section_path: Legacy/Architecture
section_name: Architecture
paragraph_text: Architecture
  
  Besides the various stupas attributed to Ashoka, the pillars erected by him survive at various places in the Indian subcontinent.
  
  Ashoka is often credited with the beginning of stone architecture in India, possibly following the introduction of stone-building techniques by the Greeks after Alexander the Great. Before Ashoka's time, buildings were probably built in non-permanent material, such as wood, bamboo or thatch. Ashoka may have rebuilt his palace in Pataliputra by replacing wooden material by stone, and may also have used the help of foreign craftmen. Ashoka also innovated by using the permanent qualities of stone for his written edicts, as well as his pillars with Buddhist symbolism.