Studies in Indian Art c12.s6.1

c12.s6.1

The great school of Mathura sculpture representing one of the most illustrious periods of India's artistic achievement is distinguished by its production of a large number of railing pillars carved in high relief on the obverse and generally in low relief on the reverse. In ancient times these pillars formed part of stone enclosures erected round Buddhist and Jaina monuments. Each pillar had three mortices on the two sides in which cross-bars were fitted to join with other similar pillars. They were held in position by a basement below and they supported a coping stone at the top. The entire structure of the railing was pierced in the centre by four elaborate gateways each of which stood facing in one cardinal direction. The earliest specimens of monumental railings and gateways have been discovered at Sanchi, Bharhut and Bodh Gaya. At Mathura with the advent of the Kushāṇa period independent figure sculpture achieved important development, but still the railing continued for another two centuries as the principal medium of expression for the work of the artists.