Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham2019-05-242019-05-24circa 1970IA-220IA-2203http://hdl.handle.net/1885/162979Asokan (or Ashokan) pillars represent the highest skill of the Mauryan artists, Not only are they skilfully carved in beautiful proportions, but they also possess the high, gloss-like polish indicative of masterly attention, A profound depth of meaning is added to these technical accomplishments making the columns truly unique in all of Indian art, Several stages of development were undergone to produce the type of column shown in our slide, The missing capital was probably a lion or group of lions for these were symbols of royalty and the Buddha, who was once a prince himself, The portion of the column pictured here once surmounted a long tapered shaft about 40 or 50 feet in height, The so-called bell inverted on the top of the shaft is better thought of as a flower, for the prototype of this organic form has been known in the descriptons of the Rigveda (ancient collection of hymns and one of our earliest literary sources for Indian history), Above the inverted foliage the abacus or round drum rests: most bear representations of the Four Great Animals associated with cult worship, but this one displays floral motifs,`35mmmounted transparencyb&wsepiaimage/tiffen-AUMauryan Period: Ancient Indiaarchitecturemounted transparency set2019-05-24This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.