Maurya and Shunga Art c13.5.2

c13.5.2

An inscription on the lower pillar of the Eastern Gateway states : “Within the dominion of the Śuṅgas the gateway has been caused to be made and the workmanship in stone produced by Vātsiputra Dhanabhūti, the son of Gotiputa Āgaraju and grandson of Gārgiputra Viśvadeva.” Two more fragmentary inscriptions reveal that two other gateways or ornamental arches were erected by the same king who must have been an ally if not a feudatory of the Śuṅgas. Dhanabhūti’s son Vṛddhapāla happens to be the donor of a rail-bar while a queen Nāgarakshitā of another. One Chāpādevī, the wife of Revatimitra of Vidiśā, donated one, while another, Phalgudeva, also from Vidiśā, donated a second pillar. Like Barhut, Bodhgaya also seems to have stood on an important point of the ancient highway of trade and commerce. Here too the patronage given to the art reared up by the local Saṃgha seems to have come from the royalty. All that remains to-day of this art are the reliefs on a stone-railing which is said to have flanked the path the Buddha trod after his Enlightenment. Epigraphic evidence suggests that among the patrons of this art were the queens Kuramgī and Nāgadevā, the wives of Kings Indramitra and Brahmamitra whose coins found in different localities of Northern India are well-known and who probably were of Śuṅga lineage.