Mauryan art

The most significant remains of monumental Mauryan art include those of the royal palace and the city of Pataliputra, a monolithic rail at Sarnath, the Bodhimandala or the altar resting on four pillars at Bodhgaya, the rock-cut chaitya-halls in the Barabar Caves near Gaya (including the Sudama cave bearing the inscription dated the 12th regnal year of Ashoka), the non-edict-bearing and edict-bearing pillars, the animal sculptures crowning the pillars with animal and vegetal reliefs decorating the abaci of the capitals, and the front half of the representation of an elephant carved in the round from a live rock at Dhauli.

[2] The first phase is found in some instances of the representation of the Vedic deities (the most significant examples are the reliefs of Surya and Indra at the Bhaja Caves).

[3] The second phase was the court art of Ashoka, typically found in the monolithic columns on which his edicts are inscribed and the third phase was the beginning of brick and stone architecture, as in the case of the original stupa at Sanchi, the small monolithic rail at Sanchi, and the Lomas Rishi Cave in the Barabar Caves, with its ornamented facade, echoing the forms of wooden art.

It has been described as Perso-Ionic, with a strong Greek stylistic influence, including volute, bead and reel, meander or honeysuckle designs.

This monumental piece of architecture tends to suggest the Achaemenid and Hellenistic artistic influence at the Mauryan court from early on.

[5] The stone elephant at Dhauli was also probably carved by local craftsmen and not by the court-based artists who were responsible for the animal capitals.

The image of the elephant emerging from the rock is a most impressive one, and its purpose was probably to draw attention to the inscription nearby.

Made by local people who may not have been specialists, but for example potters with a sideline, they are very difficult to date if not recorded as coming from an identifiable archaeological context.

Many are regarded as pre-Mauryan, but a continuation of the tradition of making mother-goddesses in clay, which dates back to the prehistoric period is revealed by the discovery of these objects at Mauryan levels during the excavations at Ahicchatra.

They are in stone, with the top side very finely carved in relief with several circular zones of decoration running around the hole in the centre.

Typically the innermost zone, which runs down the sloping sides of the hole, has standing female figures, often nude or nearly so, but with jewellery and elaborate hairstyles, with trees in between them.

They may have a specific religious purpose, or a more general one promoting fertility, or been used to make jewellery by hammering metal foil over the designs.

The Greek ambassador Megasthenes mentions that the capital city of Pataliputra was encircled by a massive timber-palisade, perforated by holes or slits through which archers could shoot.

Excavations carried out by Spooner and Waddell have brought to light remains of huge wooden palisades at Bulandi Bagh in Pataliputra.

But the most highly developed technique is seen in a special type of pottery known as the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBP), which was the hallmark of the preceding and early Mauryan periods.

The NBP ware is made of finely levigated alluvial clay, which when seen in section is usually of a grey and sometimes of a red hue.

It has a brilliantly burnished dressing of the quality of a glaze which ranges from a jet black to a deep grey or a metallic steel blue.

[21] The coins issued by the Mauryans are mostly silver and a few copper pieces of metal in various shapes, sizes and weights and which have one or more symbols punched on them.

This evidence of stress and unsatisfied currency demand is accompanied by debasement (inflation) plus vanishing of the reverse marks which denoted the ancient trade guilds.