Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c10.6

c10.6

As the stupa from the nature of its structure was subject to disintegration owing to the rigours of the climate, it became necessary for the Mauryan Emperor to seek for some still more lasting method of achieving his purpose. Aware no doubt that other nations were using stone, he began therefore to "think in stone," and in the course of time an impressive monument symbolizing the creed was devised in the form of a pillar, a lofty free-standing monolithic column, erected on a site especially selected on account of its sacred associations. A number of these Asokan pillars were distributed over a wide area and a few bear ordinances inscribed in a manner similar to the edicts on the surfaces of the rocks. The effect of such columns, some of them as much as fifty feet in height, each carrying above its capital a magnificent Buddhist emblem, on the minds of a people hitherto living in a somewhat restricted wooden building tradition was no doubt very great. But these remarkable monuments were by no means the only sculptured stone objects wrought in this manner. With them were other monolithic productions, such as railings, stupa finials in the form of umbrellas, lion thrones, colossal figures, and the pillars of an immense hypostyle hall in the royal palace at Pataliputra, all of which show that the stonework of the Asokan school was of a highly diversified order. Added to these objects of a mobile character was another and more static development of the stone cutter's art in the form of a group of sanctuaries excavated in the rocks of the Barabar hills near Gaya in Bihar, obviously the work of the same skilled hands But, whatever form it took one unique quality marks all the stone productions of the Asokan period, one technical characteristic which is never omitted so that even a small fragment may be immediately identified, is the high lustrous polish resembling a fine enamel with which the surfaces, even of the rock-cut chambers, were invariably treated.