Maurya and Shunga Art c13.5.4

c13.5.4

had reached a stage in its career when it had outgrown the age of the Master and his apostles, when the Buddhist Saṃghas were being developed and when the Saṃghārāmas were fast becoming centres of religious and cultural activities of a considerable section of the upper class population. It is now a common knowledge that the Saṃghārāmas were largely patronised by the royalty, the nobility, the commercial classes including the artisans, and the Buddhist laity in which the ‘gahapatis’ or the landed gentry and wealthy citizens played the dominant role. Moreover, Buddhism was no longer a local movement within the bounds of Bihar and Eastern U. P., but had already spread far and wide. It must also be remembered that the artists and craftsmen responsible for visual presentation of the religion and thus bringing it to the door of the people in general, were also organised into art and craft guilds or ‘śreṇis’. The painter, ‘Thapati’ or the architect, ‘Tachhaka’ or the sculptor or carver, ‘Vaddhaki’ or the carpenter and the ‘Pāṣāṇa-koṭṭaka’, all had presumably their own guilds which speaks of a developed sense of civic organisation. It is difficult to say if all these arts and crafts were considered equally honorable;