Maurya and Shunga Art c8.11

c8.11

A considerable number of terracottas said to have been recovered from "the lowest, or nearly the lowest, levels at several widely separated sites extending from Pāṭaliputra to Taxila"⁵⁵ have occasionally been assigned to the Maurya period, mainly on grounds of style and appearance. Kramrisch and Gordon have drawn pointed attention to the hazards of trying to date terracottas, moulded or modelled, on ground of style or on that of appearance.⁵⁷ Moreover, excavation methods till very lately pursued in India have not unfortunately been such as to make level or stratification a dependable argument for determining chronological sequence, so far as terracottas at least are concerned. Most terracotta pieces, except perhaps a few from the ancient site of Pāṭaliputra, that had originally been labelled Mauryan are now being ascribed to the Śuṅga, Kuṣāṇa and even early Gupta periods.⁵⁸