page_title: Hellenistic influence on Indian art
section_title: Pataliputra capital  (3rd century BCE)
hierarchical_section_title: Hellenistic influence on Indian art / Influence on Indian monumental stone architecture (268–180 BCE) / Instances of Hellenistic influence / Pataliputra capital  (3rd century BCE)
caption_attribution_description: English: Pataliputra capital front. Monumental capital with Greek artistic influence, discovered in 1895 at the royal palace in Pataliputra, India, by L.A. Waddell. Dated to the early Mauryan period. It has been described as a "Perso-Ionic capital" (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland). Excavated at Bulandi Bagh in Patna. Patna Museum. Length 49 inches (1.23 meters), height 33.5 inches (0.85 meter). Unpolished buff sandstone. A much more modern photograph. A 2018 photograph while at an exhibit in Mumbai. and here also.
context_page_description: Hellenistic influence on Indian art reflects the artistic influence of the Greeks on Indian art following the conquests of Alexander the Great, from the end of the 4th century BCE to the first centuries of the common era. The Greeks in effect maintained a political presence at the doorstep, and sometimes within India, down to the 1st century CE with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdoms, with many noticeable influences on the arts of the Maurya Empire especially. Hellenistic influence on Indian art was also felt for several more centuries during the period of Greco-Buddhist art.
context_section_description: The Pataliputra capital is a monumental rectangular capital with volutes and Classical designs, that was discovered in the palace ruins of the ancient Mauryan Empire capital city of Pataliputra (modern Patna, northeastern India). It is dated to the 3rd century BCE. It is, together with the Pillars of Ashoka one of the first known examples of Indian stone architecture, as no Indian stone monuments or sculptures are known from before that period. It is also one of the first archaeological clues suggesting Hellenistic influence on the arts of India, in this case sculptural palatial art. The Archaeological Survey of India, an Indian government agency attached to the Ministry of Culture that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural monument in India, straightforwardly describes it as "a colossal capital in the Hellenistic style".
  Although this capital was a major piece of architecture in the Mauryan palace of Pataliputra, since most of Pataliputra was not excavated, and remains hidden under the modern city of Patna, it is impossible to know the exact nature or extent of the monuments or the buildings that incorporated it.
  One capital from Sarnath is known, which seems to be an adaptation of the design of the Pataliputra capital. This other capital is also said to be from the Mauryan period. It is, together with the Pataliputra capital, considered as "stone brackets or capitals suggestive of the Ionic order". A later capital found in Mathura dating to the 2nd or 3rd century (Kushan period) displays a central palmette with side volutes in a style described as "Ionic", in the same kind of composition as the Pataliputra capital but with a coarser rendering. (photograph).
caption: Front of the Pataliputra capital, found in Pataliputra and dated to the 3rd century BCE.
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