization to imitate it.

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Of his Indian dominion Calanus, the gymnosophist, presented to him an excellent image. "He laid", says Plutarch, "dry and shrivelled hide before him, and first trod upon the edges of it. This he did all round; and as he trod on one side, it started up on the other; at last, he fixed his feet on the middle, and then it lay still. By this emblem he showed him, that he should fix his residence, and plant his principal force, in the heart of his empire, and not wander to the extremities."¹³ His Grecian successors in India were neither of sufficient importance, nor did they hold any part of the country sufficiently long, to be the leaders of taste and fashion to such a potentate as Aśoka. They had then occupied only for a short time an edge of the dry leather, the border land of the North West, and for all practical purposes do not appear to have exercised much influence on Indian civilized life. To judge of the past from the present, let us take the English nation in India. It has held India for a longer period than the Greeks did Bactria from the time of Alexander to that of Aśoka, but yet it has produced no appreciable effect on the architecture of its neighbours. The Bhutanese and the Sikimites have not yet borrrowed a single English moulding. The Nepalese, under the administration of Sir Jung Bahadur, are not a whit behind-hand of Aśoka and his people; Sir Jung went to Europe, which Aśoka never did;

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still there is no change perceptible in Nepalese architecture indicative of a European amalgamation. The Kashmiris and the Afghans have proved equally conservative, and so have the Burmese. But to turn from their neighbours, to the people of Hindustan: these have had intimate intercourse with Europeans now for over three hundred years, and enjoyed the blessings of English rule for over a century, and yet they have not produced a single temple built in the Saxon, or any other European style. Thus the conclusion we are called upon to accept is that what has not been accomplished by the intimate intercourse of three centuries, and the absolute sovereignty of a century, in these days of railways, and electric telegraphs, and mass education, was effected by the Greeks two thousand years ago simply by living as distant neighbours for eighty years or so. Doubtless private speculators, coming in search of work, could afford a supply of architects to Aśoka even when he would not send for any; but no more would architects and masons go to a place for work where stone and brick houses were unknown, and therefore not in demand than Rosa Bonheur or Landseer think of opening a studio in the capital of Dahomey.