The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.18

c9.18

That there was a very ancient school of sculpture at Benares, at least, from the Post-Maurya period onwards, has been sufficiently demonstrated by the discoveries of Marshall and his assistants. In its heyday of glory the great Mathurā school of the Kuṣāṇa period succeeded in imposing its sway at Benares and images were brought from Mathurā for dedication at Benares and were also made locally in the Benares style. A certain number of images in the Sarnath Museum, in the Kuṣāṇa-Mathurā style show the use of red paint, which the sun-light and rain of eighteen centuries have partly effaced. Mr. Sahni has not expressed any definite opinion on the origin of these painted images, but while the technique is Kuṣāṇa-Mathurā, the material is distinctly Chunar instead of Karri sandstone. In the third and fourth centuries A.D., there is a decline in the output, however meagre, and images of the post-Kuṣāṇa period are surprisingly few. Suddenly in the 5th century there is a great increase in plastic activity at Benares and a total change in the ideals of the artists. The new type of images betray very little connection with the old Kuṣāṇa type, but fortunately the number of inscribed specimens is so very great that it is possible to work out the dates of the gradual evolution both of images as well as of bas-reliefs. The earliest images discovered at Sarnath, which belong definitely to the Gupta period, are those which show the use of that particular form of *Ma* in which the base line is quite separate, being in fact a horizontal projection from the lower end of the right vertical. The earliest examples of this type of inscriptions were discovered by the excavators of Sarnath in the earlier part of the 19th century, the best examples of which is stele S.3.¹ This type of *Ma* is used throughout in the Karamdanda inscription of G. E. 117 of the reign of Kumāragupta I, but is not to be found in the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta or the two Mathurā inscriptions of Chandragupta II. In certain cases only, there is a modification of the features but these are exceptions to the general rule. The best examples are S.34¹ of the Indian Museum, Calcutta and the great *Dharma-cakra-Buddha-bhaṭṭāraka* discovered by Mr. F. O. Oertel in 1904–5.²