Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c10.8

c10.8

The successor-empire, to which Alexander and his heir Seleukos pointed the way, was that of Chandragupta and his Mauryas. Here was the greatest empire that India had ever produced, greater even than that of the Indus valley two thousand years previously. Here was the patronage of a dynasty with, as yet, no confirmed artistic tradition of its own in any way comparable with its wealth and its ambition. Here was a new home for the accomplished artists and craftsmen of Persia. And hither they came.