A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c10.s1.32

c10.s1.32

The Indo-Corinthian capitals vary widely in detail, but all may be described as agreeing generally with the luxuriant cosmopolitan style in vogue throughout the Roman Empire during the early centuries of the Christian era. Six good specimens, believed to be from Jamālgarai, are grouped together in Plate XXV. The introduction of figures of Buddha in two cases may be illustrated from Graeco-Roman art of the time of Augustus, and again, two centuries later, at the Baths of Caracalla. The shell canopy is found in the art of both Alexandria and Asia Minor. Even the modillions of a cornice are sometimes made in the form of miniature Corinthian pilasters (Fig. 58). All capitals of the Indo-Corinthian class seem to be post-Christian, and their introduction appears to have been associated with the Kushān or Indo-Scythian conquest of Kābul and the Panjab during the first century of the Christian era.