The development of art and architecture during the Sunga period belies the belief that they were anti-Buddhist. Discuss.

Answer:

The Sungas (c. 185-73 BCE) have long been portrayed, on the strength of Buddhist texts, as persecutors of Buddhism. The magnificent Buddhist art and architecture produced during their rule, however, tells a very different story and largely belies that belief.

The charge of persecution

• Buddhist works such as the Divyavadana accuse Pushyamitra Sunga of destroying stupas and killing monks.
• The dynasty's Brahmanical revival, marked by Pushyamitra's performance of the ashvamedha, seemed to support this.
• Patanjali's association with the Sunga court reinforced the picture of a Brahmanical reaction.

The evidence of art and architecture

• The stupa at Bharhut, with its richly carved railings and gateway, is a Sunga-period masterpiece.
• The Great Stupa at Sanchi was enlarged, encased in stone and given its railing under the Sungas.
• The chaitya halls at Bhaja, Karle and Bedsa belong to this age of vigorous Buddhist building.
• Jataka scenes, yakshas, yakshis and lotus medallions show flourishing Buddhist narrative art.
• Donative inscriptions record gifts by ordinary laity, monks and even royal officials.

Interpreting the contradiction

• Such large-scale patronage would have been impossible under systematic persecution.
• The Buddhist accusation was probably sectarian exaggeration written long after the event.
• Sunga rule was in any case decentralised, leaving religious life largely to local initiative.
• Royal preference for Brahmanism did not preclude toleration of, or gifts to, other faiths.

Features of Sunga art

• The style is vigorous, narrative and largely aniconic, the Buddha shown by symbols.
• Bharhut reliefs carry explanatory labels in Brahmi, an early instance of captioned art.
• Folk motifs, yakshas, yakshis, lotus and animal forms, dominate the decorative scheme.
• Brahmanical art also developed, seen in early temples at Vidisha and the Heliodorus pillar.

The artistic record therefore does substantially belie the charge of anti-Buddhist bigotry. As historians such as Romila Thapar have argued, the Sunga age is better understood as one of Brahmanical revival coexisting with continued and even flourishing Buddhist patronage, a pattern of plural religious life characteristic of early India.