We have already mentioned the visit of certain Greek mathematicians to the Court of Chosroes I, and there are certain other facts which at least justify the consideration of the Persian route. The Sássánid period, A.D. 229–652, shows a somewhat remarkable parallelism with the age of enlightenment in India that roughly corresponds with the Gupta period. "The real missionaries of culture in the Persian empire at this time were the Syrians, who were connected with the west by their religion and who, in their translations, diffused Greek literature throughout the orient." Mr. Vincent Smith discusses the probability of Sássánian influence on India but states that there is no direct evidence.
Although it may be possible to offer only conjectures as to the actual route by which any particular class of Greek knowledge reached India, the fact remains that during the period under consideration the intellectual influence of Greek on India was considerable. It is evident not only in the mathematical work of the Indians but also in sculpture, architecture, coinage, astronomy, astrology, &c. Mr. Vincent Smith refers "to the cumulative proof that the remarkable intellectual and artistic output of the Gupta period was produced in large measure by reason of the contact between the civilization of India and that of the Roman Empire;" and research is almost daily adding to such proof.
The flourishing state of the Gupta empire, the greatest in India since the days of Asoka, and the wise influence of its principal rulers gave a great impetus to scholarship of all kinds. The numerous embassies to and from foreign countries—which were means of intellectual as well as political communication—no doubt contributed to the same end; and the knowledge of Greek works displayed by Āryabhata, Varāha Mihira, and Brahmagupta was one of the natural results of this renaissance of learning.
