The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c28.64

v1.c28.64

Foreign influences also begin to assert themselves. In the stone architecture, which replaces wood in public monuments, as also in the style of the edicts of Açoka we have clear evidence of intercourse with Persia, which must necessarily have begun well before the fourth century². And this advance in art affected religion also by its encouragement of image-worship³.