A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c10.s1.10

c10.s1.10

Whenever the date of Kanishka, the celebrated king of Gandhāra, shall be determined, that of the best period of the Hellenistic sculpture will also be known. Many of them undoubtedly are contemporary with him, though some are earlier and others later. Without going into complicated antiquarian discussions, it may suffice to say here that none of the sculptures are later than A. D. 600, few, if any, later than A. D. 400, and that in all probability extremely few are earlier than the Christian era. The culmination of the art of the school may be dated from about A. D. 50 to A. D. 150 or 200. It is quite safe to affirm that the works of good quality belong to the first three centuries of the Christian era.¹ Thus the best productions of the Gandhāra Indo-Hellenistic school nearly synchronize with the art of the Flavian and Antonine periods in Western Asia and Europe, and in India with the reliefs on the great rail at Amarāvatī in the Deccan, as well as with many sculptures at Mathurā on the Jumna, both of which will be discussed in the next chapter.