Prehistoric & Ancient Indian Art

2.1 Indus Valley Civilization Art (c. 2600–1900 BCE)

The Indus Valley civilisation, spread across modern Pakistan, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana, produced a remarkable artistic tradition with no known religious patronage system.

Key art objects:

• "Dancing Girl" bronze figurine (Mohenjo-daro, c. 2500 BCE): 10.8 cm tall, cast using lost-wax (cire-perdue) technique, shows a young woman with a necklace in a naturalistic contrapposto pose — the earliest Indian bronze sculpture.
• "Priest-King" bust (Mohenjo-daro): steatite sculpture, 17.5 cm tall, with trefoil-patterned robe and headband — believed to represent a ruler or priest figure.
• Seals: Over 4,000 inscribed seals found, mostly in steatite, depicting animals (humped bull, elephant, rhino, tiger), mythological creatures, and an undeciphered script.
• Pottery: Wheel-thrown red/black painted ware with geometric and floral motifs — the most numerous art objects from this civilisation.
• Town planning as urban art: Grid-pattern cities, uniform burnt-brick houses, covered drainage systems — the world's first known municipal urban planning aesthetic.

2.2 Vedic and Post-Vedic Period (c. 1500–300 BCE)

The early Vedic period (c. 1500–1000 BCE) was largely non-monumental — no surviving architecture. The literary tradition dominated: the four Vedas (Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda), the Upanishads, Aranyakas, and Brahmanas constitute one of humanity's greatest literary monuments.

The Rigveda (c. 1500–1200 BCE) contains 1,028 hymns in Vedic Sanskrit — the oldest known systematic literary corpus in any Indo-European language.

The later Vedic period produced two foundational epics:

• Mahabharata (attributed to Vyasa, c. 8th–4th century BCE): ~100,000 shlokas — the world's longest epic
• Ramayana (Valmiki, c. 5th–4th century BCE): 24,000 shlokas

These epics served as the foundational mythological-literary bedrock for all subsequent Indian art forms.

2.3 Mauryan Art (322–185 BCE)

The Mauryan Empire's art is distinguished by state patronage under Ashoka (272–232 BCE), who converted to Buddhism after the Kalinga War (261 BCE) and used art as imperial propaganda for dhamma.

Ashokan Pillars

Monolithic sandstone pillars (about 40 known), typically 12–15 metres tall, with highly polished surfaces ("Mauryan polish"). Capital types:

• Lion Capital (Sarnath, Varanasi, c. 250 BCE): four addorsed lions on a bell-shaped abacus with four animals (horse, bull, elephant, lion) and a dhamma chakra — adopted as India's national emblem in 1950
• Other capitals: single lion (Vaishali), single elephant (Sankissa), single bull

Stupa Architecture

Sanchi Stupa No. 1 (Madhya Pradesh) was originally built by Ashoka and later enlarged in the Sunga period (2nd–1st century BCE) with four elaborately carved toranas (gateways) depicting Jataka tales and scenes from Buddha's life.

Barabar Caves (Bihar)

Seven rock-cut caves donated by Ashoka to Ajivika monks — represent the earliest surviving rock-cut architecture in India, with the characteristic Mauryan polish on interior walls.

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