The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.119.2

v2.c16.s2.119.2

173 of his work) “introduced Greek art into this remote corner some time, it may be, before or about the Christian era; but that instead of becoming more delicate and refined as it did at Amarāvatī, it become here more vigorous and more local in its manifestations” (p. 269). If we allow a century for this transition or localization, the age of the Queen's Palace, to whice the remarks especially apply, would be the end of the first century of the Christian era, or in other words, the several caves took for their completion about three hundred years, from the latter part of the third century B. C. to that of the first century A. C. The arguments on which these three statements have been based are, however, not conclusive. The first statement is founded upon the supposed absence of Buddhist images in the caves as at Sāñchī, but the Buddha of the Ananta cave upsets the major, and the conclusion therefore is not sustainable. The sacond statement is based on the form of the characters on the Serpent and the Tiger Caves, but as the learned author has himself laid down the postulate that “on questions of this kind inscriptions shed but the faintest and most uncertain glimmer”, he is not likely to lay much stress on it. The third statement owes its strength partly to the relation which the art displayed in the sculptures of the caves bears to Hellenic art, and partly to the style of the different caves.