Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c15.188

c15.188

But if Mauryan Art is admitted to have achieved so much progress in the days of Asoka, such progress could not have been achieved in a day. It must have been preceded by a long course of evolution from its origins and crude beginnings in earlier times. Fortunately, these beginnings of Indian Art are traceable in certain examples still extant. There is a class of colossal statues of stone which are admittedly pre-Asokan, and perhaps pre-Mauryan. These statues represent the folk-art of the times inspired by the popular worship of certain minor deities. The religion of the masses centred round the worship of the minor gods and goddesses known as Yakshas and Yakshīs, Nāgas or Nāgīs, Gandharvas, Apsaras and even tree-and water-spirits. Up to now eleven examples of these oversized figures of deities have been discovered, namely, (1) Parkham (Muttra) Yaksha; (2) Baroda (Muttra) Yaksha; (3) Yakshī in another village at Muttra, worshipped as Mansā Devi; (4) another Muttra Yaksha newly discovered (*U.P.H.S.J.*, May 1933, p. 95); (5) Patna Yaksha, now in the Indian Museum; (6) another Patna Yaksha statue in the Indian Museum; (7) female *chauri*-bearer from Didarganj, Patna; (8) inscribed Maṇibhadra Yaksha from Pawaya (Gwalior); (9) Besnagar female statue; (10) a second Besnagar female statue; (11) fragments of a Yaksha statue found at Kosam. Some of these statues bear inscriptions naming the deities they represent. Thus Nos. (1) and (8) represent Maṇibhadra, the Yaksha general of Kubera; No. (3) represents Yakshī Lāyāvā. One of the Patna statues is that of *Bhagavān Akshata-nīvika* (Kubera), while the other is Yaksha *Sarvatra Nandi*. Nos. (1) and (3) are also stated to be works of a School of Sculptors represented by Kunika, his pupil, Nāka, and his grand-pupil Gomitaka.