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ARCHITECTURE
Eternal India
encyclopedia
ARCHITECTURE
THE MAURYAS
The earliest stone architecture consists of monolithic pillars
built by Ashoka (272-231 B.C), the grandson of Chandra Gupta
Maury a, the founder of the Maury a dynasty. These highly polished
sandstone pillars have been found in various places throughout
Ashoka's vast empire, extending
from Afghanistan on the west,
Orissa in the east, Nepal in the north
and Karnataka in the south. Each
pillar consists of a monolithic shaft of
about 50 ft. in height above which is
an inverted bell capital on which is a
circular drum, surrounded by an ani-
mal capital, such as the Lion capital
from Lauriya Nandangarh, the Bull
capital from Rampurwa and the Lion
capital from Sarnath. The Sarnath
pillar consists of a lotus bell
capital,
surrounded
by
a
sculpted drum on which are
represented the bull, horse
and lion above which are four
addorsed
lions
while
the
crowning
element
originally
consisted of a large wheel.
These pillars are inscribed
with epigraphs composed in
the vernacular language of
Magadha (a form of Prakrit)
and propagate the message of
dharma;
hence they are known
as
dharma-stambhas
(pillars
of law). The inscriptions re-
flect
Ashoka's
policy
of
dharma
which was based on
the principles of Bodhi dharma,
such as non-injury to animals, tolerance and benevolence. The
articulations on pillars, especially the lotus, animals and
cakra
re-
veal religious and royal symbolism. They also appear to be a blend
of Indian and Achaemenid art: the animals rendered naturalistically
are reminiscent of seal carvings from the Indus Civilisation while
the palmettes and "honey suckle" rosettes on the drum of the
capital resemble west Asiatic ones at Bulandibagh; and the ad-
dorsed lions might be due to Achaemenid royal influence. However,
the unfluted pillar, animals on the drum, the lotus and wheel are
clearly Indian elements and symbolise Indian concepts, such as the
world axis, animals of direction, of creation and the Buddhist
dharma
, respectively. Ashoka's regime witnessed the establish-
ment of rock cut architecture, such as the Lomas Rishi in the Bara-
bar and Nagarjuna hills near Gaya. The cave is modelled after
wooden architecture and donated to the Ajivaka sect. Post-
Mauryan art, which is known as the Sunga period, continued the
Mauryan tradition especially in the erection of pillars and carving of
large figures of Yakshas. Important among the discoveries is the
pillar at Vidisha which is surrounded by a Garuda (eagle, a vehicle
of Vishnu) and constructed by a foreigner, Heliodorus (the ambas-
sador .of the Graeco-Bactrian King Antialkidas to King Bhag-
abhadra) who was a Bhagavata (devotee) of Vasudeva, the early
Vaishnava deity.
THE SUNGAS
The Sunga period also witnessed the first significant body of art
that can be securely associated to the Buddhist religion. Buddhism
was founded by Buddha (the Enlightened One) who was born in a
Kshatriya
(warrior caste) family in Magadha. Buddhism did not
accept the authority of the
Vedas,
the caste system and rituals, and
propounded ethical systems, in which non-violence (
ahimsa
) was a
major element.
The places connected with the events of Buddha's life came to
be places of pilgrimage especially where architecturalforms such as
Monasteries (viharas) and churches (stupas) came to be con-
structed which are connected to the Sunga period. An important
stupa
is at Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) dated to c 100 B.C known as
Sanchi stupa II. Tradition credits Ashoka with building 84,000
stupas all over India and Af-
ghanistan but they have almost
entirely perished. Some of
them still exist,
the most fa-
mous being the
big stupa at
Sanchi, in Madhya Pradesh.
The diameter of the stupa is
121
1/2
ft., the height about 77
1/2
ft., and the massive stone rail-
ing which encloses it is 11 ft., in
height. According to Sir John
Marshall, the original brick
stupa built by Ashoka was probably of not more than half the
present dimensions. In Buddhism, stupas contain relics and serve
as symbols of Buddha and his
parinirvana
(final extinction). Ac-
cording to Buddhist texts, Buddha’s relics were divided into eight
portions and distributed to different kingdoms where
stupas
were
erected over them. Ashoka redistributed them and eventually thou-
sands of other
stupas
were raised in the name of Buddhism, as a
direct reference to Sakyamuni himself. In Sanchi stupa II were
found reliquaries
ON
which were inscriptions which indicate that it
contained the bone relics that belong to famous Buddhist saints.
The form of the
stupa
was closely related to its function: the. solid,
circular hemispherical dome was enclosed within a railing
(vedika)
which formed a circumambulatory path around, meant to be cir-
cumambulated by Buddhist devotees. The four cardinal entrances in
the railing and the pattern of entrances thus produced creates a cos-
mological diagram in the form of a
swastika.
The railing was
perhaps a direct imitation in stone of a wooden prototype and
contains elaborate carvings in the form of lions, dwarfs and wish
fulfilling vine (
kalpalata
), as well as a prototype of a Sarnath lion
pillar.
Remains of a
mahastupa
(large stupa) were found (by Alexan-
der Cunningham) in Bharhut which was located along a major trade
route of ancient India, and datable to 100-80 B.C. Only the eastern
torana
(gateway) was found, but there were probably four, and
they probably had an iconographic programme in their embellish-
ment which consisted of animal figures, plants,
makaras
(crocodiles),
Gajalakshmi
(goddess of wealth),
nagarajas,
(ser-
pent kings) including a Greek warrior and a royal procession bring-