Indian Sculpture c5.s3.t1.26

c5.s3.t1.26

Although Gupta sculpture to our present knowledge begins with the work of a craftsman from Mathurā, the leading craftsmen during the fifth century were working in Sārnāth. Nevertheless they had learnt their lessons from Mathurā, for impressive images had been exported from Mathurā to Sārnāth and other places from the first century A.D. onwards. Sārnāth images, which are to be ascribed to the third and fourth centuries, clearly betoken their indebtedness (Fig. 55). Yet then the Sārnāth version of Mathurā prototypes is subtler than the original⁹⁵ (see similarity of mission of Mathurā school in western and southern India, pp. 43, 46). In the fifth century its delicate touch became acknowledged even outside the confines of the school, and Mathurā itself adopted it to its own purposes.⁹⁶ In spite, however, of this mutual interchange, each school in the fifth century retains its well-defined features; that of Mathurā a certain harshness along with some motifs, such as, for instance, the ‘ribbed’ robe of the Buddha image; that of Sārnāth is of a finer grain in its subtlety of surface treatment and its utmost economy of all that is accessory to it.⁹⁷ Mathurā knows the discipline which leads towards (Fig. 54), Sārnāth renders in plastic terms the body itself of bliss (Fig. 62).