Editing Architecture of India (section)

===== Masarh Lion =====
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| caption1 = Masarh lion sculpture
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| caption2 = Achaemenid lion
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The sculpture of the [[Masarh lion]], found near the Maurya capital of [[Pataliputra]], raises the question of the Achaemenid and Greek influence on the art of the [[Mauryan art|Maurya Empire]], and on the western origins of stone carving in India. The lion is carved in [[Chunar stone|Chunar sandstone]], like the [[Pillars of Ashoka]], and its finish is polished, a feature of the [[Mauryan art|Maurya sculpture]].<ref name="Gupta 88">Page 88: "There is one fragmentary lion head from Masarh, Distt. Bhojpur, Bihar. It is carved out of Chunar sandstone and it also bears the typical Mauryan polish. But it is undoubtedly based on the Achaemenian idiom. The tubular or wick-like whiskers and highly decorated neck with long locks of the mane with one series arranged like sea waves is somewhat non-Indian in approach. But, to be exact, we have an example of a lion from a sculptural frieze from Persepolis of 5th century BCE in which it is overpowering a bull which may be compared with the Masarh lion."...&nbsp;Page 122: "This particular example of a foreign model gets added support from the male heads of foreigners from Patna city and Sarnath since they also prove beyond doubt that a section of the elite in the Gangetic Basin was of foreign origin. However, as noted earlier, this is an example of the late Mauryan period since this is not the type adopted in any Ashoka pillar. We are, therefore, visualizing a historical situation in India in which the West Asian influence on Indian art was felt more in the late Mauryan than in the early Mauryan period. The term West Asia in this context stands for Iran and Afghanistan, where the Sakas and Pahlavas had their basecamps for eastward movement. The prelude to future inroads of the Indo-Bactrians in India had after all started in the second century B.C."...&nbsp;in {{cite book|last1=Gupta|first1=Swarajya Prakash|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan|year=1980|publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation|isbn=978-0-391-02172-3|pages=88, 122|language=en|author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta}}. Also {{cite journal|last1=Kumar|first1=Vinay (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi Faculty Member)|date=2015|title=West Asian Influence on Lion Motifs in Mauryan Art|url=https://www.academia.edu/10709971|journal=Heritage and Us|language=en|issue=4|page=14|access-date=16 August 2021|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414181022/https://www.academia.edu/10709971|url-status=live}}</ref> According to [[Swaraj Prakash Gupta|S.P. Gupta]], the sculptural style is unquestionably [[Achaemenid art|Achaemenid]].<ref name="Gupta 88" /> This is particularly the case for the well-ordered tubular representation of whiskers ([[vibrissa]]s) and the geometrical representation of inflated veins flush with the entire face.<ref name="Gupta 88" /> The mane, on the other hand, with tufts of hair represented in wavelets, is rather naturalistic.<ref name="Gupta 88" /> Very similar examples are however known in Greece and [[Persepolis]].<ref name="Gupta 88" /> It is possible that this sculpture was made by an Achaemenid or Greek sculptor in India and either remained without effect, or was the Indian imitation of a Greek or Achaemenid model, somewhere between the fifth century BCE and the first century BCE, although it is generally dated from the time of the [[Maurya Empire]], around the 3rd century BCE.<ref name="Gupta 88" />