Mauryan Art and Architecture

Mauryan art during the period of the Mauryan Empire in ancient India (4th to 2nd century BCE) reflects a remarkable blend of artistic expression and political power. Stone carving is an important aspect of Mauryan art. In this case, the iconic lion capital of Ashoka can be named. Mauryan art represented devotion to Buddhism and imperial glory. Monumental pillars, rock caves, and stupa complexes like those at Sanchi were built during the Maurya dynasty. All these industrial buildings are known for their precision and sophistication. These artifacts depict the efforts of the Maurya emperors to promote and spread the faith in Buddhism.

Mauryan artists excelled at creating exquisite sculptures, often representing Buddhist themes and teachings. The Ashoka Chakra, an enduring symbol of India, also finds its roots in Mauryan art. These artistic achievements, coupled with Emperor Ashoka’s administrative skills, left a deep legacy in Indian art and culture and influenced subsequent dynasties. Mauryan art serves as a testament to the enduring influence of Buddhism and the Maurya dynasty on India’s rich artistic heritage.

THE Mauryan Art and Architecture

Historical Facts	Royal Palace and city
Royal palace and city	Patliputra
Finest Mauryan pillar	Sarnath pillar
Terracotta objects	Pataliputra to Taxila
Famous stupa	The Sanchi stupa

Introduction

The first organized artistic activity in India on a large scale and with durable material, of which database examples have come down to us in large numbers, belongs to the Mauryan Empire. We have no examples of sculpture or architecture that can be chronologically clearly identified as pre-Mauryan or perhaps pre-Asokan.

The description of the city of Pataliputra and the royal palace that we read in the accounts of classical writers such as Megasthenes, Arrian, and Strabo, and the excavations at the site of the old city, which will be discussed later, may be taken to indicate that Chandragupta Maurya, the first Mauryan ruler, may have been responsible for the original planning and implementation of the buildings of the city and the royal palace, but there can be no doubt that Bindusara and Asoka added greatly to the original layout and buildings.

characteristic features of Mauryan sculpture and architecture

A few distinctive features of Mauryan sculptural and architectural remains are:

(i) All are monumental in conception and design and exceedingly delicate and precise in execution.

(ii) All the Mauryan sculptures, including the monolithic pillars, were executed in hard sandstone, mostly quarried at Chunar near Varanasi (U.P.). They were always very finely carved and very highly polished to a luster “that has almost no parallel in India or the world except in ancient Iran”.

(iii) Mauryan art was essentially royal or courtly art. The vast resources made available to artists by the state enabled conception, planning, and execution on such a grand and gigantic scale. Anand Coomarswamy made a distinction between court art and more popular art during the Mauryan period.

Illustrations of columns and their capitals evoke court art, and popular Mauryan art is represented by outstanding individual icons.

Examples include the Yakshi of Besanagar, the Yaksha of Parkham, and the chauri bahak of Didarganj.

(iv) It is difficult to say whether the development of Mauryan art was the result of a natural historical process or was directly or indirectly conditioned by India’s contact with the contemporary West Asian world.

Many scholars have suggested that Mauryan art, particularly the columns and animal figures, was greatly influenced by the art of the Achaemenid dynasty of Iran.

Wheeler suggested that the Mauryan artisans employed by the state may have been Persians (Iranians) who had settled in India. Several other historians have pointed to Hellenistic (Greek) influence on Mauryan art.

Although clearly inspired by foreign models, Mauryan art is clearly distinguishable from and, in some ways, superior to them.

An example of Mauryan art

The sum total of the Mauryan artistic treasure can be said to include:

• (i) remains of the royal palace and city of Pataliputra;
• (ii) the rock-cut Chaitya hall or cave dwelling in the Barabar and Nagarjuna hills of Gaya (Bihar);
• (iii) edict-bearing and non-edict-bearing Asokan pillars;
• (iv) statues of animals crowning the columns with animal and plant reliefs decorating the abacus of the capitals;
• (v) Other individual Mauryan sculptures and terracotta figures discovered at various places

Mauryan royal palace and city of Pataliputra

The famous metropolis of Pataliputra, known to Greek and Latin writers as Palibothra, Palibotra, and Palibothra, situated at the confluence of the Sone and the Ganges, stretched in the form of a parallelogram.

It was surrounded by a wooden wall pierced with loopholes for firing arrows and crowned with 570 towers, apparently for guarding.

The approaches to the city consisted of 64 gates. Sumptuous palaces adorned the city, which housed a large population, including many foreigners. If Arrian is to be believed, the royal palace, “where the greatest of all Indian kings resided, was a marvel of craftsmanship, which “neither Memnomian Susa, with all its costly splendor, nor Ecbatana, with all its magnificence, can rival. The Mauryan wooden palace survived until at least the end of the 4th century A.D, when Fahien visited India and found it so stunning that he believed it to be the work of spirits.

The palace appears to have been destroyed by fire, as can be inferred from the ashes and burned fragments of wooden pillars found at Kumrahar near Patana.

Rock-cut architecture

Seven rock shrines in the hills—about 31 km north of Gaya, four on the Barabar hills, and three on the Nagarjuna hills—belong to the time of Asoka and his grandson Dasaratha. These are the oldest known examples of rock-hewn architecture.

Several of these cave dwellings were dedicated by Asoka and his grandson Dasaratha for the use of monks of the Ajivika sect. The three caves bearing Asoka’s inscriptions belong to the Barabar group, named Karna Chaupar Cave, Sudama Cave, and Lomas Rishi Cave. Of all the caves, the largest is known as the Gopika cave, with both ends being semi-circular. All these caves have the Mauryan architectural characteristic of bright luster shining from their walls and roofs.

Asokan Pillars

The best examples of Mauryan art are provided by a series of monolithic columns or pillars with exquisite craftsmanship, lustrous luster, and majestic animal heads.

The columns are made of two types of stone. Some are of mottled red and white sandstone from the Mathura region, and others are of tan, fine-grained, hard gray sandstone quarried at Chunar near Varanasi. They usually consist of a round and monolithic shaft tapering from the base with a diameter ranging from about 90 cm to 125 cm and a total height of between 12 and 15 meters. Havell describes the capital of these pillars as a “bell-shaped Persian capital.” However, this identification is misleading because the capital represents a flower, a lotus, not a bell.

The capital is surmounted by a counter on which are carved birds, animals, dharma chakras, etc. These pillars are topped by animal figures. The animals depicted at the top of these pillars are:

(i) At Lauriya Nandangarh, the crowning figure is a single lion, while the counter is decorated with a number of Brahmagiri geese or hams pecking at food. A single lion also adorns the top of the Asokan pillars at Kahlua (Bakhra) and Rampurwa.

(ii) At the top of the pillars at Sanchi and Sarnath are four lions placed back to back.

(iii) In Sankise (District Farrukhabad, U.P.), the capital is Elephant.

(iv) A bull was represented at Rampurwa.

(v) The capital of the Lauriya-Araraj pillar had Garuda, according to V.A. Smith, but many other historians believe it is a single lion.

Visits by Chinese tourists

The Chinese travelers Fa-hien and Huen Tsang noted lion capitals at Sankis and Kapil-Vandu; the kola capital Pataliputra; the capital at Sravasti; the horse capital at Lumbini; and the elephant capital at Rajagriha.

Sarnath Pillar

Raised in the deer park where Gautam Buddha preached his first sermon, the Sarnath Pillar is the finest Mauryan pillar.

Its capital is surmounted by four lions standing back to back, and in the center is a large stone wheel, the symbol of the dharma-chakra, of which only fragments remain.

Lions sit on a drum, and on it are carved the figures of four animals, viz., lion, elephant, bull, and horse, placed between four wheels. The animal figures are, according to Sir John Marshall, “masterpieces both in style and technique—truly the best carving that India has yet produced, surpassed by anything of its kind in the ancient world.”

Figurative sculpture

In addition to the animal sculptures described and discussed above, a relatively large number of separate figural sculptures of various sizes and proportions and several fragments of reliefs are attributed to the Mauryan period because they are so-called carved from the gray sandstone of Chunar.

A colossal statue of a man, 7 feet high, of gray and highly polished sandstone, with an inscription in the Asokan Brahmi script, was found at Parkhan near Mathura. An additional female statue was also found at Besant Nagar. Two Yaksha sculptures have been found in Patana, as has the Chaura-carrying Yakshi sculpture from Didarganj, which is considered one of the masterpieces of Indian art. Traditional Indian beliefs associate Yaksha and Yakshini as gods and goddesses of material abundance and physical well-being. Two male heads and three small head fragments of the same material and similarly polished were found at Sarnath. Anand Coomarswamy considers these figurative sculptures to be popular art, as opposed to court or official art.

Terracotta objects

Large numbers of terracotta objects of various sizes have been found at almost all Mauryan sites, from Pataliputra to Taxila. These terracotta objects have a well-defined shape and clear decoration. Terracottas consist of primitive idols, toys, beads, ornaments, etc.

The Mauryan age was a period of cultural brilliance. The whole of Northern India was under a very efficient central administration, and there was law, order, and material prosperity. In the midst of such a peaceful atmosphere, works of art of the highest quality were created. Stupas, pillars, caves, and edicts gave the country a visible unity of culture. Indian art has been elevated from the position of manual and primitive art to the status and dignity of fine art—the best that the world knows today.

Stupa and Chaitya

Buddhism and Jainism were two religious faiths that spread massively during this period. Stupas, chaityas, and viharas were built during this time. Such stupas are mainly found in modern Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Nepal. The Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh and the Sarnath Stupa near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, are famous stupas built during the reign of Ashoka.

Mauryan paintings and Jataka stories

The religious context of Buddhism and Jainism was part of the Shramana tradition that influenced Mauryan art. Ashoka followed Buddhist philosophy. The inscriptions on its pillars and rock edicts carried the message of Dhamma, or Buddhism.

Worshiping the Buddha and honoring his ideology through lotus, footprints, and other types of statues or images were common trends. After that, the pictorial stories of the Buddha became the Jataka stories during the Mauryan period. These were seen in stupas, or worship areas. There is no proper example of a painting of this age except the Jataka stories. Megasthenes’ book Indica mentions some paintings that did not survive later. According to some sources, some of the Ajanta cave paintings may have a Mauryan artistic effect, but there is no proof.

Coin design

Mauryan coins were known as Karshapana or Pana. These were made of silver and weighed around 3.4 g. The coins had five strikes. The symbol of six arms and the sun was mandatory, along with three other designs. The meanings of the strokes are ambiguous and cannot be deciphered.

Conclusion

The art and culture of the Mauryan period were versatile. The unique features of art and architecture were born from religious, social, and cultural traditions. The state of socio-religious status becomes more credible from the evidence of architecture.

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