| Abstract: | The history of Buddhist art in India supports the theory that local values survive, conditioned by outside influences. According to Ananda Coomaraswamy, India was part of an "Ancient East" extending from the Mediterranean to the Gangetic valley, and the Maurya, Sunga, Andhra, and Kushana art parallels and exchanges with Sumerian, Hittite, Assyrian, Mykenean, Cretan, Trojan, Lykian, Phoenician, Achaemenid, and Sassanian cultures. However, local sense persists in the symbols which survived from vedic into Nanda, Saisunaga, Maurya, and Sunga times, and find place in Buddhist art and iconography. While Ashoka brought in alien strands in his art, after him Indian tradition reverts back to the residuum of the native craftsmen. These later works under the Sungas and Satavahanas achieved the transition from the primitive phase in the early centuries before Christ towards a marked maturity in creative works. Source of Abstract: Provided by Publisher |
