A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s1.26

c9.s1.26

The only rival to the artistic supremacy of the Sārnāth capital is the replica which once crowned the detached pillar at Sānchī engraved with a copy of the Sārnāth edict denouncing schism. So far as can be judged from Maisey’s drawing, the Sānchī capital is little inferior to that at Sārnāth, and it is possible that both works may proceed from the hands of a single artist.¹ A century or so later, when an inferior sculptor attempted to model similar lions on the pillars of the southern gateway at Sānchī, he failed utterly, and his failure supports the theory that the Sārnāth capital must have been wrought by a foreigner. Certainly no later sculpture in India attained such high excellence.