The reigns of Kanishka and Huvishka coincide with the most flourishing period of the great Gandhāra school of sculpture, which had arisen during the rule of the Śaka princes. Hellenistic influence is very strongly marked in that art, and it may be interesting to consider here briefly what contribution the coins make to the vexed question of the respective parts played by Greek and Indian ideals in moulding its character. A careful inspection of the successive coinages of the Indo-Greeks, the Śakas and the Kushāṇas will show that the strongest influences of pure Greek art had passed away before the reign of Kanishka. With the establishment of Greek rule south of the Hindu Kush, traces of the Indian craftsman’s hand begin to appear. As time goes on these become more apparent, until, in the Kushāṇa period, the whole fabric of the coins, if not entirely Indian, is far more Oriental than Greek. That purely Indian influences were strongly at work is very evident in the cult of Śiva as expressed on the coins of Vima Kadphises and Vāsudeva for instance; in the Buddha coins of Kadaphes and Kanishka, and in the typical Indian cross-legged attitude in which Kadphises II and Huvishka are depicted; and, after all is said, the art was produced in India and must have been largely if not entirely the work of Indian craftsmen. Originality in art does not so much consist in evolving something which has never existed before, but rather in the ability to absorb fresh ideas and transmute them into a new form. And thus it was in the time of Kanishka: Indian mysticism allowed itself to be clad in Greek beauty of form. Eastern feeling ran, as it were, into Western moulds to create this wonderful aftermath of Hellenic art, which left an indelible mark upon every country of the Orient where the cult of the Buddha penetrated. [Illustration: Fig. 4. Gupta Script on coin of Chandragupta II. Cf. Pl. V, 7 (obverse).] IV THE COINAGE OF THE GUPTAS