Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s16.2

c12.s16.2

The highly polished, tall and well proportioned columns with slightly tapering monolithic shafts, and standing free in space and complete and independent by themselves are admittedly the best representatives of the court art of the Mauryas. The columns that bear the edicts of Aśoka include those of Delhi-Mirath, Allahabad, Lauriya-Araraj, Lauriya-Nandangarh, Rampurva (with lion capital), Delhi-Topra, Sankissa, Sāñchī and Sārnāth ; the non-edict bearing columns known up till now include those of Rampurva (with bull-capital), Basarh-Bakhira (with single lion capital), and Kosam (capital not yet recovered) the third category, that of columns bearing dedicatory inscriptions, includes at least two well-known specimens, those of Rummindei and Nigālī Sāgar. Of these the capitals of Basarh-Bakhira and Lauriya-Nandangarh pillars are in *situ* ; those of Rampurva (both bull and lion crowned), Sankissa, Sārnāth and Sāñchī have been recovered in more or less damaged condition. The Lauriya-Nandangarh and Basarh-Bakhira pillars and one of the two Rampurva columns are crowned by a single lion seated on its haunches ; the Sankissa pillar by a standing elephant ; the second Rampurva column by a standing bull ; and the Sārnāth and Sāñchī columns by four semi-lions addorsed or united back to back. The Lauriya-Araraj column seems once to have been crowned by a Garuḍa capital¹, while the fragment of a capital of Chunar sandstone with Mauryan polish and probably of Mauryan date, (now in the Patna Museum) recovered from the village called Salempur, Muzaffarpur District, shows that it consisted of four semi-bulls seated back to back on a plain square abacus, the animals themselves being superimposed by a square block decorated with honey-suckle ornaments. Perhaps the Rummindei pillar was once crowned by a horse¹.