Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s2.t2.1

c12.s2.t2.1

A natural question arises as to the period when the Bharhut Stūpa was raised. Cunningham assigned it to the period of Aśoka, somewhere between 250 to 200 B. C., the reason being the great similarity between the Brāhmī script of the Bharhut Inscriptions and the script of Aśokan Edicts. There is, no doubt, force in this argument but what seems to be true is that the original Stūpa of mud and brick belonged to Aśoka's reign and the railings and gateways of stone were added later in the time of the Śungas in the first half of the 2nd century B. C. For this there is some positive evidence on the eastern gateway of the Stūpa in an Inscription which refers to Rājā Dhanabhūti of the Śungas. The Inscription runs as follows: