A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c11.s2.7

c11.s2.7

Certain groups and statuettes from Mathurā or the neighbourhood, all dealing with strong drink and intoxication, which may be classed together as 'Bacchanalian', have excited much interest and discussion, in spite of which their interpretation is still far from clear. The supposed Greek character of the composition first discovered was much exaggerated by the early commentators, and some of the connected sculptures have nothing Hellenistic about them. All of them, like the Gandhāra figures, demand explanation as representations of Indian, not Greek subjects, even though certain details may be foreign.