Gandhara vs Mathura Schools of Art

They are the two places where the Buddha was first shown as a man. Before this, artists used symbols. After this, devotees could see his face and body in stone.

The earliest sculptures showing the Buddha as a man came out of two places: Gandhara and Mathura.

Why do we study them as a pair?

The two schools worked at the same time but chose different looks. Gandhara leaned on Greek and Roman ideas. Mathura leaned on older Indian ways of carving the body.

Gandhara lay in the north-west, in parts of present-day Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Mathura was a city near north-central India. Both flourished in the Kushan period. That period ran from about 100 BCE to 250 CE.

Why was Gandhara open to Greek ideas?

Indo-Greek kings ruled Gandhara from the fourth century BCE onward. The region became a gateway between India and the West. Alexander’s conquest also brought Greek influence there.

What made Mathura different?

Mathura artists drew on indigenous Indian styles. They also loved the living body. Their stone came from quarries at nearby Sikri.

Gandhara artists took cues from Greek sculpture. They carved classical faces, thick curly locks and heavy drapery.

What stone did they use?

Gandhara artists used grey schist or white stucco. Schist is a layered grey rock that splits and carves finely. Stucco is a lime plaster that artists mould by hand.

What do Cleveland’s notes add?

The Cleveland Museum of Art describes a standing Buddha from Gandhara, made in 150 to 200 CE. It has a placid face and thick wavy hair. His robe is heavy and toga-like.

Cleveland says these artists combined Mediterranean and South Asian ideas. They were among the first to show the Buddha this way.

Mathura Buddha bodies were shown with a sense of physical presence. Their robes were thin enough to reveal the body underneath.

What stone did they use?

Mathura images were carved in mottled red sandstone. This reddish stone came from nearby quarries.

What does a Mathura Buddha include?

Cleveland describes a seated Buddha from Mathura, made about 120 CE. He sits under the Bodhi tree. His hair is coiled in a topknot. A solar disk, like a halo, glows behind his head.

Lions on the throne show the teaching spreading in all four directions.

The table puts the main differences in one place. Each row comes from a museum or a scholar named in the sources.

What does “shorthand” mean here?

Partha Mitter, an art historian, says Gandhara used the frozen moment of Western art. It relied on accurate bodies and depth. Mathura used a shorthand way to tell the Buddha’s life.

Early artists did not carve his body. They used signs instead. Alfred Foucher, a French scholar, listed an empty throne, a wheel and a mound as such symbols.

What did the wheel mean?

The wheel, or dharma-chakra, stood for the First Sermon at Benares.

Why did this change?

Foucher says the valley of the Ganges welcomed the Indo-Greek type of Buddha. He sees it installed from Mathura to Bodh Gaya.

The Kushan kings were the patrons. The Kushan kings took control of Gandhara as Buddhism emerged there as a major force.

Which ruler is named?

The study names Kadphises I, dated about 40 to 78 CE. He notes that some scholars take the seated figure on this king’s coins for a Buddha. He also places Kanishka’s capitals at Peshawar and Kapisa.

What did Kushan sculptors set down?

Kushan sculptors fixed clear rules for the Buddha, the Bodhisattva and their hand gestures. These gestures are called mudras.

Scholars disagreed. Foucher argued for a Greek-inspired origin in the north-west. Coomaraswamy argued for an Indian origin. This split is the heart of the Gandhara and Mathura story.

What did Foucher say?

Foucher called the Mathura and Amaravati images “as like as brothers”. He said both came from a common ancestor of blue slate in the north-west. He said Mathura and Amaravati gave older Buddha images than Sarnath, going back to the second century CE.

What did Coomaraswamy say?

Coomaraswamy argued for the Indian origin of the Buddha image. He did not deny foreign elements. He said they should be studied after the home growth is understood.

Where does that leave us?

A blended view is common today. Gandhara looks Greek-inspired and Mathura looks indigenous. Gandhara made only selective use of Western styles. It melded Hellenistic, Roman, Indian and Parthian elements.

Far beyond its own city. Mathura was so famous under Kanishka that Buddha and Bodhisattva images went to Sanchi, Prayag, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya and even Taxila.

Did it shape later art?

Yes. He says Mathura types formed the base of Gupta art. They also shaped the images at Amaravati.

Did Mathura borrow Greek drapery too?

Cleveland says Mathura artists reworked the Greco-Roman drapery known in Gandhara. They made the folds more abstract. The result gave the Buddha a superhuman energy.

It grew more Indian and changed material. In the third and fourth centuries, the school kept flourishing. Stone was largely replaced by terracotta and stucco. The type became thoroughly Indianized.

How did the school end?

He attributes the end to the Huna invasions at the close of the fifth century.

Did Greek ideas still show?

Yes. Cleveland holds a Gandhara figure of Atlas given wings, so he looks superhuman. It is dated to the 200s CE. It shows how Mediterranean figures entered Buddhist art.

What are the key points?

• Two cradles. The Buddha first appears as a man in Gandhara and Mathura.
• Gandhara. Grey schist or stucco, Greek-inspired face, heavy drapery.
• Mathura. Red sandstone from Sikri, Indian body, thin robe.
• Patrons. Kushan kings.
• Symbols first. An empty throne and a wheel came before the image.
• The debate. Foucher argued for Greek roots. Coomaraswamy argued for Indian roots.
• Later Gandhara. Stone gave way to stucco and the style became Indianized.

What are the traps?

1. Do not swap the stones. Gandhara is schist or stucco. Mathura is red sandstone.
2. Do not swap the style roots. Gandhara is Greek-inspired. Mathura is Indian.
3. Know the gesture. The CAPF key gives abhaya for the raised hand.
4. Stucco replaced stone late. The CDS question says “completely”; the scholarly account says “largely”. The key still gives the third century CE.

Has this come up in the exam?

The answer is (c). In the third and fourth centuries stone was largely replaced by terracotta and stucco. The exam key gives the third century CE.

The answer is (b). The right hand of standing Buddha images is generally raised in abhaya mudra. A mudra is a hand gesture, and abhaya means a gesture of fearlessness.