INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
The earliest known phase of the building art in India, recently excavated, discloses a style of
structure which has been described as aesthetically barren. This development in the dawn age of the
country has been designated as the ‘Indus valley civilization’ as the records of its culture has been found
buried in the soil of regions bordering on the river Indus.
Two separate sites so far have been excavated. But there are mounds and other evidences which
imply that it extended over a considerable portion of North West India and even beyond.
Two sites at present explored are at Mohenjo-daro in Sind, and Harappa in Southern Punjab.
Although the investigations have revealed a culture in which the buildings of the people had no great
artistic value, the finished quality of the materials employed, the high standard of their manipulation, and
the stability of the construction as a whole is astonishing. In first place the builders of these cities had
acquired no little experience of town planning, as proved by the methodical manner in which they were laid
out with straight streets at right angles, the main thorough fares running almost due north and south, east
and west.
The principal buildings were also fairly regularly oriented having their sides towards the cardinal
points; while each city was divided in to wards for protective purposes. All the walls of both the houses and
public buildings were constructed with a pronounced batter or slope, but it is in the substance and
preparation of these edifices that the artificers showed such exception knowledge.
Materials and construction
In both cities the buildings were composed entirely of burnt brick, which in size were on an average
rather than the common kind used in the present day. They were laid in mud mortar in what is known as
‘English bond’ that is a course of stretchers alternating with a course of headers, care being taken to break
the joint wherever necessary, the entire process indicating that the Indus builders were thoroughly
experienced in the technique of bricklayer’s craft. This method of construction applies mainly to the
foundation and the walls of the buildings, but these were very substantial it seems probable that they were
two or more stories in height.
The upper stories were composed largely of woo, the roof being flat and built of stout beams
covered with planking finished with a top dressing of beaten earth. No instance of the use of the true arch
has been discovered, openings being generally spanned by wooden lintels, but several instances of the
corbelled arch formed by oversailing courses of brick have come to light.
Types of buildings
Of the different type of building comprising these cities, dwelling houses both large and small
predominate, but there are a certain number of more important edifices, built for various purposes. Among
them may be identified large structures probably used as market halls, store rooms or offices; another
arranged around two spacious courtyards which may have been a palace; several halls possibly for
religious usage, and at Mohenjo-Daro a very complete bathing establishment.
Here it may be remarked that in comparison with the rich remains revealed by excavations in
another fields of research of relatively the same early age, the discoveries at Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and
Chanhudaro, in the Indus valley, have produced a disappointing small amount of material of an artistic
nature.
The ‘Indus Civilization’ declined probably early in the second millennium B. C, for the excavations
reveal that its cities were then falling in to a state of decay. In spite of its virile character and the
experienced method of construction that were achieved at this early age in India this powerful and well
founded culture died out without appearing to influence in the slightest degree the nature of the building art
that followed.
, THE VEDIC CULTURE
After the decay of the Indus civilization, when the art of building again comes in to vie, this no
longer consists of well laid out cities of finished masonry, but takes a much more rudimentary form of
humble village huts constructed of reeds and leaves are hidden in the depths of the forest. The culture of
the people was beginning again.
The Vedic culture of India provides the material for a study of the first efforts at building
construction, when man’s efforts were made in response to a need, and before any ideas of architectural
efforts were conceived. This culture which produced the elementary type of forest dwelling referred to
above, appeared probably towards the end of the second millennium B.C; it was the outcome of the great
Indo Aryan migration from the North West, and which in the course of time, laid the foundations of the
Vedic Age. That those responsible for this culture were unrelated to the people of the Indus civilization
seems fairly clear, as there was a wide difference in the conditions under which each of these populations
existed, in their mode of life, and notably in the type of buildings produced by this method of living.
On the one hand the inhabitants of the Indus region, as already shown, were mainly traders and
town dwellers, , while on the other hand the Vedic people were of the country, wresting their living from the
fields and forests. As far as is known the later were originally nomads, an offshoot of an immense and
obscure migration, who, settling down in the plains of India, became partly pastoral and partly agricultural,
having as their habitations rudimentary structures of reeds and bamboo thatched with leaves.
It was not therefore from the fine houses forming the towns of the Indus civilization, but from the
temporary erections as these, and the various simple expedients devised to meet the needs of the forest
dwellers that Indian architecture had its beginnings. Its foundations were in the soil itself and from these
aboriginal conditions it took its development.
Vedic village
From a variety of sources it is possible to visualize the kind of building that the early settlers found
suitable for their purpose. These early migrants had to protect themselves and their property from the
ravages of wild animals, and so they surrounded their little collection of huts (grama) with a special kind of
fence or palisade. This fence took the form of a bamboo railing the upright posts (thabha) of which
supported three horizontal bars called such or needles, as they were threaded through holes in the
uprights. In the course of time this peculiar railing became the emblem of protection and universally used,
not only to enclose the village, but as a paling around fields, and eventually to preserve anything of a
special or sacred nature.
In the palisade encircling the village entrances also of a particular kind were devised. These were
formed by projecting a section of the bamboo fence at right angles and placing a gateway in advance of it
after the fashion of a barbican, the actual gate resembling a primitive portcullis (gramadvara). Through the
gramadvaras the cattle passed to and from their pasturage, and in another form it still survives in the
gopuram (cowgate or entrance pylon of the enclosure in the south of India. But, more important still, from
the design of the bamboo gateways was derived that characteristic Budhist archway known as the torana.
Village huts
The huts within the village enclosure were of various shapes but it is fairly certain that at first those
of a circular plan predominated. Students of constructional origins have remarked on primitive men’s
natural tendency towards rounded forms, and give us instances pots and baskets. Incidentally as shown in
the bas-reliefs, the earliest Indian seat resembled a round inverted basket.
In the Vedic village huts were of the beehive pattern made of a circular wall of bamboos held
together with bands of withes and covered either with a domical roof of leaves or thatched with grass. A
remarkable illustration of this may be seen in the interior of the rock cut Sudama cell in the Barabar hill
group, where every detail of the timber construction is copied in the living rock.
, At a later date in the evolution of the Vedic hut the circular plan was elongated in to an oval with a
barrel roof formed on a frame of bent bamboos also covered with thatch. Soon some of these huts were
arranged in threes and fours around a square courtyard and the roofs covered with planks of wood or tiles.
In the better class houses unbaked bricks were used for the walls and the doorways were square headed
openings with double doors. One device to maintain the barrel shape of the roof was to stretch a throng or
white cross the end of the arch like the cord of a bow, in a word an embryo-tie rod. This contrivance
constricted the chord of the arch and produced a shape resembling a horseshoe, a type of archway
commonly referred to as the chaityas or ‘sun window’, which became characteristic of the subsequent
architecture of the Budhists.
Vedic period-later stages
Towards the middle of the first millennium B. C, the social system of the Vedic community so
expanded that towns arose to some important centers, where the traditional structural features of the
village were reproduced on a large scale and in a more substantial form. Owing to a fierce rivalry that had
sprung up between the various groups, the towns, which ere the capital of the states, were strongly
fortified. They were there fore of necessity surrounded by a rampart and wooden palisades while within
this enclosure the buildings were also almost entirely of wood. The Vedic civilization now enters an era of
timber construction.
So closely connected with their existence were those forests that the early people developed
dexterity in wooden construction of a very high standard. Their pronounced manipulative skill in this
material may be accounted for by their prolonged apprenticeship to the woodworker’s craft when they
were forced to rely on the tress around them for many of the necessities of life. In the Rig Veda the
carpenter is recorded as holding the place of honour among all artisans as on his handiwork the village
community depended for some of its most vital needs.
Cities largely of wooden construction, there fore began to appear in various parts of the country,
and according to Dhammapala, the great Buddhist commentator they were planned by an architect of the
name Maha Govinda who stated to have been responsible for the layout of the several of the capitals of
Northern India in the fifth century B. C. this is the first mention of an architect in the annals of the country.
In principles these cities were rectangular in plan and divided in to four quarters by two main
thoroughfares intersecting at right angles, each leading to a city gate. One of these quarters contained the
citadel and royal apartments another resolved itself residences of the upper classes, a third was the less
pretentious building of the middle class, and fourth was for the accommodation of traders with their
workshops open to view as in the modern bazaar.
Although the long interval of two thousand years separates the Vedic place from that of the
Mughals, both were built round an inner courtyard within the citadel and both had large central window for
the darshan or salutation of the King. Both had a wing reserve for the royal ladies with pleasure gardens,
having fountains and ornamental waters attached. In each there was an official enclosure containing
audience and assembly halls, a court of justice. A music gallery, and near at hand an arena for wrestling
displays and contests of wild beasts. But whereas the pavilions of the Mughals were of marble, the
building art in the Vedic era was at the primitive stage when even the royal residences had not advanced
beyond thatched roofs.
In spite, however, of the evidence of the literary records which indicate that much of the building
construction at this early date was of a temporary nature, the one example that has survived proves that
some efforts were already being made to produce stone masonry of durable character. The desire for
some stable method of construction was evidently being felt, but at this stage the skill and experience
were lacking.
, ASOKA AND THE BEGINNING OF THE BUDDHIST SCHOOL (B.B. 250)
Asoka was the third Mauryan ruler of Magadha, who ascended the throne in B. C. 274. An early
decisive step taken by this monarch was his acceptance of the teachings of Buddha. Accordingly in B. C.
255 Asoka inaugurated Buddhism as the state religion of the country.
With this change in the religious system of India also came a marked advance in the arts.
Buddhism essentially a graphic creed, art became its handmaid. So that wherever it penetrated it was
accompanied by forms and symbols expressive of its teachings. In India this early Buddhist art was of a
special kind as it was the result of the Mauryan emperor’s own personal predilections, and its productions
have been referred to as those of the Asoka’s school.
Its elements were due o the ruler’s initiative, they were practiced only during his reign, and they
ceased when it ended; it was therefore essentially autocratic in its character. But although this first
manifestation of Buddhist art was confined within such seemingly narrow limits, and its actual productions
were relatively few in number, they were of such exceptional power that they influenced to a notable
degree much of the art that followed.
The significance of this school lies in the fact that it marks the beginning of an era when India
through Buddhist thought was in position to dictate the rest of Asia its region, its symbolism, and its art.
PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF ASOKA’S SCHOOL
The principal contributions made by this school to the art and architecture of the time were some
six in number; consisting of the following: 1) a series of edicts inscribed on the rocks, 2) a number of
tumuli of stupas, 3) certain monolithic pillars, 4) several monoliths accessories to shrines, 5) the
remains of the vast palace and 6) a group of rock cut chambers. Among these productions that the
more affected the course of the art of building were the stupas on account of their structural significance,
the monolithic pillars in view of their artistic qualities, and the rock cut chambers because of their
technique, and the palace for its architectural associations.
Famous edicts in the living rock, although may have survived, were not, however, sufficiently suit
its purpose; what was evidently in his progressive mind was the creation of a memorial of such a
permanent nature that it would outlast time itself. With this in view Asoka caused to be raised in many
parts of his empire circular tumuli of brick, sacred mounds commemorative of Buddha. These ‘stupas’ as
they have been called from the Prakriti word tupa, were not unknown in India before this date, but their
shape, like that of the pyramid implies durability.
As the stupa from the nature of its structure was subject to disintegration owing to the rigors of the
climate, it became necessary for the Mauryan Empire to seek for some still more lasting method of
achieving his purpose. Aware no doubt those other nations were using stone, he began there for ‘think in
stone’ and in the course of time an impressive monument symbolizing the creed was devised in the form
of a pillar, a lofty free-standing monolithic column, erected on a site especially selected on account of its
sacred associations.
The effect of such columns, some of them as much as fifty feet in height, each carrying above its
capital a magnificent Buddhist emblem, on the minds of a people hitherto living in somewhat restricted
wooden building tradition was no doubt very great.
Finding expression from wood in another and more lasting material such as dressed stone is a
decisive step in the cultural evolution of a people. But the manner in which the step was taken under
Asoka’s directions, and the results it produced are both of more than ordinary significance. Appearing as
these sculptured forms do, fully matured, at a time when Indian art was still in its infancy, and without any
previous preparation, is a phenomenon which needs some explanation.
The shapes and decorative forms employed are few of them indigenous, but on the other hand are
obviously derived from the art repertory of another more and advanced people. Such exotic forms are not
difficult to identify as some of them are clearly of Greek, others of Persian and few perhaps of Egyptian
extraction. This development of the art of working in stone, therefore which Asoka introduced in to the
country represents an Indian offshoot of that forceful Graeco- Persian culture which flourished with such
vigour in Western Asia some centuries before Christian era.
From the columned halls reared under the orders from the Achaemenid kings, from their sculptural
reliefs and their inscriptions on the rocks, the Indian monarch obtained some of his inspiration, and from
the ranks of those who produced them he secured the skilled artificers to aid him in his projects. In short it
The earliest known phase of the building art in India, recently excavated, discloses a style of
structure which has been described as aesthetically barren. This development in the dawn age of the
country has been designated as the ‘Indus valley civilization’ as the records of its culture has been found
buried in the soil of regions bordering on the river Indus.
Two separate sites so far have been excavated. But there are mounds and other evidences which
imply that it extended over a considerable portion of North West India and even beyond.
Two sites at present explored are at Mohenjo-daro in Sind, and Harappa in Southern Punjab.
Although the investigations have revealed a culture in which the buildings of the people had no great
artistic value, the finished quality of the materials employed, the high standard of their manipulation, and
the stability of the construction as a whole is astonishing. In first place the builders of these cities had
acquired no little experience of town planning, as proved by the methodical manner in which they were laid
out with straight streets at right angles, the main thorough fares running almost due north and south, east
and west.
The principal buildings were also fairly regularly oriented having their sides towards the cardinal
points; while each city was divided in to wards for protective purposes. All the walls of both the houses and
public buildings were constructed with a pronounced batter or slope, but it is in the substance and
preparation of these edifices that the artificers showed such exception knowledge.
Materials and construction
In both cities the buildings were composed entirely of burnt brick, which in size were on an average
rather than the common kind used in the present day. They were laid in mud mortar in what is known as
‘English bond’ that is a course of stretchers alternating with a course of headers, care being taken to break
the joint wherever necessary, the entire process indicating that the Indus builders were thoroughly
experienced in the technique of bricklayer’s craft. This method of construction applies mainly to the
foundation and the walls of the buildings, but these were very substantial it seems probable that they were
two or more stories in height.
The upper stories were composed largely of woo, the roof being flat and built of stout beams
covered with planking finished with a top dressing of beaten earth. No instance of the use of the true arch
has been discovered, openings being generally spanned by wooden lintels, but several instances of the
corbelled arch formed by oversailing courses of brick have come to light.
Types of buildings
Of the different type of building comprising these cities, dwelling houses both large and small
predominate, but there are a certain number of more important edifices, built for various purposes. Among
them may be identified large structures probably used as market halls, store rooms or offices; another
arranged around two spacious courtyards which may have been a palace; several halls possibly for
religious usage, and at Mohenjo-Daro a very complete bathing establishment.
Here it may be remarked that in comparison with the rich remains revealed by excavations in
another fields of research of relatively the same early age, the discoveries at Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and
Chanhudaro, in the Indus valley, have produced a disappointing small amount of material of an artistic
nature.
The ‘Indus Civilization’ declined probably early in the second millennium B. C, for the excavations
reveal that its cities were then falling in to a state of decay. In spite of its virile character and the
experienced method of construction that were achieved at this early age in India this powerful and well
founded culture died out without appearing to influence in the slightest degree the nature of the building art
that followed.
, THE VEDIC CULTURE
After the decay of the Indus civilization, when the art of building again comes in to vie, this no
longer consists of well laid out cities of finished masonry, but takes a much more rudimentary form of
humble village huts constructed of reeds and leaves are hidden in the depths of the forest. The culture of
the people was beginning again.
The Vedic culture of India provides the material for a study of the first efforts at building
construction, when man’s efforts were made in response to a need, and before any ideas of architectural
efforts were conceived. This culture which produced the elementary type of forest dwelling referred to
above, appeared probably towards the end of the second millennium B.C; it was the outcome of the great
Indo Aryan migration from the North West, and which in the course of time, laid the foundations of the
Vedic Age. That those responsible for this culture were unrelated to the people of the Indus civilization
seems fairly clear, as there was a wide difference in the conditions under which each of these populations
existed, in their mode of life, and notably in the type of buildings produced by this method of living.
On the one hand the inhabitants of the Indus region, as already shown, were mainly traders and
town dwellers, , while on the other hand the Vedic people were of the country, wresting their living from the
fields and forests. As far as is known the later were originally nomads, an offshoot of an immense and
obscure migration, who, settling down in the plains of India, became partly pastoral and partly agricultural,
having as their habitations rudimentary structures of reeds and bamboo thatched with leaves.
It was not therefore from the fine houses forming the towns of the Indus civilization, but from the
temporary erections as these, and the various simple expedients devised to meet the needs of the forest
dwellers that Indian architecture had its beginnings. Its foundations were in the soil itself and from these
aboriginal conditions it took its development.
Vedic village
From a variety of sources it is possible to visualize the kind of building that the early settlers found
suitable for their purpose. These early migrants had to protect themselves and their property from the
ravages of wild animals, and so they surrounded their little collection of huts (grama) with a special kind of
fence or palisade. This fence took the form of a bamboo railing the upright posts (thabha) of which
supported three horizontal bars called such or needles, as they were threaded through holes in the
uprights. In the course of time this peculiar railing became the emblem of protection and universally used,
not only to enclose the village, but as a paling around fields, and eventually to preserve anything of a
special or sacred nature.
In the palisade encircling the village entrances also of a particular kind were devised. These were
formed by projecting a section of the bamboo fence at right angles and placing a gateway in advance of it
after the fashion of a barbican, the actual gate resembling a primitive portcullis (gramadvara). Through the
gramadvaras the cattle passed to and from their pasturage, and in another form it still survives in the
gopuram (cowgate or entrance pylon of the enclosure in the south of India. But, more important still, from
the design of the bamboo gateways was derived that characteristic Budhist archway known as the torana.
Village huts
The huts within the village enclosure were of various shapes but it is fairly certain that at first those
of a circular plan predominated. Students of constructional origins have remarked on primitive men’s
natural tendency towards rounded forms, and give us instances pots and baskets. Incidentally as shown in
the bas-reliefs, the earliest Indian seat resembled a round inverted basket.
In the Vedic village huts were of the beehive pattern made of a circular wall of bamboos held
together with bands of withes and covered either with a domical roof of leaves or thatched with grass. A
remarkable illustration of this may be seen in the interior of the rock cut Sudama cell in the Barabar hill
group, where every detail of the timber construction is copied in the living rock.
, At a later date in the evolution of the Vedic hut the circular plan was elongated in to an oval with a
barrel roof formed on a frame of bent bamboos also covered with thatch. Soon some of these huts were
arranged in threes and fours around a square courtyard and the roofs covered with planks of wood or tiles.
In the better class houses unbaked bricks were used for the walls and the doorways were square headed
openings with double doors. One device to maintain the barrel shape of the roof was to stretch a throng or
white cross the end of the arch like the cord of a bow, in a word an embryo-tie rod. This contrivance
constricted the chord of the arch and produced a shape resembling a horseshoe, a type of archway
commonly referred to as the chaityas or ‘sun window’, which became characteristic of the subsequent
architecture of the Budhists.
Vedic period-later stages
Towards the middle of the first millennium B. C, the social system of the Vedic community so
expanded that towns arose to some important centers, where the traditional structural features of the
village were reproduced on a large scale and in a more substantial form. Owing to a fierce rivalry that had
sprung up between the various groups, the towns, which ere the capital of the states, were strongly
fortified. They were there fore of necessity surrounded by a rampart and wooden palisades while within
this enclosure the buildings were also almost entirely of wood. The Vedic civilization now enters an era of
timber construction.
So closely connected with their existence were those forests that the early people developed
dexterity in wooden construction of a very high standard. Their pronounced manipulative skill in this
material may be accounted for by their prolonged apprenticeship to the woodworker’s craft when they
were forced to rely on the tress around them for many of the necessities of life. In the Rig Veda the
carpenter is recorded as holding the place of honour among all artisans as on his handiwork the village
community depended for some of its most vital needs.
Cities largely of wooden construction, there fore began to appear in various parts of the country,
and according to Dhammapala, the great Buddhist commentator they were planned by an architect of the
name Maha Govinda who stated to have been responsible for the layout of the several of the capitals of
Northern India in the fifth century B. C. this is the first mention of an architect in the annals of the country.
In principles these cities were rectangular in plan and divided in to four quarters by two main
thoroughfares intersecting at right angles, each leading to a city gate. One of these quarters contained the
citadel and royal apartments another resolved itself residences of the upper classes, a third was the less
pretentious building of the middle class, and fourth was for the accommodation of traders with their
workshops open to view as in the modern bazaar.
Although the long interval of two thousand years separates the Vedic place from that of the
Mughals, both were built round an inner courtyard within the citadel and both had large central window for
the darshan or salutation of the King. Both had a wing reserve for the royal ladies with pleasure gardens,
having fountains and ornamental waters attached. In each there was an official enclosure containing
audience and assembly halls, a court of justice. A music gallery, and near at hand an arena for wrestling
displays and contests of wild beasts. But whereas the pavilions of the Mughals were of marble, the
building art in the Vedic era was at the primitive stage when even the royal residences had not advanced
beyond thatched roofs.
In spite, however, of the evidence of the literary records which indicate that much of the building
construction at this early date was of a temporary nature, the one example that has survived proves that
some efforts were already being made to produce stone masonry of durable character. The desire for
some stable method of construction was evidently being felt, but at this stage the skill and experience
were lacking.
, ASOKA AND THE BEGINNING OF THE BUDDHIST SCHOOL (B.B. 250)
Asoka was the third Mauryan ruler of Magadha, who ascended the throne in B. C. 274. An early
decisive step taken by this monarch was his acceptance of the teachings of Buddha. Accordingly in B. C.
255 Asoka inaugurated Buddhism as the state religion of the country.
With this change in the religious system of India also came a marked advance in the arts.
Buddhism essentially a graphic creed, art became its handmaid. So that wherever it penetrated it was
accompanied by forms and symbols expressive of its teachings. In India this early Buddhist art was of a
special kind as it was the result of the Mauryan emperor’s own personal predilections, and its productions
have been referred to as those of the Asoka’s school.
Its elements were due o the ruler’s initiative, they were practiced only during his reign, and they
ceased when it ended; it was therefore essentially autocratic in its character. But although this first
manifestation of Buddhist art was confined within such seemingly narrow limits, and its actual productions
were relatively few in number, they were of such exceptional power that they influenced to a notable
degree much of the art that followed.
The significance of this school lies in the fact that it marks the beginning of an era when India
through Buddhist thought was in position to dictate the rest of Asia its region, its symbolism, and its art.
PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF ASOKA’S SCHOOL
The principal contributions made by this school to the art and architecture of the time were some
six in number; consisting of the following: 1) a series of edicts inscribed on the rocks, 2) a number of
tumuli of stupas, 3) certain monolithic pillars, 4) several monoliths accessories to shrines, 5) the
remains of the vast palace and 6) a group of rock cut chambers. Among these productions that the
more affected the course of the art of building were the stupas on account of their structural significance,
the monolithic pillars in view of their artistic qualities, and the rock cut chambers because of their
technique, and the palace for its architectural associations.
Famous edicts in the living rock, although may have survived, were not, however, sufficiently suit
its purpose; what was evidently in his progressive mind was the creation of a memorial of such a
permanent nature that it would outlast time itself. With this in view Asoka caused to be raised in many
parts of his empire circular tumuli of brick, sacred mounds commemorative of Buddha. These ‘stupas’ as
they have been called from the Prakriti word tupa, were not unknown in India before this date, but their
shape, like that of the pyramid implies durability.
As the stupa from the nature of its structure was subject to disintegration owing to the rigors of the
climate, it became necessary for the Mauryan Empire to seek for some still more lasting method of
achieving his purpose. Aware no doubt those other nations were using stone, he began there for ‘think in
stone’ and in the course of time an impressive monument symbolizing the creed was devised in the form
of a pillar, a lofty free-standing monolithic column, erected on a site especially selected on account of its
sacred associations.
The effect of such columns, some of them as much as fifty feet in height, each carrying above its
capital a magnificent Buddhist emblem, on the minds of a people hitherto living in somewhat restricted
wooden building tradition was no doubt very great.
Finding expression from wood in another and more lasting material such as dressed stone is a
decisive step in the cultural evolution of a people. But the manner in which the step was taken under
Asoka’s directions, and the results it produced are both of more than ordinary significance. Appearing as
these sculptured forms do, fully matured, at a time when Indian art was still in its infancy, and without any
previous preparation, is a phenomenon which needs some explanation.
The shapes and decorative forms employed are few of them indigenous, but on the other hand are
obviously derived from the art repertory of another more and advanced people. Such exotic forms are not
difficult to identify as some of them are clearly of Greek, others of Persian and few perhaps of Egyptian
extraction. This development of the art of working in stone, therefore which Asoka introduced in to the
country represents an Indian offshoot of that forceful Graeco- Persian culture which flourished with such
vigour in Western Asia some centuries before Christian era.
From the columned halls reared under the orders from the Achaemenid kings, from their sculptural
reliefs and their inscriptions on the rocks, the Indian monarch obtained some of his inspiration, and from
the ranks of those who produced them he secured the skilled artificers to aid him in his projects. In short it
