Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c8.24

c8.24

When Asoka succeeded to an empire greater than India had ever known before, and settled down as a devout Buddhist to practise the arts of peace, he employed the energies of his subjects in constructing a vast number of monuments and offices for the new state religion and many magnificent public buildings; and, as he desired them to be more permanent than the ordinary buildings of his day, he made most of them of brick and stone.