Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c8.1

c8.1

THE natural frontiers of India, the mountains and the seas that serve to emphasise her inherent unity, have seldom acted as barriers to her intercourse with foreign lands. The progress of Indian historical studies has shown that the isolation of India is a relatively recent feature, and that in the earlier epochs of her long and by no means uneventful history, she maintained live contacts with many lands, far and near, to the mutual advantage of both sides. The age of the Nandas and Mauryas (c. 400-185 B. C.) witnessed great changes sweeping over the face of Western Asia, over lands with which India had much to do from the dawn of history, and account must be taken of their effects, direct and indirect, on the political, economic and artistic life of India. In this seminal period when Indo-Aryan civilization may be said to have attained its maturity, India did not hesitate to borrow political and economic plans and artistic motifs from abroad, and put them to the most appropriate uses in her own institutions and monuments. Thus to view the history of India on a wider background and point to her contacts with her neighbours is by no means to detract from the independence and originality of her culture; but only to lay stress on the catholicity of its outlook and taste, and its genius for drawing sustenance and strength from diverse sources. For in no single instance did borrowing result in mere imitation, but led to a thoughtful and harmonious integration of the borrowed feature with the indigenous setting in which it was placed.