Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s16.12.1

c12.s16.12.1

The surface of the shaft as of the other elements is cut and executed with remarkable precision and accuracy, and except in the case of the Basarh-Bakhira pillar which is heavy and massive, the shafts, to judge by the Lauriya-Nandangarh example as well as fragments of the column, seem to have maintained a graceful and elegant proportion throughout. They are maintained in position by simply being buried in the earth and by plain slabs of stone or plain brickwork at the bottom. This gives them an appearance of stability, as if they stand by their own weight. The shaft is superimposed by the bell-shaped capital. In some cases as in the Rummindei column the transition from the shaft to the capital is abrupt, while in other instances it is made easy and gradual by the introduction of intermediate mouldings of variable stages and designs; in the Basarh-Bakhira column there are three retreating mouldings decorated with rope-bead-reel designs; similar mouldings are to be seen in the Lauriya-Nandangarh example as well; elsewhere the mouldings are plain. The surface of the gently arched bell-shaped capital is decorated with highly stylised longitudinal lotus-petals with sharp and thin ridges in the middle, and wide and roundish border mouldings, the spaces between the ends of the petals being filled up with short mouldings. In the earliest Mauryan example, i.e.