page_title: Sculpture in the Indian subcontinent
section_title: Art of the Mauryan period
hierarchical_section_title: Sculpture in the Indian subcontinent / Art of the Mauryan period
caption_attribution_description: English: Sarnath Lion Capital, Mauryan period, circa 250 BCE. The capital in 1905 at the time of discovery (different photographic angle). 中文: 位於鹿野苑阿育王柱柱頭的獅子與法輪。年代為公元前250年左右的孔雀王朝。
context_page_description: The Sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, partly because of the climate of the Indian subcontinent making the long-term survival of organic materials difficult, essentially consiste in sculpture of stone, metal or terracotta. It is clear there was a great deal of painting, and sculpture in wood and ivory, during these periods, but there are only a few survivals. The main Indian religions had all, after hesitant starts, developed the use of religious sculpture by around the start of the Common Era, and the use of stone was becoming increasingly widespread.
  The first known sculpture in the Indian subcontinent is from the Indus Valley civilization, and a more widespread tradition of small terracotta figures, mostly either of women or animals, which predates it. After the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization there is little record of larger sculpture until the Buddhist era, apart from a hoard of copper figures of c. 1500 BCE from Daimabad.
context_section_description: The surviving art of the Mauryan Empire which ruled, at least in theory, over most of the Indian subcontinent between 322 and 185 BCE is mostly sculpture.  There was an imperial court-sponsored art patronized by the emperors, especially Ashoka, and then a "popular" style produced by all others.
  The most significant remains of monumental Mauryan art include the remains of the royal palace and the city of Pataliputra, a monolithic rail at Sarnath, the Bodhimandala or the altar resting on four pilars at Bodhgaya, the rock-cut chaitya-halls in the Barabar Caves near Gaya, the non-edict bearing and edict bearing pillars, the animal sculptures crowning the pillars with animal and vegetal reliefs decorating the abaci of the capitals and the front half of the representation of an elephant carved out in the round from a live rock at Dhauli.
  This period marked the appearance of Indian stone sculpture; much previous sculpture was probably in wood and has not survived.  The elaborately carved animal capitals surviving on from some Pillars of Ashoka are the best known works, and among the finest, above all the Lion Capital of Ashoka from Sarnath that is now the National Emblem of India. Coomaraswamy distinguishes between court art and a more popular art during the Mauryan period. Court art is represented by the pillars and their capitals, and surviving popular art by some stone pieces, and many smaller works in terracotta.
  The highly polished surface of court sculpture is often called Mauryan polish. However this seems not to be entirely reliable as a diagnostic tool for a Mauryan date, as some works from considerably later periods also have it.  The Didarganj Yakshi, now most often thought to be from the 2nd century CE, is an example.
caption: The Lion Capital of Asoka, National Emblem of India, the most famous example of Mauryan art.
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