[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Maurya and Shunga Art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945) › c4.3 # Maurya and Shunga Art c4.3 Maurya and Śuṅga Art c4.3 - **Language:** English ### [c4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945.c4.3) The earliest that the Ganges Valley is alleged to have offered to us in the shape and form of what may be called an art object is a small gold tablet representing a naked woman standing on her legs in symmetrical rigidity, with exaggerated hips and sexual organs, heavy and clumsy ornaments and in a rigidly angular composition.² Dug out of a tomb near Lauriya, it was identified by Bloch, the explorer, as the iconic representation of the Earth goddess, and was ascribed by him to about the 8th or 7th century B.C. There can hardly be any doubt that such images in metal, and perhaps also in clay, served as fetishistic symbols. There are passages in the Ṛig Veda and later also in the Gṛihya Sūtras which can be interpreted to suggest that figures of gods and animals were fashioned in metal and clay for such purposes. A small gold tablet similar to that found at Lauriya and a small gold figure, forming part of the relics from the ruins of the Piprahwa Stūpa evidently Buddhistic, and belonging to a period not earlier that of the Mauryas,³ reveal the same motive and treatment as those of the Lauriya tablet, so that the latter can hardly be ascribed to so early a period as has been done. Some of the oldest terracotta pieces recovered by Marshall from the ruins of Bhita also seem to belong more or less to this category⁴; their motive, if not their treatment, is the same, so that all these objects my be taken to be typical representations of a primitive phase of imagination and expression centring round fetishistic beliefs. They are not definitely the products of any organised and conscious art movement in any considerable scale, though it must be admitted that primitive faiths and beliefs may have helped and favoured the development of sculptural and architectural art in India at a later stage of history. In any case, the Piprahwa and Lauriya gold pieces seem to be artistic representations of fetishistic symbols outside the Maurya court and represent the popular tradition of art that was later on to find its fullest expression in the reliefs of Barhut. - [Previous: c4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945.c4.2) - [Next: c4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945.c4.4) - [Up: c4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945.c4) ## Linked texts (5) - [Gobhilagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.gobhila) — Gobhila, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit - [Bharhut](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.bharhut) - [Bhita](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.bhita) - [Piprahwa\_Stupa](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.monument.piprahwa-stupa) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945.c4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.ray-1945.c4.3) · Pramāṇa