Hellenistic influence on Indian art and architecture reflects the artistic and architectural influence of the Greeks on Indian art following the conquests of Alexander the Great, from the end of the 4th century BCE to the first centuries of the common era. The Greeks in effect maintained a political presence at the doorstep, and sometimes within India, down to the 1st century CE with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdoms, with many noticeable influences on the arts of the Maurya Empire (c.321–185 BCE) especially. Hellenistic influence on Indian art was also felt for several more centuries during the period of Greco-Buddhist art.History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250, Ahmad Hasan Dani, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1999, Paul Bernard, p. 128 and sig. However this viewpoint is not universally accepted in modern scholarship. Several objections have been raised in academic literature.Flood, Finbarr. Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu–Muslim” Encounter. Princeton University Press, 2009.
Historical context Achaemenid Era (518–327 BCE)
Coin finds in the Kabul hoard in Kabul or the Shaikhan Dehri hoard in Pushkalavati have revealed numerous Achaemenid coins as well as many Greek coins from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE were circulating in the area, at least as far as the Indus during the rule of the Achaemenids, who were in control of the areas as far as Gandhara. In 2007 a small coin hoard was discovered at the site of ancient Pushkalavati (Shaikhan Dehri) in Pakistan, containing a tetradrachm minted in Athens c. 500/490 – 485 BCE, together with a number of local types as well as silver cast ingots. The Athens coin is the earliest known example of its type to be found so far to the east.
According to Joe Cribb, these early Greek coins were at the origin of Indian punch-marked coins, the earliest coins developed in India, which used minting technology derived from Greek coinage. Daniel Schlumberger also considers that punch-marked bars, similar to the many punch-marked bars found in northwestern India, initially originated in the Achaemenid Empire, rather than in the Indian heartland:
Hellenistic period (327 BCE onward)
The Greek campaigns in India under Alexander the Great were limited in time (327–326 BCE) and in extent, but they had extensive long term effects as Greeks settled for centuries at the doorstep of India. Soon after the departure of Alexander, the Greeks (described as Yona or Yavana in Indian sources from the Greek "Ionian") may then have participated, together with other groups, in the armed uprising of Chandragupta Maurya against the Nanda Dynasty around 322 BCE, and gone as far as Pataliputra for the capture of the city from the Nandas. The Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified with Porus.Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, pp. 26–27 According to these accounts, this alliance gave Chandragupta a composite and powerful army made up of Yavanas (Greeks), Kambojas, Shakas (Scythians), Kiratas (Nepalese), Parasikas (Persians) and Bahlikas (Bactrians) who took Pataliputra.Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p. 27 History Of The Chamar Dynasty, Raj Kumar, Gyan Publishing House, 2008, p. 51 "Kusumapura was besieged from every direction by the forces of Parvata and Chandragupta: Shakas, Yavanas, Kiratas, Kambojas, Parasikas, Bahlikas and others, assembled on the advice of Chanakya" in Mudrarakshasa 2. Sanskrit original: "asti tava Shaka-Yavana-Kirata-Kamboja-Parasika-Bahlika parbhutibhih Chankyamatipragrahittaishcha Chandergupta Parvateshvara balairudidhibhiriva parchalitsalilaih samantaad uprudham Kusumpurama". From the French translation, in "Le Ministre et la marque de l'anneau",
After these events, the Greeks were able to maintain a structured presence at the door of India for about three centuries, through the Seleucid Empire and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, down to the time of the Indo-Greek kingdoms, which ended sometime in the 1st century CE. During that time, the city of Ai-Khanoum, capital of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and the capitals of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the cities of Sirkap, founded in what is now Pakistan on the Greek Hippodamian grid plan, and Sagala, now located in Pakistan 10 km from the border with India, interacted heavily with the Indian subcontinent. It is considered that Ai-Khanoum and Sirkap may have been primary actors in transmitting Western artistic influence to India, for example in the creation of the quasi-Ionic Pataliputra capital or the floral friezes of the Pillars of Ashoka.Boardman, 15 Numerous Greek ambassadors, such as Megasthenes, Deimachus and Dionysius, stayed at the Mauryan court in Pataliputra.
The scope of adoption goes from designs such as the bead and reel pattern, the central flame palmette design and a variety of other moldings, to the lifelike rendering of animal sculpture and the design and function of the Ionic anta capital in the palace of Pataliputra.Boardman, 15-19 After the 1st century CE, Hellenistic influence continued to be perceived in the syncretic Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, down to the 4th–5th centuries CE. Arguably, Hellenistic influence continued to be felt indirectly in India arts for many centuries thereafter.
Influence on Indian monumental stone architecture (268–180 BCE)
During the Maurya period (c. 321–185 BCE), and especially during the time of Emperor Ashoka (c.268–232 BCE), Hellenistic influence seems to have played a role in the establishment of Indian monumental stone architecture. Excavations in the ancient palace of Pataliputra have brought to light Hellenistic sculptural works, and Hellenistic influence appear in the Pillars of Ashoka at about the same period.
According to John Boardman, there were Hellenistic influences on Indian stone architecture. However, the sites and sources of these influences are "not always properly identified or yet identifiable".Boardman, 14 Three broad theories have been proposed. One was held by early scholars such as Percy Brown in which stone Indian architecture used immigrant craftsmen experienced in the Persian Achaemenid imperial style, which included much Greek input, to which further more direct Hellenistic influence was added. The second was held by later scholars such as John Irwin who favour mostly indigenous Indian inspiration, and a third held by S.P. Gupta and others, who favour a combination.Boardman, 13
Boardman compares the appearance of stone architecture in Persia and India; to some extent the new empires of the Achaemenids and Mauryans faced similar issues in "creating stone architecture suitable to the aspirations of empire", when neither country had a tradition of building in stone. Persian conquests had included areas with important traditions of large-scale building in brick or stone; in India there was probably a tradition of large and intricate building in wood, although remains of this are naturally very few. It is possible that the difficult pass through the Hindu Kush and locations to the northwest of it such as Ai-Khanoum, a Greek city of Bactria in 3rd-century BCE and about from Kabul, could have provided the conduit to connect the Hellenistic and Indian artists. Alternatively, the influence could have come from the ancient Persian Persepolis, now near Shiraz in southwest Iran and about from Kabul. However, a major issue that this proposal faces is that Persepolis was destroyed about 80 years before the first Buddhist stone architecture and arts appeared. This leaves the question whether, to what extent and how knowledge was preserved or transferred over the generations between the fall of Persepolis (330 BCE) and the rise of Ashokan era art to its east (after 263 BCE).
Extent of relations Numerous contacts have been recorded between the Maurya Empire and the Greek realm. Seleucus I Nicator attempted to conquer India in 305 BCE, but he finally came to an agreement with Chandragupta Maurya, and signed a treaty which, according to Strabo, ceded a number of territories to Chandragupta, including large parts of what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan. A "marital agreement" was also concluded, and Seleucus received five hundred war elephants, a military asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BCE.With Arrow, Sword, and Spear: A History of Warfare in the Ancient World, Alfred S. Bradford, Pamela M. Bradford Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p. 125 Ancient Ethnography: New Approaches, Eran Almagor, Joseph Skinner, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, p. 104
Later, numerous ambassadors visited the Indian court in Pataliputra, especially Megasthenes to Chandragupta, later Deimakos to his son Bindusara, and later again Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and contemporary of Ashoka, is also recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court. Ashoka made communications with Greek populations on the site of Alexandria Arachosia (Old Kandahar), using the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription or the Kandahar Greek Inscription.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom with its capital of Ai-Khanoum maintained a strong Hellenistic presence at the doorstep of India from 280–140 BCE, and after that date went into India itself to form Indo-Greek kingdoms which would last until the 1st century CE. At the same time, Ashoka wrote some of his edicts in Greek, and claimed to have sent ambassadors to Greek rulers as far as the Mediterranean, suggesting his willingness to communicate with the Hellenistic realm.
Instances of Hellenistic influence
During that period, several instance of artistic influence are known, particular in the area of monumental stone sculpture and statuary, an area with no known precedents in India. The main period of stone architectural creation seems to correspond to the period of Ashoka's reign (c.?268–232 BCE). Before that, Indians may have had a tradition of wooden architecture, but no remains have ever been found to prove that point. However remains of wooden palisades were discovered at archaeological sites in Pataliputra, confirmed Classical accounts that the city had such wooden ramparts. The first examples of stone architecture were also found in the palace compound of Pataliputra, with the distinctly Hellenistic Pataliputra capital and a pillared hall using polished-stone columns. The other remarkable example of monumental stone architecture is that of the Pillars of Ashoka, themselves displaying Hellenistic influence.Boardman, 15–16 Overall, according to Boardman, "the visual experience of many Ashokan and later city dwellers in India was considerably conditioned by foreign arts, translated to an Indian environment, just as the archaic Greek had been by the Syrian, the Roman by the Greek, and the Persian by the art of their whole empire".Boardman, 21
Pataliputra capital (3rd century BCE)