Maurya and Shunga Art c10.7

c10.7

It is true, early Indian art knows of certain motifs, patterns and designs made current and popular by Maurya court art—this without any reference to the question of art-style—and that quite a large portion of this repertory of motifs and designs belongs to the art of Asiatic West which was for a time dominated by Achaemenian and later by colonial Greek imperialism; but it would be an error to imagine that "the whole group of motifs of western Asiatic aspect was introduced by Aśoka's Persian craftsmen en-bloc". There can hardly be any doubt that quite a few of such motifs were made current even before the Mauryas, while those that are definitely Hellenistic during and after the Maurya period.