The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.32

c9.32

The Pāṭaliputra school of sculpture still remains to be studied as a distinct and separate movement in the plastic activity of the Gupta period. The remains, except at Nālandā, are few and yet inconsiderable so far as images are concerned. But we are more fortunate in the case of bas-reliefs. Certain images from Nālandā have been referred to the Gupta period by the successive excavators of that site but, it appears to me, without sufficient reason. In the Eastern provinces it is rather difficult to distinguish between early Gupta and Post-Gupta sculptures. Consequently unless we proceed on the basis of inscribed specimens it will be difficult to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. Inscribed images of the Early Gupta period are still very few in North-eastern India and those that have been discovered at Nālandā or Mahābodhi show certain characteristics which are different from those of the Benares school. All such images are Buddhist and the difference lies in the modelling. The Benares school shows the return of the human figure to the normal in all images except those of the Buddha in which abnormalities remain in the shape of unna-