Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c57.48

v1.c57.48

With this general introduction to the Stūpa and its affinity with the Hindu Temple let us deal with some more famous stūpas of Indian architecture, our sublime architectural heritage. Emperor Aśoka is the founder of Buddhist art as beginnings of Buddhitst art of which pillars and stūpas were the first specimens are credited to the Mauryan age. It was however left to Śuṅgas and Āndhras to contribute to the exuberance of the artistic creations in the domain of stūpa-architecture, its many-sided architectural evolutions and ornamentation with very rich sculptures. Asokan art was fundamentally religious. Under the Śuṅgas and Āndhras, it naturally followed the same course as the religion, there being a static interval between the cessation of the autocratic art of Ashoka and the beginning of the new or hierarchic phase. Percy Brown has succinctly defined the architecture of the period: