Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.2

c12.2

The Śuṅga period of Indian history begins with the coronation of Puṣyamitra Śuṅga (c. 184 B. C.). He was a mighty emperor who assumed the title of Senāpati and cleared Madhyadeśa from the dangers of Greek invasions. Patañjali, the great grammarian, author of the Mahābhāṣya commentary, lived in his time and was most probably the chief priest in his Yajña. It seems to have been a period of Sanskrit revival and of great religious movement and literary creation. In the domain of art we find the use of stone adopted on a country-wide scale. The tradition of building monumental Stūpas realised in great splendour seen as at Bharhut, Sanchi and Amaravati, and the art of carving transferred from wooden to lithic medium in established convention which set the norm for the evolution of the classical art of India. The religious beliefs about the worship of Yakṣas and Nāgas and other folk deities on the one hand and the popular faith in Buddhism on the other were transferred to the medium of art with lasting perfection and beauty. The art of the Śuṅga age is distinguished not only by monumental quality and grandeur of conception but by a rare harmony and feeling of great joy in which many popular motifs were admitted with utmost natural simplicity. A detailed analysis of Śuṅga art motifs puts in our possession the main springs of Indian decorative art rooted in the utmost antiquity. It appears that the leaves of an ancient and traditional textbook are being opened illustrated with traditional motifs like Śrī-Lakṣmī, Pūrṇaghaṭa, scenes of Uttarakuru, Dharmacakra, Triratna, Kalpavṛkṣa, Kalpalatā and a hundred other motifs of great variety and richness. The assemblage of motifs in Śuṅga art is like a vast epic in which the entire religious life of the people may be seen as if reflected in a mirror for all time to come. Aśoka had started the building of the Stūpas as a movement on a big scale and the same fructifies in full glory in Śuṅga art.