• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Mauryan Art and Architecture

In India the establishment of a vigorous dynasty ruling over wide dominions has invariably resulted in the application of a strong stimulus to the development of man’s intellectual and artistic powers. Such a dynasty, exercising its administrative duties effectively, fostering commerce, maintaining active intercourse, commercial and diplomatic, with foreign states, and displaying the pomp of a magnificent court, both encourages the desire to do great things,and provides the material patronage without which authors and artists cannot live.

The reign of Asoka presents in perfection all these conditions as being favorable to the development of notable schools of art and literature. It may be that art had flourished almost in equal measure under the rule of his father Bindusara and his grandfather Chandragupta. In fact, there are substantial grounds for believing that buildings of exceptional magnificence were erected in the time of the first Maurya emperor. Splendid architecture necessarily involves the successful cultivation of sculpture, painting, and all the decorative arts. Greek testimony declares that the palace of Chandragupta surpassed the royal abodes of Persia, and records some details of the rich ornament of the building. But the whole has vanished.

The monuments before the period of Asoka were mostly made of wood and therefore perished. In the time of Chandragupta Maurya and his son brick and stone seem to have been used chiefly for the foundations and plinths of timber superstructures. Wooden architecture implies the execution of most of the decorative features in material equally perishable. The use of stone started from the time of Asoka. Materials for the history of art during the reigns of Chandragupta and Bindusara must continue to be scanty. The general use of stone in northern India for building, sculpture, and decoration certainly dates from the reign of Asoka, who was influenced by Persian and Greek example.

No building of Asoka’s age is standing, unless some of the stzlpas near Bhilsa may have been built by him. His palace and monasteries and most of his stupas have disappeared. Asoka built a number of stupas throughout his empire but majority of them were destroyed during foreign invasions. Only a few have survived. The best example is the famous Sanchi stupa with massive dimensions. It was originally built with bricks but later enlarged after the time of Asoka. An early stupa, being merely a domical mound of masonry, does not offer much scope for architectural design.

The caves presented to the Ajivikas by Asoka and his son Dasaratha remain important heritage of the Mauryas. Their interior walls are polished like mirror. These were meant to be residences of monks. The caves at Barabar hills near Bodh Gaya are wonderful pieces of Mauryan architecture.

Asokan art can better be judged from sculpture than from architecture. The noble sculpture of Asoka’s age exhibits a mature form of art, the evolution of which through earlier attempts is hidden from our eyes for the reasons explained above. Many details indicate that the artist in stone closely followed the example set by his fellow craftsmen in wood. If Asoka insisted, as he did, on his statuary and reliefs being executed in enduring stone, he was able to utilize the services of skilled Indian workmen accustomed to work in more perishable materials, who were clever enough to adapt their technique to the permanent medium. The art of his time, although obviously affected by Persian and Hellenistic influences, is mainly Indian in both spirit and execution.

Even of the numerous monuments of Asoka, only a few remained. The pillars erected by Asoka furnish the finest specimen of the Mauryan art. Asokan pillars with inscriptions were found in places like Delhi, Allahabad, Rummindai, Sanchi and Saranath. Their tops were crowned with figures of animals like lion, elephant and bull.

The perfection of the execution of the best examples of Asokan sculpture is astonishing. The Saranath pillar with four lions standing back to back is the most magnificent. Lying near the column were the broken portions of the upper part of the shaft and a magnificent capital of the well-known Persepolitan bell shaped type with four lions above, supporting in their midst a stone wheel or dharmachakra, the symbol of the law first promulgated at Sarnath. Both bell and lions are in an excellent state of preservation and masterpieces in point of both style and technique — the finest carvings, indeed, that India has yet produced, and unsurpassed by anything of their kind in the ancient world. The Indian government adopted this capital with some modifications as its state emblem.