Maurya and Shunga Art c15.2

c15.2

Enough has been said to show that the art of the time of the Śuṅgas is not an isolated phase in the history of Indian art, that it had at its back a large repository of ancient practice which came to be fixed in stone under the patronage of the Buddhist saṃgha, the royalty and the nobility, and the wealthy and prosperous landed and commercial classes of the time of the Śuṅgas. I have also tried to show that it represents the continuity of a tradition which reflects the ethnic fusion that had been going on for centuries, and which had been born of the seed sown on the Indian soil, more particularly in the Madhyadeśa and parts of Eastern India. Further, I have sought to demonstrate that from the very first stage of Barhut to the last of Bodhgaya there is a progressive evolution of the tradition referred to above. It was during this time that the basis of some of the essential qualities of what we call Indian plastic art was laid down. These essential qualities would persist through the ages, throughout the modulations brought about by the passage of time and by the ethnic conditions of the country.