Foreign (Yavana) Donors

Trade moves not only goods but people, and traders often integrate into other societies and cultures. Here, in this relief from a Buddhist monastery cave in Pitalkhora, Maharashtra a donor couple, probably from the Mediterranean, wear recognisably foreign dress and hairstyle.

At Pitalkhora, there are also inscriptions by foreign residents, as at Ajanta, Bharhut and Sanchi.  Similarly, Indian merchants left dedications as they travelled to the west, on the island of Socotra and in ports of Roman Egypt like Berenike.