[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989) › v1.c13 # An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c13: 8 Foreign Objects An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c13 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [v1.c13.s1 8.1 Terracotta Objects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s1) — 2 parts - [v1.c13.s2 8.2 Glass Objects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s2) — 2 parts - [v1.c13.s3 8.3 Metal Objects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s3) — 3 parts - [v1.c13.s4 8.4 Seals, Sealings and Intaglios](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s4) — 2 parts - [v1.c13.s5 8.5 Coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s5) — 4 parts ### 8 Foreign Objects ### [v1.c13.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.1) India's cultural contacts with the outside world go back to prehistoric times \[particularly for e. Indian Neolithic see 4.6.6; for the Harappa see 4.9\]. In historical times contacts between India and the Achaemenian empire, the Graeco-Bactrian kingdoms and the Roman world were well-developed. Indeed, by the 3rd century b.c. a caravan highway ran from Taxila \*via\* Kandahar, Persepolis and Susa to Seleucia on the Tigirs, while another road ran \*via\* Kandahar, Herat and Ecbatana to Seleucia and was joined by the Taxila-Kabul-Bactria route. Besides there was also a coastal sea-route to Selecucia along the Persian Gulf and up the Tigris. It was by this route that Greek travellers, envoys, and craftsmen reached the Mauryan empire. Sino-Indian intercourse depended partly on the thriving trade along the Silk Routes and was partly a consequence of the spread of Buddhism in China and other parts of Asia. As a result of India's regular and intimate contacts with the e. and the w. a considerable number of foreign objects have been found at various sites, not to speak of foreign elements influencing Indian products, artistic or otherwise, which are not included here. \[For foreign pottery see 11.18-21; 11.25.\] ### 8.1 Terracotta Objects ### [v1.c13.s1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s1.1) Terracotta male figures are rare at the Harappa \[4.9\] sites of the Indus valley and Gujarat. The best specimen comes from lothal. With Sumerian features it has a bald head, square-cut beard, pointed nose and slit eyes. The eye-sockets are indicated by depressions. The pointed nose and long square-cut beard are features alien to the Indus art. ### [v1.c13.s1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s1.2) In historical times arikamedu has terracottas of male and female busts and heads imitating Graeco-Roman art. A terracotta suspension lamp of the 1st century shaped in the form of a female bust and a female figure with a gaping mouth from ter are typically Roman. There are interesting references to such Roman lamps in Tamil literature. ### 8.2 Glass Objects ### [v1.c13.s2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s2.1) A faïence bead with a lenticular section and gold border from lothal is reminiscent of a similar jasper bead from Minoan II. In the historical period kaundinyapura, ahicchatrā, ujjain and śrāvastī have yielded what are known as 'stratified eye-beads' \[10.1\]. At ter have been found beads, finger rings and a flask of banded agate type all of which seem to be of Mediterranean origin. Noteworthy glass objects from arikamedu are bracelets, beads, a bowl of whitish iridescent glass with a ribbed body and a bluish glass bowl full of bubbles and striae. These are undoubtedly of Roman manufacture. Of considerable interest are cameos with female head from Karvan, crystal gems with impressions of Cupid and a bird from arikamedu and a grooved candlestick base from brahmapuri, all belonging to the Graeco-Roman types. ### [v1.c13.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s2.2) The \*Periplus\* states that crude glass was exported from Alexandria to Barygaza, Nelcynda and Muziris on the w. coast of India and that glass vessels were imported into Barbaricon on the mouth of the Indus, from where they would naturally find their way up the river to Taxila. The abundance of glass objects of Mediterranean origin found at Taxila testifies to this. ### 8.3 Metal Objects ### [v1.c13.s3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s3.1) A bun-shaped copper ingot from lothal may be compared with Sumerian ingots. The same site has yielded a copper amulet with a bull figure similar to one found in Susa D. During the 2nd millennium b.c. the movement of peoples from Iran and perhaps even from the Caucasus region into India is evidenced by the stray finds of copper and bronze items. A Copper Hoard \[4.11\] from khurdi in Dt Nagaur includes a fine bowl with a long protruding channel spout, with analogues in pottery and metal at Giyan I, Sialk, etc., and another simple bowl of copper reminiscent of examples from Sialk. Among the Copper Hoards from fatehgarh and bithur in the Ganga valley and kallur in the Deccan are swords or discs of copper with midribs and 'antennae' hilts comparable to examples from the Koban culture of the Caucasus (c. 1200-1000 b.c.) A copper spearhead from chandoli and a fragmentary one from navdatoli are similar to spearheads found in a grave at Geyer in Palestine, datable to the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, though they may not be imports. ### [v1.c13.s3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s3.2) Metal objects of the Graeco-Roman period have been found at different sites, mostly Taxila, BRAHMAPURI, AKOTA, etc. From the last site the handle of a bronze jug bearing a figure of Cupid has been reported. BRAHMAPURI has yielded a bronze wine jug with trefoil rim and lion-faced handle, a cup with parallel ring pattern and mirrors with ‘omphalos’ (raised knot) at the centre and concentric rings. ### [v1.c13.s3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s3.3) A number of metal objects of Graeco-Roman provincial art of the 1st to 3rd centuries come from different centres such as Sirkap (Taxila), BRAHMAPURI, NAGARJUNAKONDA and ARIKAMEDU. Apart from the objects from Sirkap, where they are naturally considerable in number and varied in nature, a bronze statuette of Poseidon from BRAHMAPURI is remarkable. ### 8.4 Seals, Sealings and Intaglios ### [v1.c13.s4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s4.1) LOTHAL has yielded a seal of Persian Gulf origin—a circular steatite object with two jumping gazelles flanking a two-headed dragon on the obverse and a large boss, four circles and three grooves on the reverse. A cylinder seal apparently of stone set in a gold handle and bearing two lines of cuneiform inscription ascribed to \*c.\* 2000 B.C., now in the Nagpur Museum, may have come to \*c.\* India from the country of its origin, though its findspot is not known. Also unexplained is the occurrence of a cylinder seal at MASKI. ### [v1.c13.s4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s4.2) ARIKAMEDU has produced a Graeco-Roman gem bearing the head of Augustus in intaglio. The Bibliotheque at Pondicherry also possessses a quartz intaglio of Graeco-Roman workmanship, representing Cupid and a bird, apparently an eagle. The gem is untrimmed and may therefore have been made locally by a Mediterranean craftsman. ### 8.5 Coins ### [v1.c13.s5.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s5.1) Foreign coins recovered from different sites are many and varied. The earliest ones are Persian and Greek coins from Taxila. Later on come the vast number of Roman coins mainly from s. India, highlighting the trade relations between Rome and India. They fall under three periods: (1) the pre-Augustan period; (2) the Imperial age of Rome from Augustus (23 B.C. to A.D. 14) to Nero; and (3) the period beginning with the death of Nero (A.D. 68) and ending with Caracalla (217). In the Roman coins, found in India one often comes across a groove engraved on the face of the emperor. This device seems to be due to the necessity of avoiding Roman gold flowing back to the w. Holes bored in some coins further testify to their being used as ornamental pendants. Since Roman \*aurei\* and \*denarii\* were current throughout w. India it strongly influenced the Kushan and Kṣatrapa coinage. ### [v1.c13.s5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s5.2) There are chance finds of Chinese, Sinhalese and Arab coins too. During the Pallava and Coḷa periods (7th to 13th centuries) there was trade contact between India and China, as a result of which Chinese coins flowed into India. As many as 20 coins, all of copper, with different weights ranging from 1·86 to 7·64 g, have been discovered at Vikraman, Dt Thanjavur. Among them three belong to the T’ang and the rest to the K’uang-yin period (713-42). Among the Thanjavur coins discovered recently there are 17 Chinese coins which represent the entire Sung period (960-1279). Along the Coramandel coast a number of perforated Chinese coins have been found. Gold and silver coins of the early Caliphate dynasties—Omayyad and Abbasid—have been found in Malabar. Their dates range from the 7th to the end of the 9th century. The find of these early Caliphate coins is a testimony to the early contact of the Arab traders with s. India. ### [v1.c13.s5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s5.3) The discovery of Ceylonese coins in the s. Dts of India and of Coḷa and Pandya coins in Ceylon attest to the close commercial and political contacts between Ceylon and Tamil Nadu. The earliest Ceylonese coins may go back to the 10th century. They are often referred to in contemporary inscriptions as \*īḻakkāśu\* and were used side by side with the regular local coins. ### [v1.c13.s5.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13.s5.4) Allchin, B , & R , 1968, \*Birth of Indian Civilization\*, Harmondsworth, pp. 150-3 Deshpande, M N., 1965, in \*Le Rayonnement des Civilizations grécque et romaine sur les cultures peripheriques\*, Paris, Text Elliot, S W , 1970, \*Coins of s India\*, Varanasi, reprint Khandalawala, K., 1960, in \*Lalit Kalā\*, 7 (for Brahmapuri). Lal, B B.. 1953, in \*AI\*, 9 (for Nagpur cylinder seal) Marshall, J , 1951, \*Taxila\*, 3 vols., Cambridge. Piggott, S., 1944, in \*Antiquity\*, 18, 70 (for s. cylinder seals). Rao, S.R., 1973, \*Lothal & the Indus Civilization\*, Bombay. Saboor, M.A., 1914, in \*Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bombay\*, 10, N.S., 11 (for Nagpur cylinder seal). Schoff, W.H., 1912, \*Periplus of the Erythraean Sea\*, New York. Sewell, R., 1904, in \*Jour Royal Asiatic Soc.\* (for Roman coins) Srivastava, B., 1964, in \*Jour Numismatic Soc. Ind . 16\* (for Roman coins) Thapar, B.K., 1957, in \*AI\*, 13 (for Maski seal). Wheeler, M . 1954, \*Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers\*, London For sites see respective entries in vol II —K.V. RAMAN ## Linked texts (14) - [Harappā](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.harappa) - [Lothal](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.lothal) - [Ahicchatra](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.ahichchhatra) - [Śrāvastī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sravasti) - [Nāgārjunakoṇḍa](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.nagarjunakonda) - [Maski](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.maski) - [Navdatoli](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.navdatoli) - [Karvan](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.karwan) - [Barygaza](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.barygaza) - [Sirkap](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sirkap) - [Kallur](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kallur) - [Bactra](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.bactra) - [Muziris](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.muziris) - [Brahmapuri](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.brahmapuri) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.ghosh-1989.v1.c13) · Pramāṇa