Definition
Gandhara and Mathura were the two great schools of sculpture that flourished in north-western and northern India around the beginning of the Common Era, especially under the Kushanas, and produced some of the earliest images of the Buddha in human form.
Background and evolution
Before the first century CE, early Buddhist art at sites such as Bharhut and Sanchi represented the Buddha through symbols: a footprint, an empty throne, a wheel, a stupa or a Bodhi tree. A major shift came when artists began to show him in human form. This happened at about the same time in two regions, and scholars still debate which came first.
Gandhara, the area around modern Peshawar and the Kabul and Swat valleys, had long been a crossroads. Persian, Greek (after Alexander and the Indo-Greek kingdoms), Saka, Parthian and Kushana rulers all left their mark, and trade routes linked it to Central Asia and the Roman world. Mathura, on the Yamuna, was a major religious and trading city with its own tradition of carving yakshas, nagas and other folk deities. Under the Kushana ruler Kanishka, whose empire covered both regions, both schools received patronage, and Buddhist, Jain and Brahmanical images were all produced.
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