Maurya and Shunga Art c5.17

c5.17

It has been argued with some force that Mauryan imperialism as revealed in the inscriptions of Aśoka was largely influenced by the imperial ideology of the Hellenistic and Achaemenian monarchs.³⁴ This may not be altogether unlikely, but be that as it may the fact remains that the inscriptions themselves indicate the extent to which Aśoka was indebted to his great Achaemenian predecessor Darius, not only for the idea of making his royal edicts known throughout his empire but also for the form of the inscriptions themselves.³⁵ At the end of the Susian version of the Behistun inscription of Darius we have the following :