III] ARCHAEOLOGY OP HISTORICAL PERIOD I03
ornaments of gold, silver, coral, crystal, and precious stones
which were deposited in honour of the holy relics, display
a high degree of skill in the arts of the lapidary and gold-
smith. The brief inscription on one of the vases in the coffer
is of inestimable value as fixing an approximate date in the
history of the development of Indian writing, and as a tangible
refutation of the theories once fashionable which would not
allow a knowledge of writing even to the Indians of the fourth
century B.c.
Although the art of constructing substantial edifices of brick Wooden
masonry was well understood in Northern India four or five architec-
centuries before Christ, and must have been introduced,
perhaps from Babylonia, at a much earlier date, there is good
reason for believing that the ornamental buildings of ancient
India were mainly constructed of timber. Brick foundations
and substructures were probably common; but the whole
history of Indian architecture proves that the superstructures
of the early buildings possessing architectural features must
have been, as a rule, executed in wood, like the modern
Burmese palaces. The Piprahwa sti-pa is a monument of
engineering rather than of architectural skill.
It is possible that when the really ancient sites of India, Early
such as Taxila and Vaisl1i, shall be explored, remains of peiod of
Indian art,
buildings assignable to the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries 20 o.c. to
B.C. may be discovered. Such remains, if ever found, are A.D. 50.
likely to consist chiefly of stiipas and the plinths or sub-
structures of wooden superstructures which have long since
disappeared. But the results of exploration of these ancient
sites, so far, have been disappointing; and in our present state
of ignorance a great gap, to which no material remains can be
assigned, exists between the date of the Piprahwa stiipa and
that of Asoka Maurya, two centuries and a half later. In
fact, the history of Indian art may be said to begin in the
reign of Asoka (272-231 B.C.), and all the known remains
assignable to his period are probably later than 260 B.c.
These are sufficiently numerous and well preserved to give
a good notion of the state of the arts during the reign of the
great Maurya emperor. The Maurya style, subject, of course,
to considerable modification owing to the lapse of ages and
the variety of local fashions, lasted for several centuries, and
the early period of Indian plastic art may be described with
a close approximation to accuracy as extending from 250 B.c.
to A.D. 50. Most of the remains date from the second and
third centuries B.c.
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