Maurya and Shunga Art c5.22

c5.22

For the rest, we know from Megasthenes, Kauṭilya and the inscriptions of Aśoka himself that the Maurya administration was a highly centralised one supported and strengthened by a tight bureaucracy, and the Maurya monarch nothing short of a benevolent autocrat. Aśoka’s ‘Dhammavijaya’ was more an imperial policy than a religious missionary movement and his moral exhortations to his people had almost the force of law behind them. He had even gone to the length of regulating the social and religious life of his people according to his conception of Dhamma. It must also be taken into account that Aśoka, if one has to go by what he himself says in R. E. I, IV and IX, was averse to popular demonstrations of religion as well as to certain kinds of ‘samājas’ or festive gatherings and to auspicious rites and rituals performed by the ordinary people, particularly by the women-folk. It is clear further that his Dhamma was nothing but an abstract code of certain ethical principles of more or less universal recognition, and that his methods for the propagation of his Dhamma had almost the force of law behind them. To all these points I shall have occasion to turn at a later stage; here it would suffice to point out that the king and the court were both highly conscious of their power and their imperial glory; Aśoka’s inscriptions breathe the very air of this consciousness. And if the ‘Arthaśāstra’ of Kauṭilya is to be believed, law, order and precision were the watchwords of the Mauryan government. This is surprisingly reflected in the writings of the inscriptions themselves; not only are they beautifully executed, but they are indeed remarkable for their clarity, orderliness and precision; every single letter is cut into the stone with remarkable accuracy and carefulness, lines are more often than not straight and well-ordered, and mistakes, considering the enormous output, few and far between. The socio-economic policy of the Mauryan state, it must be taken into account, was also highly centralised and monopolistic. Mauryan art has to be viewed and understood against this historical, cultural and sociological background.