The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.100.1

v2.c16.s2.100.1

without its sanctuaries bearing emblems of its sectarial or specific character. It is very probable, though it is not quite certain that in the time of Aśoka emblems and images had become common, but there is literally no evidence whatever to show that a century before his time emblems and images were held in the same estimation, and that Buddhist monasteries were invariably built or excavated with prominent emblems of the faith fixed on them; and in the absence of such evidence, it is futile to accept the hypothesis, for it is no better, as a universally accepted major, and to argue upon it. The hypothesis besides takes for granted the present absence of emblems and relics as equivalent to the absence thereof in former times. It is true that in law the Scotch verdict of “not proven” is in criminal cases, as far as the prisoner is concerned, tantamount to “not guilty,” but in history absence of evidence at one time cannot be taken as proof of no evidence having ever existed. There are, doubtless, no unquestionably Buddhist images or emblems to be met with now in the Udayagiri caves, but we have no reason to suppose that they never were there in former times. Only fifty years ago, Mr. Stirling found, “strewed all around and in the neighbourhood of the Jain temple, a quantity of images of the Nirvāṇas, or naked figures worshipped by the Jain sect, executed chiefly in the grey chlorite slate rock”⁴² none of which are now traceable.