Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.s3.7

c8.s3.7

[Since the above chapter was written, an article by Dr D. B. Spooner has appeared in *J.R.A.S.* 1915, p. 63. The author, who is in charge of the excavations at Pāṭaliputra, shews that the Persian element therein is far more extensive than is commonly supposed. The palace and other buildings are modelled on the palace of Darius at Persepolis, and seem to have been the work of Persian masons. The caves at Barābar etc. (Hiuen Tsiang’s “stone-chambers”) are copied from the Royal Tombs of the Persian kings. Asura Maya, the demon builder of the *Mahābhārata* (see Hopkins, *Great Epic of India*, p. 391), is the demon who according to Hiuen Tsiang built Aśoka’s palace, and is no other than Ahura Mazda of Persia, by whose grace Xerxes built his palace (Curzon, *Persia*, II. p. 156).]