The monumental capital was discovered in 1895 at the royal palace in Pataliputra, India, in the area of Bulandi Bagh in Patna, by archaeologist L.A. Waddell in 1895.

[5] The Pataliputra capital is generally dated to the early Maurya Empire period, 3rd century BCE.

This would correspond to the reign of Chandragupta, his son Bindusara or his grandson Ashoka, who are all known to have welcomed Greek ambassadors at their court (respectively Megasthenes, Deimachus and Dionysius), who may well have come to Pataliputra with presents and craftsmen as suggested by classical sources.

[6][7] The Indo-Greeks again possibly had a very direct presence in Pataliputra about a century later, circa 185 BCE, when they may have captured the city, although briefly, from the Sungas after the fall of the Maurya Empire.

[15] The Pataliputra capital may reflect the influence of the Seleucid Empire or the neighboring Greco-Bactrian kingdom on early India sculptural art.

[16] Achaemenid influence has also been noted, especially in relation to the general shape, and the capital has been called a "Persianizing capital, complete with stepped impost, side volutes and central palmettes", which may be the result of the formative influence of craftsmen from Persia following the disintegration of the Achaemenid Empire after the conquests of Alexander the Great.

[18] These authors stress that they are no known precedents in India (baring the hypothetical possibility of now-lost wooden structures), and that therefore the formative influence must have come from the neighbouring Achaemenid Empire.

[16] This type of anta capital with side volutes are considered as belonging to the Ionic order, starting from the archaic period.

They are generally characterized by various moldings on the front, arranged in a rather flat manner in order not to protrude from the wall, with superposed volutes on curved sides broadening upwards.

The Pataliputra capital has two holes on the top, which would imply a mode of fixation with a structural element overhead.

[28] The Bharhut pillars are formed of a cylindrical or octagonal shaft, a bell capital and a crowning capital of trapezoid shape crisscrossed with incisions to achieve a decorative illusion (or a floral composition in more detailed examples), and often ended with a volute in each top corner.

To him, the main characteristic of the Pataliputra capital would be that it has vertically arranged volutes, and clear motifs of west-Asiatic origin.

It is located about 400 meters to the South of the portions of the wooden palissade that have been excavated, and just north of the former banks of the Sona river.

The abacus also often seems to display a strong influence of Greek art: in the case of the Rampurva bull or the Sankassa elephant, it is composed of honeysuckles alternated with stylized palmettes and small rosettes, as well as rows of beads and reels.

[34] A similar kind of design can be seen in the frieze of the lost capital of the Allahabad pillar, as well as the Diamond throne built by Ashoka in Bodh Gaya.

[28] The earliest known example in India, the Pataliputra capital (3rd century BCE) is decorated with rows of repeating rosettes, ovolos and bead and reel mouldings, wave-like scrolls and side volutes with central rosettes, around a prominent central flame palmette, which is the main motif.

Various designs involving central palmettes with volutes are closer to the later Greek Corinthian anta or pilaster capital.

[51] The 4th century Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien also commented admiringly on the remains of the palace of Ashoka in Pataliputra: It was the work not of men but of spirits which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed elegant carvings and in-laid sculptured works in a way which no human hand of this world could accomplish.

[55]The influence of Greek art is also well attested in some of the Pillars of Ashoka, such as the Rampurva capital with its Hellenistic floral scrolls.