Gandhara and Mathura schools of art

Detail

Why these schools appeared

• After the Mauryas, north India had many rulers — Shungas, Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Parthians, finally the Kushanas.
• The Indo-Greeks began the habit of putting gods and rulers on coins and in sculpture. Both schools carried this forward.
• Both schools flowered under the Kushanas. The dynasty ruled land from Central Asia to the Ganga plain, so Greek, Roman, Iranian and Indian ideas met in one empire.
• Gandhara art is dated by Britannica from the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE, and it grew most under the Kushanas, above all under Kanishka and his successors [2][3].
• Mathura art is dated by Britannica from about the 2nd century BCE to the 12th century CE, with its best work in the Kushana and Gupta periods (1st–6th century CE) [4].

  Note: NCERT frames this section inside c. 185 BCE – 300 CE. Britannica gives longer life-spans for both schools. Keep the NCERT window for the post-Mauryan answer; the longer span only shows the schools did not stop in 300 CE [2][4].

Gandhara school — the north-west

• Region: western Punjab and the north-west. Today this covers north-west Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan [2].
• Material: grey-black schist (a hard stone that splits in sheets). Met adds that sculptors used green phyllite and grey-blue mica schist in the earlier phase, and turned more and more to stucco (a lime-and-plaster paste) after the 3rd century CE [5].
• Style: Greco-Roman elements mixed with Indian ones, with very fine detail.
• Muscles, bones and eyelids are carved as they look on a real body — this is realistic anatomy.
• Robes fall in deep, heavy folds, like a Roman toga.

• Wavy hair tied in a top-knot; faces close to Greek Apollo types.

• Typical images: Buddha figures and bodhisattvas (a bodhisattva is a being who can reach nirvana but stays back to help others).

• Museum example: the Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni from ancient Gandhara, Kushana period, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art — the Buddha shown starved to skin and bone during his years of hard penance [6].
• By the 3rd century CE the sacred areas of Gandhara monasteries were crowded with schist buddhas and bodhisattvas [5].

Mathura school — the Ganga–Yamuna heartland

• Region: the Mathura area of present Uttar Pradesh.
• Material: red sandstone — speckled red stone quarried at Sikri near Mathura [4].
• Export centre: Mathura images in this spotted red stone are found spread across north-central India, which shows Mathura sold sculpture far beyond its own city [4].
• Style: clearly Indian, with almost no Greco-Roman touch.
• Fuller, rounder bodies and smooth modelling (the surface flows without sharp breaks).
• Thin, clinging robes instead of heavy folds; the body shows through.

• Broad shoulders, open eyes, a strong smiling face.

• Typical images: Kubera (god of wealth, shown with a moustache), Lakshmi, Shiva, Buddha, and yakshas and yakshinis (male and female nature spirits linked to trees, water and plenty).

• Mathura's Buddha grew out of the older yaksha figures — the link is clearest in the huge standing Buddhas of the early Kushana period [4].
• Yakshi figures stood for fertility and plenty. They stayed popular even after Buddhism rose, and were absorbed into Buddhist sites rather than dropped [4].
• A Yakshi standing on a gana (dwarf attendant) from Mathura, Kushana period, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art [7].

Royal portraits at Mathura

• A group of Kushana royal portrait statues was found at a village called Mat, near Mathura. These show the foreign look of the rulers — coat, boots, heavy cloak — not Indian dress [4].
• The headless Kanishka portrait from this group is held in the Government Museum, Mathura [8].
• The best Kushana royal art is these portraits plus the gold coins of the seven Kushana kings [4].

Comparing the two at a glance

Point	Gandhara	Mathura
Region	western Punjab / north-west	Mathura region, UP
Stone	grey-black schist (also green phyllite, grey-blue mica schist; stucco after 3rd c. CE) [5]	mottled red sandstone from Sikri [4]
Outside influence	strong Greco-Roman	almost none
Body	realistic anatomy, slim, spiritual calm	fuller, rounder, smooth, energetic
Robe	thick folds, covers body	thin and clinging, shows body
Range of gods	mainly Buddhist	Buddhist, Brahmanical and folk together

What this era left behind

• Gods were now shown in human-like form more and more — for example Surya, the sun god, carved as a man in a chariot rather than as a plain disc.
• Many faiths were carved in the same workshops — Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanical images side by side. This shows different schools of thought living together in peace.
• The surge in religious images created a need to house them. That need laid the groundwork for later temple architecture in the subcontinent.
• The Kushanas also pushed Buddhism into Central Asia and China and helped Mahayana Buddhism grow — the branch that allows worship of the Buddha as a divine figure, which is exactly what made Buddha images necessary [3].

Prelims Hooks

• Gandhara sculpture used grey-black schist; Mathura used red sandstone.
• Mathura's red sandstone came from the Sikri quarries near Mathura [4].
• Gandhara art is of Greco-Roman origin and grew mainly under the Kushanas, especially Kanishka [2].
• Gandhara switched increasingly to stucco after the 3rd century CE [5].
• Kushana royal portrait statues, including the Kanishka statue, were found at Mat near Mathura [4][8].
• Kubera in Mathura art is shown with a moustache; Mathura also carved Lakshmi, Shiva, Buddha, yakshas and yakshinis.
• Mathura Buddha images grew out of earlier yaksha figures [4].
• The Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni, a Gandhara Kushana-period work, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art [6].
• Gandhara covers today's north-west Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan [2].
• Britannica dates Gandhara art 1st century BCE – 7th century CE, Mathura art 2nd century BCE – 12th century CE [2][4].

Mains Points

• Gandhara vs Mathura is a debate about where the first Buddha image was made. Gandhara's case rests on Greco-Roman modelling of the human body; Mathura's rests on the ready-made yaksha figure type already in use [4]. Safer answer: the two grew side by side under one empire, and borrowed from each other.
• Art followed religion, not the other way round. Mahayana Buddhism made the Buddha worship-worthy, so images became necessary; Kushana patronage and Silk Road wealth paid for them [3].
• Mathura shows trade and craft, not just faith. Its red sandstone images travelled across north-central India, which links this section to the Class 12 theme of new towns, craft groups and long-distance exchange after the Mauryas [4].
• The two schools together prove plural patronage. Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanical images from the same workshops, plus foreign-dressed royal portraits at Mat, show a state that did not force one faith or one culture [4].