The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c7.328

v1.c7.328

scarcely think that, on the strength of the similitude, anybody would venture to draw a definite conclusion regarding the genesis of Indian architecture. Nothing of this flying arch is noticeable in Indian buildings of the time of Aśoka, and of his successors for two centuries. Under any circumstance the resemblances are by no means so close as to justify the supposition that the Indian specimens are the handi-works of trans-Indian architects entirely unaffected by other and indigenous influence; for it would be absurd to suppose that the Assyrians in India erected edifices altogether after wooden models, while in their own country the public buildings were, to a large extent, of stone. If it be assumed that the architects were natives who had learnt the principles of their art chiefly from Assyria, or Persia, or from a common source, it would be equally strange that they should have perpetuated the construction of wooden models in India for centuries after they had seen better and more artistic designs with their tutors.