Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c10.2

c10.2

UP to the middle of the third century B.C. the course pursued by the building art in India has been only indistinctly visible, as it is obscured by the mists of time. So far therefore any account of its progress has been based very largely on evidences of a miscellaneous order such as certain structural remains and various investigations from which the foregoing conjectural impressions have been compiled. Now however, supposition hardens into fact and the picture hitherto ill-defined comes with an almost dramatic suddenness sharply into focus. This effect was brought about by the policy of the third Mauryan ruler of Magadha, the emperor Asoka who ascended the throne in B.C. 274. An early decisive step taken by this monarch was his acceptance of the teachings of the Buddha. Soon it had become apparent to him that the religious beliefs of his subjects were inclined to be indeterminate, and that a radical change in their spiritual outlook was desirable. That the country was ripe for some form of conversion was also obvious. The existing cults consisting mainly of visionary speculations and intangible abstractions were proving unsatisfying, and men's minds were in a receptive mood fully prepared for a doctrine founded on a more substantial basis. In other words there was at this period what may be described as a religious vacuum. And Buddhism redressed this void. Included in its precepts was a material object of veneration, such as the worship of sacred relics, which made a direct appeal to a people perplexed and disillusioned by unconvincing observances. Accordingly in B.C. 255 Asoka inaugurated Buddhism as the state religion of the country. The correctness of the royal reformers' precognition is proved by the whole-hearted manner in which the Buddhist faith was assimilated by his own people and furthermore by the astonishing rapidity with which its tenets were conveyed to and its ritual observed in most of the countries of Asia.