The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.20

v1.c33.20

The contrast between Indian and foreign workmanship exhibited by these sculptures is equally apparent in the minor arts of the Maurya period. Thus, the indigenous coins (Pl. XIII, 31–33) known commonly as 'punch-marked,' which were current at this time, are singularly crude and ugly, neither their form, which is unsymmetrical, nor the symbols, which are stamped almost indiscriminately upon their surface, having any pretensions to artistic merit. On the other hand, the coins of Sophytes (Saubhūti), who was reigning in the Punjab at the close of the fourth century b.c., are purely Greek in style (Pl. XIII, 34), having seemingly been copied from an issue of Seleucus Nicator, with whom Sophytes probably came into contact when the former invaded the Punjab in 305 b.c. It is the same, also, with the contemporary terracottas. Side by side with products of Perso-Hellenic art, such as those illustrated in Pl. XIV, 35 and 36, the features of which are markedly classical in character, is found a class of coarse primitive reliefs, the execution of which betrays their Indian origin, though in a few cases, such as that illustrated in Pl. XIV, 37, the type of the winged figure depicted on them is derived from Persian or Mesopotamian prototypes. Indeed, so far as is known at present, it was only in the jewellers' and lapidaries' arts that the Maurya craftsman attained any real proficiency, and in this domain his aptitude lay, not in the plastic treatment of form, but in the high technical skill with which he cut and polished refractory stones or applied delicate filigree or granular designs to metal objects. The refined quality of his gold and silver work is well illustrated in two pieces reproduced in Pl. XIV, 38, 39, which were discovered on the site of Taxila in company with a gold coin of Diodotus, a large number of local punch-marked coins, and a quantity of other jewellery and precious stones. Of the stone-cutter's art, also, some beautiful examples are furnished by the relic caskets of beryl and rock crystal from the *stūpas* of Bhattiprolu¹ and Piprahwa², the latter of which is probably to be assigned to this epoch (Pl. XIV, 40).