A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s1.29

c9.s1.29

The perfection of the Sānchī and Sārnāth lions on the edict-pillars must have been the result of much progressive effort. The uninscribed pillar at Bakhirā (Fig. 29) seems to be one of the earlier experiments of Asoka’s artists. The clumsy proportions of the shaft contrast unfavourably with the graceful design of the Lauriyā-Nandangarh column (*ante*, Plate II), which bears a copy of the Pillar Edicts, and may be dated in 242 or 241 B. C., while the seated lion on the summit is by no means equal to the animals on the edict-pillars of Sārnāth and Sānchī erected between 242 and 232 B. C. I am disposed to think that the Bakhirā column was set up soon after 257 B. C., the date of the earliest Rock Edicts.