Post-Mauryan Trends in Indian Art and Architecture

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Fine Arts Class XI (An Introduction to Indian Art Part I), Chapter 4.

Where did the Buddha go, and how did he come back?

Stand at the stone gateway of Sanchi and you will see crowds of people, elephants, trees and a stupa, but when the story needs the Buddha himself, you find an empty throne, a pair of footprints or an umbrella. Now travel to Mathura or Gandhara, and he sits right in front of you, hand raised, with a face. This chapter is about that change, and about the many other changes that took place in stone, in caves and on painted walls after the Mauryan period.

The big picture

From the second century BCE onwards, various rulers took control over the vast Mauryan empire: the Shungas, Kanvas, Kushanas and Guptas in the north and parts of central India, and the Satavahanas, Ikshvakus, Abhiras and Vakatakas in southern and western India. The second century BCE also marked the rise of the main Brahmanical sects, the Vaishnavas and Shaivas. Some of the finest sculpture is found at Vidisha, Bharhut (Madhya Pradesh), Bodhgaya (Bihar), Jaggayyapeta (Andhra Pradesh), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Khandagiri-Udaigiri (Odisha), Bhaja near Pune and Pavani near Nagpur (Maharashtra).

Bharhut: stories in shallow stone

Bharhut sculptures are tall, like the Yaksha and Yakshini images of the Mauryan period. The modelling is in low relief, which keeps the figures close to a flat surface, and the images stick to the picture plane. In story panels depth is shown through a tilted perspective. Clarity is achieved by choosing the main events, and panels show fewer characters.

The sculptors used the space to the maximum. Folded hands and flat, awkward feet are common, because the carving was so shallow that hands and feet could not project. This explains the general stiffness of the body and arms at Bharhut. Over time, the images were given deeper carving, greater volume and a very naturalistic body. Sculptures at Bharhut, Bodhgaya, Sanchi Stupa-2 and Jaggayyapeta are good examples of the early phase. One consistent feature of male images of the first and second century BCE is the knotted headgear. Some of the Bharhut sculptures are displayed in the Indian Museum, Kolkata.

Two Bharhut panels are favourites for questions:

Pause and predict: why are the hands folded flat against the chest in so many Bharhut figures?

Check your answer: because the carving is so shallow that arms could not project from the surface. Folded hands were the safe shape. When artists later carved deeper, the arms and feet began to move freely.

Sanchi: the great stupa

Sanchi, about 50 km from Bhopal, is a World Heritage Site. There are three main stupas, and Stupa-1 is thought to hold relics of the Buddha. Stupa-2 has the relics of ten less famous arhats from three generations, and Stupa-3 has the relic casket of Sariputta and Mahamogalayana.

Stupa-1 was originally a small brick structure that expanded over time and was covered with stone. It was given a vedika (railing) and toranas (gateways). An Ashokan lion-capital pillar with an inscription stands on the south side, showing how Sanchi became a centre of monastic and artistic activity. The south gateway was made first, followed by the others. Around the stupa runs the lower pradakshinapatha (circumambulatory path), and the upper pradakshinapatha, enclosed by a vedika, is unique to Sanchi.

The four gateways are decorated richly. The Buddha is shown symbolically, as an empty throne, footprints, a chhatra (umbrella) and stupas. The toranas date from the first century BCE onwards. Each torana has two vertical pillars and three horizontal bars on top, with sculptural themes carved on both the front and the back. The lowermost bar is supported from below by the shalabhanjikas, figures of a lady holding the branch of a tree.

The sculptural style marks a clear step forward from Bharhut: figures are in high relief and fill the whole space, bodies are naturalistic with no stiffness, heads project from the surface and the rigidity of contour is reduced. Narration is more elaborate, though the dream episode is still shown simply with a reclining queen and an elephant at the top. Historical stories such as the siege of Kushinagara, the Buddha's visit to Kapilavastu and Ashoka's visit to the Ramagrama stupa are carved in detail.

Sculpture schools compared: Bharhut, Sanchi, Mathura, Amaravati

Mathura, Sarnath and Gandhara

From the first century CE, Gandhara (now in Pakistan), Mathura in northern India and Vengi in Andhra Pradesh became important centres of art. In the symbolic phase, the Buddha was shown by signs. Now the Buddha in a human form appears in Mathura and Gandhara.

Gandhara art grew out of a confluence of Bactrian, Parthian and local Gandhara traditions. Mathura's local tradition became so strong that it spread to other parts of northern India. A good example is the stupa sculptures at Sanghol in Punjab. Mathura also produced early Jain Tirthankara images and portraits of kings, including the headless Kanishka image.

The two Buddha images differ in their source:

Two views. For the exam: the Buddha at Mathura is modelled on earlier Yaksha images, while at Gandhara it has Hellenistic features. Another reading: historians continue to debate how much each school owed to Indian and foreign sources and which developed the human form of the Buddha first. Many scholars today stress that both drew on their own regional traditions and on their meetings with other cultures, rather than one copying the other.

Images of Vaishnava (mainly Vishnu in various forms) and Shaiva (mainly lingas and mukhalingas) faiths are also found at Mathura, though Buddhist images are the most numerous. Vishnu and Shiva are shown through their ayudhas (weapons). Mathura sculpture changes over time: in the second century CE images become more sensual and rotund, the trend continues in the fourth century, and in the late fourth century the fleshiness is reduced further and the drapery volume lessens. By the fifth and sixth centuries CE the drapery is part of the body and robes look transparent.

In this period two important schools are seen in northern India: Mathura, the traditional centre, and Sarnath, with Kosambi, as a new one. Many Sarnath Buddhas have plain transparent drapery covering both shoulders and a halo with little ornament, while Mathura Buddhas continue to show folds of drapery and a richly decorated halo. Among the stupa sites outside the Gangetic valley is Devnimori in Gujarat.

Pause and predict: a Buddha image has plain, transparent robes over both shoulders and a halo with very little decoration. Mathura or Sarnath?

Check your answer: Sarnath. A Mathura Buddha of the same period would still show folds in the drapery and a richly decorated halo.

Three famous Buddhas

The Sarnath panel shows the dhammachakrapravartana, the preaching of the dhamma. The sculptors always aimed to show the Buddha as a great human being who achieved nibbana, the end of anger and hate.

Buddhist monuments of south India

Vengi in Andhra Pradesh has many stupa sites: Jaggayyapeta, Amaravati, Bhattiprolu, Nagarjunakonda and Goli. Amaravati has a mahachaitya, and many of its sculptures are now in the Chennai Museum, the Amaravati Site Museum, the National Museum in New Delhi and the British Museum in London. Like Sanchi, the stupa has a pradakshinapatha inside a vedika covered with narrative reliefs. The domical stupa itself is covered with relief sculptural slabs, which is a unique feature, and its torana has disappeared. Building began in the third century BCE but the stupa was best developed in the first and second centuries CE. Like Sanchi, the early phase has no Buddha images, but in the second and third centuries CE Buddha images are carved on the drum slabs and elsewhere. The artists create interior space through different postures of figures: semi-back, back, profile, frontal, semi-frontal and side.

The sculptural form is marked by intense emotion. Figures are slender, full of movement and shown in three bends (tribhanga), and compositions are more complex than at Sanchi. Linearity becomes flexible and dynamic movement breaks the stiffness. Depth is created by pronounced volume, angular bodies and complex overlapping, while the clarity of form is kept. The animated movement reduces in the sculptures of Nagarjunakonda and Goli in the third century CE. Independent Buddha images are found at Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda and Guntapalle. In Karnataka, Sannati in Gulbarga district is the largest stupa site excavated so far.

Large numbers of stupas do not mean there were no structured temples, viharas or chaityas, though none survive. An important structure is the Sanchi apsidal chaitya (temple 18), a simple shrine temple with front pillars and a hall at the back. Along with the Buddha, Bodhisattva images such as Avalokiteshvara, Padmapani, Vajrapani, Amitabha and Maitreya were sculpted. With the rise of Vajrayana Buddhism, many Bodhisattva images were added as personified virtues or qualities.

The cave tradition of western India

Many Buddhist caves dating back to the second century BCE have been excavated in western India. Three main architectural types were executed:

The front of a chaitya hall is dominated by a semicircular chaitya arch with an open front and a wooden facade, though some, as at Kondivite, have none. In all the chaitya caves a stupa at the back is common.

In the first century BCE the standard plan was modified: the hall becomes rectangular, as in Ajanta Cave 9, with a stone screen wall as facade. This is found also at Bedsa, Nashik, Karla and Kanheri. At Karla the biggest rock-cut chaitya hall was excavated: an open courtyard with two pillars, a stone screen wall, a veranda, an apsidal hall with pillars and a stupa at the back, with heavy human and animal figures. Kanheri Cave 3 elaborates this plan, and although the interior is unfinished it shows how carving progressed. The quadrangular flat-roofed type later became the preferred design.

Viharas are excavated at all the cave sites. A vihara has a veranda, a hall and cells around the walls of the hall. Important vihara caves are Ajanta Cave 12, Bedsa Cave 11, and Nashik Caves 3, 10 and 17. Nashik caves have front pillars carved with ghata-base and ghata-capital, with human figures. Junnar has the largest excavations, with more than two hundred caves, and Kanheri in Mumbai has 108. One Junnar vihara is called Ganesh Leni because an image of Ganesha of a later period was installed in it. The most important cave sites are Ajanta, Pitalkhora, Ellora, Nashik, Bhaja, Junnar, Karla and Kanheri.

Ajanta: caves, sculpture and painting

The most famous cave site is Ajanta, in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra. It has twenty-nine caves, with four chaitya caves: Caves 10 and 9 from the second and first century BCE, and Caves 19 and 26 from the fifth century CE. Ajanta is the only surviving example of painting of the first century BCE and the fifth century CE. The caves have no precise dating because of the lack of known dated inscriptions.

The patrons recorded are Varahadeva (Cave 16), the prime minister of the Vakataka king Harishena; Upendragupta (Caves 17 to 20), a local king and feudatory of Harishena; Buddhabhadra (Cave 26); and Mathuradasa (Cave 4).

Paintings. The earliest paintings, in Caves 9 and 10 (first century BCE), have broad, heavy figures arranged in a line, sharp lines and limited colours. They are naturalistic and not over-stylised. Events are grouped according to geographical location, with architectural bands separating them, and the figures resemble those at Sanchi. The later paintings, in Caves 16, 17, 1 and 2, belong to the fifth century CE. Their lines are clear and rhythmic, and body colour merges with the outer line to create volume. Painters used various skin colours (brown, yellowish brown, greenish, yellow ochre) which suggests a population of many colours. Paintings of Caves 16 and 17 have a precise, elegant quality, with brown, thick dark lines used as contours. Caves 1 and 2 paintings are orderly, naturalistic and well integrated with the sculptures, with half closed, elongated eyes.

The themes are events from the life of the Buddha, the Jatakas and the Avadanas. The Simhala Avadana, Mahajanaka Jataka and Vidhurpundita Jataka cover whole walls. The Chaddanta Jataka is painted in Cave 10 and also in Cave 17, but the Cave 10 version faithfully follows the Pali text while the Cave 17 version is very different.

Padmapani Bodhisattva, Cave 1. This late fifth century CE painting is on the back wall of the interior hall before the shrine antechamber. The Bodhisattva holds a padma (lotus) in his right hand, has large shoulders and three bends in the body. His head is slightly bent to the left, his eyes half closed and slightly elongated, with a sharp, straight nose. He wears a big crown and a beaded necklace. Light red, brown, green and blue colours are used. Vajrapani is painted on the other side, holding a vajra. The two are painted as shrine guardians and are among the best preserved paintings at Ajanta. The Mahajanaka Jataka in Cave 1 is painted on an entire wall side and is the biggest narrative painting.

Mara Vijaya, Cave 26. This is the only sculptural representation of the theme, carved on the right wall near the colossal Mahaparinibbana Buddha. It shows the Buddha surrounded by Mara's army and his daughter. Mara represents desire, and the scene is a personification of the mental turmoil the Buddha faced at the time of enlightenment. The Buddha sits in padmasana with the right hand pointing to the earth, a witness to his generosity, and a tree behind him is shown in dense leaves. It is the largest sculptural panel at Ajanta.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: Ajanta's wall paintings are the famous mural tradition of the cave period. In reality: they are often called frescoes, but they were painted on dry plaster, which makes them technically a tempera technique. Ajanta and Ellora are listed as World Heritage Sites, along with Sanchi and Elephanta, which means the sites you are studying are protected by an international system and not just a local one.

Ellora, Bagh and Elephanta

Ellora, also in Aurangabad district, is about a hundred kilometres from Ajanta and has thirty-four Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jain caves with monasteries of three religions, dating from the fifth to the eleventh century CE. It is unusual in its stylistic eclecticism, the confluence of many styles in one place.

Sculptures at Ellora are monumental, with protruding volume that creates deep recession in space. Guilds from Vidarbha, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu worked here, making it the most diverse site in India in terms of sculptural styles. Cave 16 is the Kailash leni, a rock-cut temple carved out of a single rock, and it is discussed in the next chapter. Important Shaivite caves are Cave 29 and Cave 21. The plan of Cave 29 is almost like the main cave at Elephanta.

Bagh Caves are located 97 km from Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh. They were carved mostly in the Satavahana period on a perpendicular sandstone face of a hill across the seasonal stream Baghani. Of the original nine caves, only five survive, all viharas with a quadrangular plan. Cave 4, commonly known as the Rang Mahal ("Palace of Colours"), is the most significant, with tempera mural paintings on walls and ceilings still visible. The ground was a reddish-brown gritty mud plaster with lime priming on top. To prevent loss, most paintings were carefully removed in 1982 and can be seen today in the Archaeological Museum of Gwalior.

The Elephanta Caves near Mumbai are dominated by the Shaivite faith. They are contemporary with Ellora and their sculptures show slenderness of the body with stark light and dark effects. The Maheshmurti at Elephanta dates to the early sixth century CE and is in the main cave shrine. It is a very large image, in which the central head is the main Shiva figure and the two other visible heads are Bhairava and Uma. The central face has a round form, thick lips and heavy eyelids; Bhairava is shown in anger with bulging eyes and a moustache; the face of Uma shows feminine characters. The shilpa texts mention five faces, of which only three are shown, the top and back faces being deemed invisible. The Ardhanarishvara and Gangadhara panels are also found in the cave. The arrangement of this cave is replicated in Ellora Cave 29.

Caves in the Deccan, east and south

The rock-cut tradition continued in the Deccan, not only in Maharashtra but also in Karnataka, mainly at Badami and Aihole under the Chalukyas; in Andhra Pradesh in the area of Vijayawada; and in Tamil Nadu, mainly at Mahabalipuram, under the Pallavas. After the sixth century, art depended more on political patronage than the collective public patronage of the early historic periods. Terracotta figurines found all over the country show a parallel tradition with stone sculpture and a local one: toys, religious figures and healing figurines.

Eastern India. In Andhra Pradesh, Guntapalle in Eluru district is a rare site with structured stupas, viharas and caves together. Its chaitya cave is circular with a stupa in the circular hall and a chaitya arch at the entrance, and it is small compared with western India. Its viharas date back to the second century BCE. Rampaerrampallam has small excavations and rock-cut stupas. At Anakapalle near Vishakhapatnam, caves and a huge rock-cut stupa were carved in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, and it has the biggest rock-cut stupas in the country.

In Odisha the earliest rock-cut caves are the Udaigiri-Khandagiri caves near Bhubaneswar. They have inscriptions of the Jain Kharavela kings, and according to the inscriptions the caves were meant for Jain monks. They include single-cell excavations, caves cut in huge boulders and given the shape of animals, and large caves with a pillared veranda and cells. The upper part of the cells is decorated with chaitya arches and narratives. The figures are voluminous and move freely in the picture space. Some caves were excavated later, in the eighth to ninth centuries CE.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Arts of the Mauryan Period introduces the stupa, the Jatakas and the symbolic Buddha that this chapter develops.
• Next: Temple Architecture and Sculpture picks up Ellora's Kailash temple and the rise of structured temples.
• Later link: Later Mural Traditions follows the wall painting tradition begun at Ajanta and Bagh into later centuries.