Asoka's days by that now forgotten order of ascetics, who, although detested by orthodox Buddhists, were able to win favour from the sovereign Who did ‘'reverence to all denominations[1] .'
The arts in the age of Asoka undoubtedly had attained to a high standard of excellence.
The royal engineers and architects were capable of designing and executing spacious and lofty edifices in brick, wood, and stone, of constructing massive embankments equipped with convenient sluices and other appliances, of extracting, chiselling, and handling enormous monoliths, and of excavating commodious chambers with burnished interiors in the most refractory rock. Sculpture was the handmaid of architecture, and all buildings of importance were lavishly decorated with a profusion of ornamental patterns, an infinite variety of spirited bas-reliefs, and meritorious statues. of men and animals. The rare detached statues of the human figure have been noticed. But the
- ↑ 'The caves are described by Cunningham, Inscr. of Asoka, pp. 30-2; Reports, i, pp. 40-52, Pl. xviii—xx; and by Caddy, Proc. A. S. B., 1895, pp. 156-8. 'The Ajîvikas or naked ascetics. Tradition tells us that behind J etavana. [at Srâvastî] they used to practise false austerities. A number of the Brethren seeing them painfully squatting on their heels, swinging in the air like hats, reclining on thorns, scorching themselves with five fires, and so forth, in their various false austerities, were moved to ask the Blessed One whether any good resulted therefrom. "None whatever," answered the Master.' (Cowell and Francis, transl. Jâtakas, Introd. to No. 144, vol. i, p. 307.) See D. R Bhandarkar, Ind. Ant., xli (1912), p. 286: Hoernle, Encycl. Religion and Ethics, s.v.
