The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c18.4

c18.4

In the Early School the sculptors worked almost exclusively in stone suitable for fine carving. Doubtless they were familiar with clay and terracotta, but, so far as I am aware, not a single figure in any of these materials which is referable to this Early School has survived throughout the length and breadth of Gandhāra; and even at Taxila, where no suitable stone was available, there is only one example of relief work in lime-stucco dating from this period. In the Later School, on the other hand, sculptors worked all but exclusively in lime-stucco or clay, sometimes burnt into terracotta, clay being commonly in positions protected from the weather, lime-stucco and terracotta in more exposed ones. No doubt the adoption of these materials in place of the earlier stone was due primarily to the demand for sculpture in districts where there was no stone suitable for fine carving, but where there was no shortage of limestone or clay. This was eminently the case at Taxila, the largest city in the North-West and the oldest and greatest stronghold of Buddhism, where the only two local stones are a flint-like limestone, of which the hills are composed, and a coarse sandstone, which could be employed for images such as those illustrated in figs. 27 and 28, but did not lend itself to finer work.