Maurya and Shunga Art c16.9

c16.9

Fig. 8. Sarnath (Benares, U. P.), Lion quadripartite crowning the Asokan column. Of all Mauryan sculptures it is the most well-known. most highly spoken of and reproduced on most occasions ; but the entire conception and execution are conventional from beginning to end. Compositionally the accumulation of form is schematic. The extravagance of form saps the life out of the object it represents. The modelling has nothing in common with Medo-Achaemenian sculptures ; on the contrary its accents definitely belong to Hellenistic plastic tradition as practised by Graeco-Bactrian artists. The powerful but conventional feeling for volume and preference for stagnant compact forms also point to the same direction. C. 240 B. C. The column bears the famous Schism Edict of Asoka. Sarnath Museum. Photo : A. S. I.