The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s7.317

c10.s7.317

So some Indians ultimately felt.³ It can only have been dissatisfaction with the established Gandhāra type of Buddha which first produced the Indian type at Mathurā. It was recognised that it was now far too late to represent Buddha in any way but as a man; but they wanted a Buddha of their own, not a Greek Apollo. How far at the start any question of spirituality entered into the matter may be doubtful; something may have been due to the Kushan king Huvishka’s patronage of Mathurā art; in any event the light ladies who figure as Yakshīs on some Buddhist monuments there⁴ do not suggest any excessive spirituality among the Buddhists of Mathurā. Their first essays at making Buddhas of their own produced, according to Dr Vogel, only mediocre figures, gauche and heavy and of an astonishing uniformity.⁵ But Indian artists had to learn how to express themselves, which took time; they were struggling toward something better.