The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

VEDIC AND PRE-MAURYA CIVILIZATIONS 47
over the Indus Valley statuettes [10], in that
there is a definite suggestion of a possible human
form rather than an abstractly symbolic figuration
of it.
The only site that has yielded any kind of picture
of a consecutive development of the pre-
Maurya centuries is the Bhir mound at Taxila,
dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.
Since these antiquities consist mainly of beads
and lathe-turned stones with occasional terracotta
figurines, they do not add very much to
our conception of the major arts before the rise
of the Maurya Dynasty. The buildings are no
more than an ill-planned and rudely constructed
conglomerate of rubble and earth which can
scarcely be dignified by the term architecture. 17
The very poverty of the remains at Rajagriha
and Taxila leads us to stress in conclusion that,
although in certain respects the art of the Vedic
and pre-Maurya Periods testifies to the persistence
of traditional forms in Indian art - in this
case, continued from Indus Valley prototypes -
this period is a kind of interregnum during
which certain techniques, such as the art of
town-planning and stone-carving, were lost. As
will become apparent in the next chapter, the
real importance of the Epic Age lay elsewhere.
More recent investigations ofthe great mound
at Lauriya Nandangarh have shown that in its
final form this gigantic tumulus was actually a
stupa, the dimensions of which exceeded even
those of the great monument at Barabudur. It
has been dated in the second or first century B.C.
The structure in its final form apparently represented
a number ofenlargements ofan originally
small relic mound. At a depth of 35 feet a small
stone stupa was unearthed. Its form seems to
relate it to the shape of the Great Stupa at
Sanchi and some of the stupas in Nepal founded
in the time of the Emperor Asoka. These
recent excavations, however, do not explain the
golden image of the Earth Goddess, the presence
14. Terracotta statuette
from Mathura.
of which may still indicate that the site was
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts originally a burial mound ofpre-Maurya times. ' 8