The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.72

c9.72

Only one class of images remains to be discussed, about which very little is known; metal-casting. The discovery of the metal image of Buddha at Nālandā was preceded by that of a colossal figure of Buddha at Sultanganj in the Bhagalpur district in the last century. With the exception of these two figures very few metal specimens of the early Gupta period are known to us. Stray images in metal have been discovered at different places and many writers commit the mistake of herding them together. Thus, Coomaraswamy says that among Gupta sculpture in metal should be included the Sultanganj image and "other important examples include the richly decorated, copper and silver inlaid, brass figure (fig. 163) from Fatehpur, Kangra; the Boston bronze Buddha, said to have been found in Burma (fig. 159); and the rather clumsy statuettes from the Banda district, Bengal; and the fragments from Bezwada; small gold Buddha in the British Museum”¹.