Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c5.47

c5.47

Very few specimens of the Mathurā style of sculpture have been found in the North-Eastern districts of India. The oldest example is no doubt the top slab of the diamond-throne (Vajrāsana) under the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya which, judging from a mutilated inscription on it, belongs to the first or second century A. D.¹ Two other specimens were found at Rajgir in the Patna District during the excavations of 1905-06. One of these is the pedestal of an image of the 1st century A. D.² and the other a fragment from the back slab of a large image with a small basrelief representing Buddha seated in a rocky cave. Below this basrelief there is a small inscription which reads in Kushān characters “Śākyamuni.”³ The material of both specimens is that variety of spotted red sandstone, often called Agra or Karri red-sandstone, in which the majority of the Mathurā sculptures have been carved. Another, a torso of a Bodhisattva of the same material and undoubtedly belonging to the same school, appears to have been found at Bodh Gaya in the latter part of the 19th century. It was purchased from the heirs of the late Mr. J. D. M. Beglar for the Indian Museum. The excavations of Pāṭaliputra have also yielded some Mathurā sculptures the most noteworthy of which is a fine torso of a Bodhisattva.⁴