Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.138

c11.138

All authorities are agreed that the Sarnath lion capital represents the perfection of Mauryan art and testifys to the undisputed mastery of technical execution as attained by the Mauryan stone-cutters. Sir John Marshall considers it as the finest carving that India has yet produced and unsurpassed by anything of its kind in the ancient world. Dr. V. A. Smith has observed, "the skill of the stone-cutter may be said to have attained perfection and to have accomplished the task which would perhaps be found beyond the powers of the 20th century. Gigantic shafts of hard sandstone, 30 ft. or 40 ft. in length, were dressed and proportioned with the utmost nicety, receiving a polish which no modern nation knows how to import to the material."