A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s1.7

c9.s1.7

We can, however, affirm with certainty that many forms of Asokan architecture and plastic decoration were descended from wooden prototypes, and may also discern traces of the influence of lost works in metal, ivory, terra-cotta, and painting.² We may, moreover, feel some confidence in assuming that the sudden general adoption of stone as the material for both architecture and sculpture was in large measure the result of foreign and especially of Persian example. The fuller consideration of the foreign influences affecting Indian art will be more conveniently deferred and made the subject of a separate chapter (Chap. XI).