The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.120

v2.c16.s2.120

**Theory of Greek origin of Orissan architecture and sculptures:**—Although the age assigned by me to the caves of Udayagiri, places them beyond the limits of Greek supremacy in India, still it is necessary, before making a few remarks on the state of architecture and sculpture in Orissa at the time the caves were bored, to enquire, for the sake of those who entertain a contrary opinion, what influence the invasion of India by Alexander the Great and the occupation of parts of the North-Western frontier by his successors for some time, had exerted on those arts in the province which forms the subject of this essay. In a preceding part of this work (Part I, Chap. I, pp. [ 13 ] *et. seq.*) I have already shown that the opinion adopted by some European antiquarians, that stone architecture was first taught the Indians by the Greeks is erroneous, and that stone architecture existed in the country from long anterior to the date of the Greek invasion and the Græco-Bactrian occupation of North-Western India, and what is true of India generally is *a fortiori* true of Orissa. It might be said, however, that even if the Greeks did not originate stone architecture in India, their taste and influence may have materially contributed to its advancement *pari passu* with the improvement of the plastic art, and since the temple records of Puri and tradition refer to frequent invasions of Orissa by Rakṭavāhu and other Yavanas at an early age, it may very reasonably be expected that architecture and sculpture there should bear more deeply impressed marks of Greek character on them than what are to be seen on similar works in other provinces of India. The first part of the second argument has to a certain extent been already met (*ante* I. p. [ 76 ]). The latter portion is based mainly on the indentification of the Yavanas of the Sanskrit writers with the people of Greece. This identification, however, I have elsewhere fully shown⁵⁵ is not of such a character as to justify our accepting it as an incontrovertible general premiss. In the tenth century especially, when the temple records of Orissa were first undertaken, the word Yavana had entirely lost its original signification, whatever that might have been when the word first came into currency, and was used as a generic term for all "outer barbarians" without any reference to their nationality, and the word therefore cannot be a guide to our tracing the race of Rakṭavāhu. Further, the records in question say that Rakṭavāhu came from the sea, and we are not aware of any Greek expedition by the sea which could reach Orissa by the Bay of Bengal, while it would be illogical to accept the nationality of the traditional adventurer to have been Greek on the strength of the records, and to reject the fact of his having come by the sea, in opposition to them, and to believe that he came to Orissa by land. Nor is it at all necessary to deny the substantial accuracy of the temple records in this particular. It is well known that Phœnician, Roman, Arab and Chinese traders, at different times frequented the Bay of Bengal from long before the Christian era down to the twelfth century, and among them there were many pirates; and that all those people were generally known by the name of Yavanas, and nothing is more probable than that some of those piratical cruisers had descended on the Orissan coast, and committed depredations in a manner so as to be worthy of prominent record.