buddhist Art and Architecture
India's early architectural and artistic traditions de- ft veloped following the founding of the Buddhist re- l ligion in the fifth century B.c E. The best-known l Mauryan-era (ca. 40o-18o B.c.E.) Buddhist struc- tures include inscribed stone pillars roughly 60 g feet (18.3 m) tall, strategically erected throughout north India to establish the legitimacy of the Maur s yan king Asoka (ca. 2 B.c.E.) and his patron age of the Buddhist religion. Typical of Indian artis tic tradition, the inscriptions diminish Asoka's secular accomplishments in favor of highlighting his patronage of Buddhism. The inscriptions begin by acknowledging Asoka's glorious military victo- ries and his inspired secular leadership, but then proclaim that Asoka ascribed no great significance to these accomplishments. Instead, the inscrip- tions praise Asoka for regarding an orderly secular world as his greatest achievement, as the necessary t precondition for his subjects to achieve spiritual g salvation. Thus Asoka, like other Mauryan kings, supported a mixture of secular art and sacred art and architecture.