Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.21

c11.21

We have seen enough details to convince that the planning of the capital and the palace was entirely in accordance with the canons of architecture received from olden times and clearly mentioned in the Jātakas, Epics and the Arthaśāstra. It is also testified that halls of a hundred and a thousand pillars were within the conception of the architects of Vedic times. But as the Greeks have said, all the cities on the banks of rivers were built of wood and this was also reflected in Pāṭaliputra except an innovation of stone pillars of the assembly hall, where the floor and the roofing were also of wood. Some ascribe the design and execution of the assembly hall and its columns to a foreign origin, viz. Iran, but that view will be examined later in the light of the evidence available. There is a world of difference between the Achaemenian pillars and the Mauryan pillars and the overall accomplishment of the palace at Pāṭaliputra was much superior to those in Iran; according to Aelian, “neither Memnonian Susa with all its costly splendeur nor Ekbatana with all its magnificence” could vie with the royal palace of Pāṭaliputra.