Mauryan art and everyday life

Detail

The Sarnath lion capital

• What it is — the carved stone top (capital) of the pillar Ashoka set up at Sarnath, near Varanasi.
• Sarnath is the place where the Buddha gave his first teaching (the first sermon).
• The Sarnath pillar is 15.25 m high; the lion capital is called the finest piece of Mauryan sculpture. [2]
• It was found in Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) digs and is kept in the Sarnath Site Museum, set up in 1904 — India's earliest site museum. [2]

• The "Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath" was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (PIB release). [3]

• The famous polish — the surface has the high Mauryan polish: stone rubbed until it shines like glass. This mirror-like shine is the mark used to identify Mauryan-age stone work.

• What the carving shows
• Four lions, back to back, facing the four directions — they stand for royal power.
• The round drum (ring) below carries four animals — elephant, bull, horse, lion.

• Between the animals are dharmachakras — the wheel of the Buddha's teachings.

• As a national symbol

• Chosen as India's national emblem (State Emblem of India). [4]
• Motto below it: satyameva jayate — "truth alone triumphs".
• Full line: satyameva jayate nānṛitam — "truth alone triumphs, not falsehood".
• Source of the motto: the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣhad.
• The dharmachakra sits at the centre of the national flag (the wheel in the white band).

The Dhauli rock elephant

• A life-size elephant cut out of the living rock at Dhauli, near Bhubaneswar (Odisha).
• The elephant stands for the Buddha — intelligent, powerful, patient, calm.
• An Ashokan edict is engraved nearby, on the rock below.
• Extra detail: only the front part (fore part) of the elephant is carved out, on a terrace just above the inscribed boulder; it is about four feet high, and its workmanship matches the best Ashokan sculpture elsewhere. [5]
• The Dhauli edicts were spotted by Lieutenant Markham Kittoe and first read by James Prinsep in 1838; the site is dated to the 3rd century BCE, written in Prakrit language using Brahmi script. [5]
• Dhauli is linked to the Kalinga war: Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238 BCE) fought Kalinga, felt deep sorrow at the killing, and then had moral lessons cut into stone for people to read. [6]

The Great Stūpa at Sanchi

• Among India's oldest stone structures.
• Built first in brick, then enlarged in stone later.
• Built in the 3rd century BCE by Ashoka; the first version was a low brick structure, half the width of the present one. [7]
• It was damaged in the 2nd century BCE, repaired and made bigger, and reached its final shape in the 1st century BCE. [7]

• Present size: about 37 m wide and 17 m high. [7]

• Parts and meaning

• The aṇḍa — the half-ball (hemispherical) dome — stands for the universe and holds relics inside a chamber.
• Worshippers walk around it in pradakṣhiṇa (walking clockwise around a holy object).

• Later additions named in the official description: harmika (square railing on top), yashti (central pillar = cosmic axis), chattra (triple umbrella = the Three Jewels), vedika (low boundary wall) and four toranas (carved gateways at the four directions). [7]

• Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989; it is the oldest surviving Buddhist sanctuary and stayed a major Buddhist centre till the 12th century CE. [7][8]

Other building and craft work

• Ashoka is credited with many stūpas (relic mounds), chaityas (prayer halls) and vihāras (monasteries where monks lived).
• Terracottas (baked clay figures) found from this period:
• a dancing girl with an elaborate headdress;
• female deities;
• a yakṣhī (nature spirit) holding a fly whisk;
• the saptamātṛikās — seven mother goddesses — a tradition that still continues today;

• a bridled horse's head (horse with reins), showing horses were in regular use.

• Coins — hoards of punch-marked coins (metal pieces stamped with small symbols), including coins of Ashoka's time.

Everyday life from Megasthenes and later accounts

• Who Megasthenes was — the Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta Maurya; his account of Pataliputra dates from about 300 BCE. [9]
• Farming was the base
• A large share of the people worked in agriculture.
• Farming was the empire's key source of revenue (tax income).

• Two crops a year were possible — rain came in summer and in winter — so famines were kept away.

• Cities

• Cities like Pataliputra were busy centres of governance and commerce.
• They had palaces and public buildings.
• Well-planned streets with signage (sign boards telling people where they were).
• Wooden houses, up to two storeys high.
• Water vessels kept at intervals along streets as protection against fire — an early fire-safety rule.

• Couriers carried messages across the empire.

• Archaeology backs this up

• ASI dug a Mauryan pillared hall at Kumrahar (Patna) in 1912–15: a high wooden platform carrying eight rows of 10 columns each (80+ pillars), which once held up a second storey; the pillars are black-spotted buff sandstone monoliths with the shiny Mauryan lustre. [10][11]
• Megasthenes said the city was guarded by massive timber palisades (a wall of thick wooden posts) and a broad deep moat that also worked as the city's sewer. [9]

• At Bulandibagh, re-dug in 1926–27 by J. A. Page and M. Ghosh, a wooden wall about 137 m long was found — heavy wooden sleepers stood upright in a double row, joined by horizontal sleepers at the bottom. This is taken to be part of the very palisade Megasthenes saw. [9]

• Artisans in towns — blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, jewellers lived and worked inside the towns.

• Dress
• Cloth was cotton.
• A lower garment worn below the knee.
• An upper cloth thrown over the shoulders.
• Some people wore thick-soled leather shoes — to look taller.

Prelims Hooks

• The Sarnath lion capital tops a pillar at Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon; the Sarnath pillar is 15.25 m high. [2]
• Four animals on the capital's drum: elephant, bull, horse, lion, separated by dharmachakras.
• satyameva jayate is taken from the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣhad; full form satyameva jayate nānṛitam.
• The dharmachakra of the capital appears at the centre of the national flag; the four lions form the State Emblem. [4]
• Dhauli (near Bhubaneswar) has a rock-cut elephant (only the fore part, about 4 ft high) with an Ashokan edict below; edicts are in Prakrit language and Brahmi script, first deciphered by James Prinsep in 1838. [5]
• Great Stūpa, Sanchi — begun in brick under Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, enlarged in stone; now c. 37 m wide, 17 m high; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1989. [7][8]
• The aṇḍa is the hemispherical dome holding relics; circling it is called pradakṣhiṇa.
• Saptamātṛikās = seven mother goddesses, known from Mauryan-age terracottas and still worshipped.
• Punch-marked coins are the main coin type of the Mauryan era.
• Kumrahar (Patna) yielded an 80-pillar Mauryan hall, excavated by ASI in 1912–15; Bulandibagh yielded a 137 m wooden palisade, re-excavated 1926–27. [10][9]
• Two crops a year (summer and winter rain) is the NCERT reason given for few famines.

Mains Points

• Art as state message, not decoration — the lion capital (royal power), the dharmachakra (Buddha's teaching) and the Dhauli elephant (the Buddha's calm strength) all carry political and religious meaning together. Ashoka used stone, edicts and stūpas as a single communication system across a huge empire, in local scripts and the everyday Prakrit language. [5][6]
• Text plus spade — Megasthenes' description of Pataliputra (timber palisade, moat, wooden multi-storey houses) is confirmed by the Bulandibagh wooden wall and the Kumrahar pillared hall. Useful example of how literary sources and archaeology can be cross-checked instead of trusting one alone. [9][10]
• Continuity into modern India — the Sarnath capital becoming the State Emblem, the wheel on the flag, and the motto from the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣhad show the new Republic choosing an ancient, Buddhist-linked and pan-Indian symbol rather than a regional or dynastic one. [4]
• Economy and urban life were linked — agriculture gave the revenue; that revenue paid for the officials, couriers, roads, pillars and stūpas. Towns full of blacksmiths, potters, carpenters and jewellers, plus punch-marked coins, point to a working exchange economy, not only a tax-and-tribute one.
• Brick to stone, small to grand — Sanchi's growth from a low brick mound under Ashoka to a stone monument with toranas by the 1st century BCE shows that "Mauryan art" is often the first layer of monuments completed by later dynasties. [7]