The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

2

THE

MAURYAN DYNASTY

Alexander had

wrested from Darius.

This disaster made

Seleukosanxioustocometo

termswithhisIndian

antagonist,

andaftersendingoneofhis

officers,Megasthenes,

asanenvoy

tothe Mauryan Court, heturned

hisarmswestwards.

Theaccount

whichMegastheneshas

leftofthesplendour

of Chandragupta's

imperial capital, Pitaliputra,

the modern

Patna

in Eastern

Bengal, are of little practical

value to the

architecturalstudent.

Theexcavations

recentlyundertaken, through Mr.

Ratan

Tata's public-spirited

liberality, on the siteof Pataliputrawill

doubtless producematerialofgreat

archaeological interest,but

theywillneverestablish

anynew theoryorconfirmanyoldone

concerning the origins

of Indian art. These are already so

decisivelyindicated bythegreat

massofmaterialaccumulated

inmanyotherplaces

in IndiathatthequestionwhetherAsoka

or

ChandraguptaMauryaplannedtheirpalaces

on

Persepolitan

models,or

built

them

with foreigncraftsmen,

becomes

entirely

aside-issueandamatteroflocalinterestonly. Itwilldoubtless

be

usedasanargumentforBritisharchitectsinIndia

importing

modern Western methods of building—though

there is a

differencebetween thosewhichstimulatethecraftsman's

ideas

and thosewhich sterilisethem

;

butitisfoolish

toargue that

Persepolitan fashions at Pataliputra prove that all

the great

artofIndiainearlyBuddhisttimeswasinspired

byforeigners

—unlessall IndiansofAryanracearetobeclassed

assuch.

We learnfrom Megasthenesthattheimperial

palacewas

plannedonagrand scalelikethoseofSfisaand

Ekbatana,that

it was gorgeouslydecoratedwith gold and silver

and placed

in the midst ofa finegarden with numerous

water-ponds—

a

descriptionwhich

mightapply

equallywelltothe

palacesofthe

Great

Moguls. Itis highly

probablethat

Chandragupta, like

hisgrandson, madeconsiderable useofcraftsmen

from Perse-

polis orfrom

Mesopotamia.

Indeed, the latest

discoveries

of