A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c17.51

c17.51

Certain architectural details represented in ancient sculptures, in addition to the well-known Corinthian and Ionic capitals, may be mentioned as being common to Indian and Western Asiatic Hellenistic art. The fluted spiral column, frequently met with on the sarcophagi of Asia Minor and in later Roman work, does not seem to occur at Amarāvatī or in Gandhāra, but is found at Mathurā in early sculptures.¹ Subsequently it was freely used in Western India. The scallop shell or 'shell-niche' canopy, often seen on Asiatic sarcophagi and in Egyptian art, occurs in India, so far as I am aware, only in the details of the Corinthian capitals at Jamālgarai (*ante*, Plate XXV). M. Strzygowski holds that the form probably originated in Mesopotamia, and that it was ultimately developed into the characteristic Muhammadan *mihrāb*.² But that suggestion seems to be of doubtful validity. The rectangular incised panel frequently found on pilasters in Gandhāra reliefs (Fig. 75) is specially characteristic of the Roman architecture of Palmyra (a. d. 105–273). Much of the Gandhāra art resembles that of Palmyra and Baalbec more closely than that of any other specific locality. The buildings at Baalbec date from the second century. It is, of course, unnecessary to point out in detail the numerous echoes of Greek art in the Gandhāra sculptures. I have confined myself to noticing certain points of particular interest.