Maurya and Shunga Art c11.9

c11.9

It is now clear that Aśoka and presumably the later kings of the Maurya dynasty were all averse to popular demonstration and representation of religion as well as of folk socio-religious rites and practices. Without doubting the sincerity of his concern for the welfare of the people or the efficacy of his methods it may reasonably be argued that what he did was to emphasise some of the universal ethical concepts of religion which he sought to inculcate amongst his people by mandates and ordinances, by the regulation of piety, in his own words, and by persuasion, as he says in Pillar Edict Seven.⁸¹ There is no doubt that his methods precluded any opportunity for the display of the arts of the people; indeed, abstract ethical concepts can not by themselves offer subjects or ideas for visual representation. Aśoka's ethical ordinances therefore took the shape and form, so far as art is concerned, of monumental pillars of piety, and in the sphere of administration, of the appointment of Dharmamahāmātras and the proclamation of the Law of piety. This he himself makes clear in Pillar Edict Seven. The pillars of piety are therefore nothing else than expressions of his imperial will and might. Aśoka's personal attitude thus clearly explains why we have no continuous narration nor representational scenes of the nature of Barhut in Maurya court art, and why whatever narrative reliefs we have in the latter takes a quality and character that we observe on the Sarnath abacus. The reference to ‘vimāna-darsana’, ‘hasti-darsanā’ etc. and their interpretation in the light of Buddhist and Brahmanical literature, and the use of portable picture-galleries or ‘lekhya’ and ‘charaṇa-chitras’ clearly suggest that such narration and representation in art were a common and ancient practice. But Maurya art did not take into cognisance this current art tradition of the people or the one practised in wood and other materials for making images of the hieratic pantheon referred to in a number of early Sanskrit and Pāli texts. Indeed, Aśoka preferred representation in art of royal or religious or auspicious symbols, just as he preferred inculcation of ethical concepts, to popular representation of religion. The elephants, ‘white’ or the ‘best’ or the ‘all white, the procurer of happiness of all world’, or the lions or bulls that crown the monumental pillars may in the light of Buddhist texts and tradition be reasonably interpreted as mere suggestions or symbols of either the Buddha or the Śākyasiṃha, or of auspicious signs, or of guardians of human destiny.