THE INFLUENCE OF GREEK ON INDIAN ART. 95

grotesque......Every mediaeval temple of importance

throughout India might be cited as illustrating these
remarks ;" individual examples merit consideration only as
•" marking stages in the decadence of Indian art."*

Those who do hold other views disagree, not as to the
fact of the Greek-Roman influence in the Gandhara period,
but a& to its ultimate importance in the history of Oriental
art; and form a very different estimate of the value of
Indian sculpture after 300 A. D. So far from foreigners
having given to India the ideal type of Buddha, the
Oandhara sculptures should perhaps be regarded as the
work of late Greek-Roman craftsmen striving in vain to
interpret Indian ideals. The sculptures themselves, crowd-
ed and effeminate, show how little of value in art the
Western world at this time had to offer to the East.
Foreign influence on Indian art, during the first few cen-
turies of the Christian era, was perhaps as much to be
regretted as the results of "Western influence on Indian art
at the present clay. Had Asiatic art developed independently
of late classic influence, it might at an earlier period have
freed itself from various disadvantageous conditions. As'
a matter of fact, it was not until the direct effects of the
foreign influence were passing away, that the Indian ideal
emerged, and the truly Indian schools of sculpture rose.
What has been most of all misiinderstood by archaeologists
is the nature of this influence. They have confused the-
assimilation of foreign forms and foreign technique with,
artistic inspiration. No sooner is the same art studied
by artists, as in the case of Mr. Ha veil's work on c Indian.
Sculpture and Painting,' or of Mr, Lawrence Binyon's on

* V. A. Smith, Imperial Gazetteer of India, II, Ch, III,
A. Grunwedel, Buddhist Art in India, p, 68.