Gandhara School of Art

• Gandhara art represents the art that developed and spread in the north western part of India from the 1st Century B.C. to the 4th Century A.D. 

• The major centres were: Bactria, Kapisha, Swat and Gandhara. 

• The main material: Metal such as the gold used in the Kanishka reliquary from Shahji ki Dheri. Stone wherever used is usually blue or grey schist and slate. Stucco, especially busts of Greek and Roman deities and princes. Interestingly these were painted, with red colour being used for the lips and black for the eyes and hair.

• Gandhara style continued to influence Indian art upto the early medieval period as is seen in Kashmir and parts, of Himachal Pradesh.

• Gandharan style was an amalgam of Hellenistic- Roman, Iranian and indigenous art. A number of compositional traits were adapted from Roman mortuary art, while the divine attributes and decorative elements were taken from Hellenistic (Greek) and Iranian roots. 

• Most of the sculptures from this period are Buddhist, though some Hellenistic.

• Buddha images have a uniformity of pose, costume, lakshana and other characteristics. He is shown wearing a heavy robe that covers both shoulders, his left hand hangs down but the right hand is raised in abhaya or varada mudra. There is an ushnisha or a top knot on the head. He is not adorned with any other jewelry, though his elongated ear lobes suggest that as a prince he did wear heavy ornaments.

Salient features of Gandhara School of Art

• Gandhara Style has naturalism in body form, drapery, and pictorial scale. 

• The male figures are shown with musculature, drapery with sharp flowing folds,wavy curled hair and sharp features.

• The extended ears are merely due to the downward thrust of the heavy ear-rings worn by a prince or magnate. 

• There is a standardization of composition, pose of figures and other incidents from the life of Buddha.

• Bodhisattva icons that portrayed Buddhahood and form one of the most important elements ofMahayana Buddhism was prevalent in this era. These male figures are shown standing or seated and wear a dhoti like lower garment, the torso is bare except for the shawl like length of cloth over the shoulder.

• One of the distinguishing features is the depiction of paradise such as Sukhavati which was part of the Paradise cult within Buddhism prevalent in North West India during the Kushana period. 

• There were also female statures, corresponding to city goddesses. 

Source:: Iasscore