The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s7.238

c10.s7.238

This does seem to have some bearing on the relationship of the Greeks generally, or of many Greeks, to Indian religions and primarily of course to Buddhism, once Indianisation had begun after *c.* 100 B.C.; and in fact it was, as we shall see, about this time that something took place which is without parallel in Hellenistic history: Greeks of themselves placed their artistic skill at the service of a foreign religion,¹ and created for it a new form of expression in art. Nothing can be more eloquent of the Indianisation which was taking place and of the attitude of Greeks generally to Buddhism; it has been well said that the art of Gandhāra was born of Buddhist piety utilising Yavana technique.² If Greeks elsewhere made statues of foreign deities, it was because they wanted them themselves; for example, they made statues of Isis, not for the benefit of the religion of the native Egyptians, but because sections of the Greek world were taking Isis to themselves as their own and wanted statues of her. But what happened in India was a different matter, whether some of the Greek artists of Gandhāra were or were not actually Buddhists; it might sometimes be difficult to say, for very many people gave Buddhism some sort of intellectual assent without joining the Order, just as in Russia to-day only a small minority of those who assent to Communism are members of the Order, the Communist Party. But Buddhists or not, these Greeks worked for the Buddhist world; and the school of Gandhāra, in that sense, is unique.