Mauryan Empire Art and Architecture

Mauryan Art and Architecture

The magnanimous Mauryan power was visible in monumental stone sculptures and structures. Important beginnings were made in rock-cut and stupa architecture. In the Mauryan period, stone culture dramatically emerged as the principal medium of Indian arts. The Mauryan art was strongly linked with political and religious ideology of that time. The Mauryan kings, especially Ashoka, highly patronized different art forms such as stone sculptures, ring stones, disc stones, terracotta figurines and stupa architecture. Ashoka played a major role in popularizing the stupa cult. He not only redistributed the Buddha's relics to every important town, but also ordered construction of stupas over them. It is roughly estimated that he got built approximately 84,000 stupas. Ashoka's greatest innovation was the substitution of stone for wood and brick. Ashokan pillars at Rampurva, Lauriya Nandangarh and Sarnath present excellent examples of stone sculptures that developed in this period. All these pillars are circular and monolithic, and are made of sandstone found at Chunar, near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The Mauryan period also saw the beginning of rock-cut architecture. The rock-cut architecture of Lomasha Risi cave in the Barabara hills near Gaya, and the majestic Dhauli caves in Odisha is magnificent. The famous Vajrasana at the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya probably belonged to this period. Among several stone and terracotta sculptures of this period, the polished stone sculpture of a female known as the Didarganj Yakshini is the most famous one. Another important polished Chunar sandstone sculpture is of the torso of a nude male figure found at Lohanipur in Patna. The stone portrait of Ashoka found at Kanaganahalli in Karnataka is also spectacular. Universities of Taxila, Ujjain and Varanasi were the famous centres of learning. In the field of literature, Bhadrabahu's Kalpasutra is attributed to the Mauryan period. Lomasha Risi and Sudama caves of Gaya are other great examples of wooden architectural heritage. A large number of carved ring stones and disc stones which probably had religious and ritualistic significance have been found at various sites in northern India, such as Delhi, Patna, Taxila, Mathura, Vaishali and Kaushambi. They have different carvings arranged in two or more concentric circles and have different designs and geometric patterns. 

The Mauryan period also witnessed rapid development of material culture in the Gangetic plains. The new material culture of Gangetic basin was based on the intensive use of iron and iron implements, prevalence of writing, use of punch-marked coins, Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) pottery artifacts, introduced of burnt bricks and timber in construction and ring wells. The existence of inscriptions, occasional NBPW potsherds and punch-marked coins in parts of Bangladesh, Odisha, Andhra and Karnataka points towards the spread of material culture to these peripheral areas too. Our national emblem is adopted from the four-lion capital of Ashokan pillar at Sarnath near Benaras. Megasthenes has described the grandeur of the Mauryan palace at Pataliputra. Some remains of this palace, including the 80-pillared hall have been found at Kumrahar near Patna. The high technical skill attained by the Mauryan artisans is evident in the stone pillar's polish, which is as shining as the Northern Black Polished Ware. 

Mauryan art is also believed to have Achaemenid/Persian influence since the pillar inscriptions of Ashoka are very similar in form and style to the Persian king Darius' inscriptions. In fact, even the words lipi and dipi occur in the inscriptions of both Ashoka and Darius, and the inscriptions of both kings begin in the third person and then move to the first person. The polished surface and animal capitals of Ashokan pillars present another similarity. However, there are also differences between the Mauryan and Persian pillars as the Persian pillars stand on bases, either shaped like a bell (inverted lotus) or a plain rectangular or circular block while in case of Mauryan pillars the base is absent and the inverted lotus appears at the top of the shaft. The shape and ornamentation of the Mauryan lotus (typical bulge)

is also different from the Persian ones (bulge is absent). Most of the Persian pillars have a fluted surface while Mauryan pillars are smooth. The Mauryan type abacus and independent animals carved in the round crowning are absent in the Persian context. The Mauryans thus made a remarkable contribution to art and architecture.