A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c10.s2.27

c10.s2.27

hands have been lost. Probably the right hand grasping the spear was raised to her head, as was the right hand in the Pallas type of the coins of Azes I (? first century B.C.), while the left hand held the aegis. The late Dr. Bloch seems to have been right in interpreting the image as that of a foreign female guard set over the women's apartments of a palace, and forming part of a court scene. It is possible that the figure may be as old as the time of Azes, and so contemporary with the Ionic temple at Taxila, but it may be of later date. Although the type is clearly that of Pallas Athene, it has been completely Indianized.¹