Maurya and Shunga Art c18.17

c18.17

17. In West Asia the idea of the conquest of the "four regions" or "four quarters" originated with the kings of Babylonia and Assyria. But it was actually realised later by the Achaemenian monarchs, notably Cyrus, his son Cambyses, Darius, son of Hystaspes. In a Suez inscription commemorating the completion of the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea Darius proudly records: 'I (am) Darius, the great king, king of kings, king of countries possessing all people, (king) of this great earth far and wide." The phrases are almost exactly such as we find in the *Aitareya Brahmana* and *Baudhayana Srauta Sutra*. Also, see Chanda, *Beginnings of Art*...pp. 17—20.