Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s18.17

c12.s18.17

A considerable number of terracottas said to have been recovered from the lowest, or nearly the lowest, levels at several widely separated sites, extending from Pāṭaliputra to Taxila² have sometimes been assigned to the Maurya period, mainly on grounds of style and appearance. Kramrisch and Gordon have drawn pointed attention to the hazards of trying to date terracottas—moulded or modelled—on ground of style or that of appearance³. Moreover, excavation methods pursued in India till very lately were not such as to make level or stratification a dependable argument for determining chronological sequence, so far as terracottas at least are concerned. Most terracotta pieces, except perhaps a few from the ancient site of Pāṭaliputra, that had originally been labelled Mauryan, are now being ascribed to the Śuṅga, Kuṣāṇa or early Gupta periods⁴.