Illustration
This scene shows seven kings marching towards the city of Kushinagara to lay siege to it. The kings are distinguished by their royal umbrellas and attendants with flying whisks standing or seated behind them. The city with its high walls is depicted at the extreme left end. Men and women can be seen looking at the advancing army from their balconies and from battlements.
This scene is a good example of the nature of besieging armies and royalty leading them in ancient India (pre-Mauryan and Mauryan periods). As compared to the Vedic and Epic periods, the kings are riding elephants or horses instead of chariots. Only one king is seen riding a chariot. This shows the decline of the chariot as the preferred command vehicle and its otherwise general utility on the battlefield.
Location: Rear middle architrave, Western Gateway, Stupa 1, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India. 3rd century BCE to 1st century CE.
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Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.
Original image by Biswarup Ganguly. Uploaded by Dr Avantika Lal, published on 01 October 2018. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
Related Images
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The 'Great Stupa' at Sanchi
Sanchi Stupa
Cite This Work
APA Style
Ganguly, B. (2018, October 01). Seven Kings Laying Siege to Kushinagara. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9287/seven-kings-laying-siege-to-kushinagara/
Chicago Style
Ganguly, Biswarup. "Seven Kings Laying Siege to Kushinagara." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified October 01, 2018. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9287/seven-kings-laying-siege-to-kushinagara/.
MLA Style
Ganguly, Biswarup. "Seven Kings Laying Siege to Kushinagara." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 01 Oct 2018. Web. 21 Feb 2025.
