Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c10.11

c10.11

In these circumstances it is not difficult to account for the form and character that the giant pillar and the other lithic productions of the Asokan period assumed. From the columned halls reared under the orders of the Achaemenid kings, from their sculptured reliefs and their inscriptions on the rocks as at Behistun, 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 may be presumed with some degree of certainty that, attracted by the emperor's assured patronage, there was eventually gathered in a quarry workshop near Chunar in Bihar a small group of imported workmen trained in the Graeco-Persian traditions and engaged to collaborate with a number of selected Indian craftsmen to fashion these the first dressed stone objects to be produced on Indian soil.