Art and Architecture of Gupta Period

Art and Architecture

Ancient Indian art was mainly inspired by religion. As in earlier time, Buddhism gave a great impetus to art in Gupta period as well. Alife-sized bronze image of the Buddha belonging to the Mathura school has been found from Sultaganj in Bihar. Beautiful image of the Buddha were also created at Mathura and Sarnath. The finest examples of Buddhist art during Gupta period are the painting of Ajanta caves, which are now included in the list of the World Heritage Sites by the UNESCO. Out of the 28 caves at Ajanta, 23 belong to the Vakataka period, while five caves were excavated during the Satavahana period. Apart from narrative scenes connected with the Buddha, the Bodhisattvas and the Jatakas, the Ajanta frescos depict religious scenes of yakshas, gandharvas, apasaras, and include scenes from everyday life as well. Surprisingly, these paintings with lustrous colors have not faded even after fourteen centuries. The Bagh cave paintings near Gwalior can be termed Buddhist arrt as well, and as compared with Ajanta, are simpler and plain. 

The Gupta period marks beginning of Indian temple architecture, as temples in the form of concrete structures were constructed in northern India for the first time. These temples were made in the architectural style known as Nagara, in which generally flat-roofed square temples chief deity, are found at Bhitargaon in Kanpur, and the stone sculpture of Nara Narayana from the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh in Jhansi. Most of the other surviving stone temples belonging to this era are in in a ruined state and are located in the hilly areas of Madhya Pradesh, such as the Vishnu temples of Tigawa and the Parvati temple of Nachna-Kuthara.

The sculptures pertaining to period of c. 300-600 CE not only show a continuation of earlier styles and trends derived from Mathura and Gandhara schools, but also show introduction of new styles. The inspiration of the themes for sculptures was drawn from Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina traditions. Many Vaishnava sculptures, which include images of the avatars such as boar, man-lion, dwarf and Vasudeva-Krishna, have been found at Mathura. One of the largest known freee standing stone images belonging to this period is a colossal figure of Krishna effortlessly lifting up Govardhana mountain, found at Varanasi. A stone sculpture of a larger than life figure of a horse carved out of beige sandstone found at Khairigarh in Uttar Pradesh too belongs to this period. The cave architecture of this period is almost entirely Buddhist, but there are a few exceptions such as the caves at Udaigiri in Odisha , which has the famous relief scene of Vishnu rescuing the earth from the waters in the form of Nri-Varaha (body of a man and head of a boar), and Elephant caves, the largest  one of which is dedicated to Shiva. The Buddha images of this period displayed a greater variety of mudras that before. For instance, the Buddha images from Sarnath differed in several ways from those of Mathura. The spectacular Bamiyan Buddha Sculptures which were tragically destroyed by the Taliban too belonged to this period. A dated stone image of a seated tirthankara belonging to 432 CE was excavated at Mathura, which was different from the seated figurines of preceding centuries. 

The Gupta coins are also pieces of art. They are well designed and meticulously crafted. They carry aesthetically impressive depictions of the activities of the rulers. At many places such as Kaushambi, Rajghat, Bhita and Mathura, terracotta figurines and plaques have been found.