The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.74

c9.74

If anything produced in India which is graceful can be called Gupta then only all these specimens can be relegated to the Gupta period. The Banda statuettes belong more to Central India than to Bengal as the Banda district is in the southern part of the United Provinces and they belong to Chandella rather than Gupta art as they were produced in the 11th century A.D. The Buddha figure from Kangra may be Post-Gupta but the figure in the Boston Museum has no connection with the Early or Post-Gupta period. The fragments from Bezwada certainly belong to the 10th century A.D; while the figure in the British Museum is scarcely earlier. The Sultanganj image provides a second specimen of the Pataliputra school, in which, like the Gupta school at Mathurā, the lines of the drapery were not eradicated. The face is also of a different type and a comparison with that of the metal figure in the Boston Museum shows clearly that the latter is centuries late in date.