Art and Culture Part 1: Sculpture — Gandhara, Mathura and the Gupta Idiom, Exam-Ready Notes

Three schools, three materials, one chronology: the sculpture question is a comparison question.

Schools compared

• Gandhara: grey schist, Greco-Roman drapery and wavy hair, Kushan-era patronage.
• Mathura: spotted red sandstone, indigenous idiom, earliest halo; Buddha, Jina and Hindu icons all carved.
• Amaravati: white limestone narrative stupa panels under the Satavahanas.

Gupta idiom

• Sarnath Buddha: transparent drapery and dharma-chakra mudra — the classical peak.
• Udayagiri Varaha cave relief; Sultanganj standing Buddha bronze.

Chola bronze line

• Lost-wax casting; Nataraja iconography: apasmara demon, fire, damaru, abhaya.
• Sembiyan Mahadevi-era patronage; the best Natarajas sit in Thanjavur galleries.

Revise in 30 seconds

• Gandhara schist; Mathura red sandstone; Amaravati limestone.
• Sarnath Gupta Buddha = classicism.
• Nataraja: lost-wax Chola bronze.