Mathura school of art

Also called: Buddha images of Mathura, Mathura school · Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

The Mathura school of art was an Indian style of sculpture from the Mathura region (present-day Uttar Pradesh). Its artists carved full, rounded figures in speckled red sandstone. It took its models from older Indian yaksha (nature spirit) figures, not from Greek or Roman statues. It produced images of many faiths: the Buddha, Shiva, Lakshmi, Kubera, and yakshas and yakshinis.

It matters for two reasons. With Gandhara, it was one of the first two schools to show the Buddha in human form, and it did this under the Kushanas [4]. Its Indian roots also show that the Buddha image was not just a copy of Greek art.

Explanation

Background: why images were needed

• Early Buddhism taught self-effort.
• The Buddha was seen as a human teacher who found the way out of suffering.
• Each follower had to walk that path alone.

• Symbols such as the empty seat, footprints and the wheel were enough to stand for him.

• By the 1st century CE, belief changed.

• The Buddha came to be seen as a saviour who could carry people across suffering.
• The idea of the Bodhisatta grew. A Bodhisatta was a kind being who had earned nibbana (release from rebirth) but put it off to help others.

• People now wanted a face to pray before, so statues of the Buddha and the Bodhisattas were made and worshipped.

• This new way was called Mahayana ("the great vehicle"). It called the older way "Hinayana" ("the lesser vehicle"), which was an insult. The older school called itself theravadin, after the theras (old teachers).

• Kushana support. Mathura and Gandhara both grew under the Kushana kings, at the same time but in different styles [4].
• Kanishka's coins show the Buddha, labelled "BODDO" in Greek script, as well as Shiva with Nandi. One king supported more than one religion.
• Kushana kings called themselves devaputra ("son of god").

Main features: stone, style, subjects

• Material: red sandstone. This was the speckled red stone quarried near Mathura. Gandharan artists, by contrast, used limestone or grey schist [5].
• Idiom (style roots): distinctly Indian.
• It shows very little Greco-Roman influence.

• Its models were the older Indian yaksha figures, not Roman statues.

• Style of the figures:

• Fuller figures, with heavier and rounder bodies.
• Smooth modelling. The body shows through a thin robe instead of being hidden by deep folds.

• Some Buddha figures have a moustache. This local touch is not found in Gandhara.

• Subjects: a wide pantheon (a range of gods from many faiths).

• The Buddha
• Shiva
• Lakshmi
• Kubera (god of wealth)
• Yakshas and yakshinis (male and female nature spirits)
• Mathura workshops also made images of Jain tirthankaras (the great Jain teachers).

How it spread and lasted

• It had a long life. Mathura art ran from about the 2nd century BCE to the 12th century CE. Its most distinctive work came in the Kushana and Gupta periods (1st–6th century CE) [5].
• Images were exported. Mathura workshops sent finished red-sandstone images to distant sites. A Buddha image dedicated by the monk Bala was found at Sarnath [5].
• It led to temple images. In this age, gods were shown more and more in human form. Surya, the sun god, is one example.
• Once a god had a fixed human shape, the image needed a house.
• This prepared the way for the image in the shrine room of Gupta and later temples.

Results and how it was judged

• It set an Indian model for showing the Buddha and the Brahmanical gods, and later temple sculpture built on it.
• Colonial scholars undervalued it.
• 19th-century European scholars measured Indian sculpture against Greek sculpture.
• They called multi-armed gods "grotesque". They rated the Greek-looking Gandhara images "the best".
• Mathura was never trying to look Greek. It must be judged on its own terms.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 2nd century BCE to 12th century CE. Its peak came under the Kushanas and Guptas, c. 1st–6th century CE [5].
• Dynasty and ruler: The Kushanas, especially Kanishka. The Kushanas held the Gandhara region from the 1st century CE, and most of the big Buddhist centres there were founded in the 2nd century CE under strong kings like Kanishka [3].
• Region: Mathura, in present-day Uttar Pradesh. Its images also reached distant sites such as Sarnath.
• Evidence:
• Kanishka's coins, which carry the Buddha ("BODDO" in Greek script) and Shiva with Nandi.
• The Bala Buddha image, dedicated by the monk Bala. It was found at Sarnath and is now in the Sarnath Museum [5].
• A Yakshi on gana, in red sandstone from Mathura, Kushan period, 2nd century CE. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art [6].
• Surviving sculptures themselves, which show the red stone, full bodies and wide range of gods.

Don't confuse with

• Gandhara school: This school grew in the northwest, in grey-black schist (also green phyllite, and stucco after the 3rd century CE). It had a Greco-Roman style, with an Apollo-like Buddha and Roman-style robes [2], and it made mostly Buddha and Bodhisattva images. Mathura used red sandstone, had an Indian style and made a wide range of gods.
• Amaravati school: This school belongs to the Andhra region in the Deccan and worked in white limestone. Mathura is a north Indian school of red sandstone.
• Early symbolic Buddhist art (Hinayana/Theravada phase): Here the Buddha was shown only by symbols such as the wheel, the empty seat and footprints. Mathura made him a human figure, a change linked to Mahayana.
• Mathura's moustache vs Gandhara's Apollo face: Gandhara's Buddha has a youthful, Apollo-like face [2]. Some Mathura Buddhas have a moustache, a very local touch.

Prelims Hooks

• Mathura = red sandstone. Gandhara = limestone or grey schist [5].
• Mathura art ran from about the 2nd century BCE to the 12th century CE, and peaked under the Kushanas and Guptas [5].
• Mathura made a wide pantheon: Buddha, Kubera, Lakshmi, Shiva, yakshas and yakshinis. Trap: "made only Buddhist images" fits Gandhara, not Mathura.
• The Bala Buddha image, dedicated by a monk of that name, was found at Sarnath and is in the Sarnath Museum [5].
• Kanishka's coins show the Buddha as "BODDO" in Greek script, as well as Shiva with Nandi.
• A red-sandstone Yakshi on gana from Mathura, Kushan period, 2nd century CE, is in the Metropolitan Museum [6].

Mains Points

• The image followed the belief. The Mathura Buddha came out of a change in religion, not only a change in art.
• While the Buddha was a human teacher, symbols were enough.
• Mahayana made him a saviour and added the Bodhisatta, so worshippers wanted a face to pray before.

• This is useful for any GS-I question that links religion and art.

• Mathura weakens the "foreign influence" story. Its full, yaksha-based figures owe little to Greece. Mathura and Gandhara ran side by side under one empire [4], and Kanishka's coins carry both the Buddha and Shiva. Together these show plural royal support and a strong Indian tradition of image-making.

• It is a lesson in how art history is written. European scholars ranked Gandhara highest because it looked Greek, and they called multi-armed gods "grotesque". This is the error of judging the unfamiliar by yardsticks taken from the familiar. The point also works for questions on colonial writing of Indian history and on museum collecting.

Related concepts

• Gandhara school of art
• Headless statue of Kanishka
• Ardhanarishvara
• Amaravati school of art
• Takshashila University

Read more

• Mahayana and the Buddha image: Gandhara vs Mathura