Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c5.52

c5.52

The long series of excavations carried out by the Archæological Survey at Sarnath, near Benares, have established definitely the existence of a separate school of sculpture at Benares during the reign of the early Gupta Emperors in Northern India. The majority of the sculptures discovered at Sarnath are Buddhist and supply ample materials for an exhaustive study. It would be out of place here to discuss all the principal features of this school and it will suffice to notice only such of them, as have a definite bearing on the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture. One of these is the transformation of basreliefs representing scenes from the life of Buddha. The other important characteristic is a thorough assimilation of the Indo-Greek characteristics of basreliefs as we find them in the Gāndhāra School and their reproduction in a new form of images. For while the Mathurā sculptures present a mere repetition of Greek motifs and ideas and a stereotyped form of execution we find in the Benares sculptures a complete transformation of those elements into something new which is essentially Indian in character. This new class of Indian basreliefs is at the same time totally different from the older basreliefs of Sanchi and Bharhut.