Mauryan art

Mauryan art

The Lion Capital of Asoka, National Emblem of India, the most famous example of Mauryan art

Art forms of India
Religions Hindu Sikh Jain Buddhist
Periods Indus Valley Mauryan Indo-Greek Indo-Scythian Greco-Buddhist Kushan Gupta Pandyan Pallava Chola Indo-Islamic Mughal
Techniques Cave paintings Rock-cut architecture Ancient architecture Architecture Sculpture Painting
Locations Bhimbetka Mathura Gandhara Sanchi Bharhut Barabar caves Ajanta Khajuraho
See also Indian history Indian culture Asian art Visual arts portal
v t e

Mauryan art is art produced during the period of the Mauryan Empire, the first empire to rule over most of the Indian subcontinent, between 322 and 185 BCE. It represented an important transition in Indian art from the use of wood to stone. It was a royal art patronized by Mauryan kings, most notably Ashoka. Pillars, stupas and caves are its most prominent surviving examples.

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.^[1]

Ananda Coomaraswamy, writing in 1923, argued that the Mauryan art had three main phases.^[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).^[2] However the art of the Bhaja Caves is now generally dated later than the Mauryan period, to the 2nd-1st centuries BCE.^[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.^[2]

Most scholars agree that Mauryan art was influenced by Greek and Persian art, especially in imperial sculpture and architecture.^[4] Political and cultural contacts between the Greek and Persian cultures and India were intensive and ran for a long period of time, encouraging the propagation of their advances in the area of sculpture.^[4]