Indian Art

The water that flows into this map's Japanese current can be traced back to here. Ashoka, in the 3rd century BCE, spread Buddhism, and by the Gupta period of the 5th and 6th centuries, the Buddha image reached its finished form. The Buddhas of Mathura and Sarnath are carved with robes so thin they seem to cling to the body, stillness itself given shape. The caves at Ajanta were first cut in the 2nd century BCE, and the famous murals were added during the Gupta period. In the south, the Chola dynasty of the 9th to 13th centuries produced the bronze Nataraja, Shiva dancing within a ring of flame, one leg raised, treading the rhythm of the universe. It ranks among the great inventions in the history of sculpture, anywhere. A note on naming. The label "Gandharan art," often called "Greco-Buddhist art," carries the mark of 19th-century British scholars who leaned hard on its Greek origins. The current view treats it as something formed through mixing, and how much credit belongs to Indian invention is still being rewritten. A name always reflects the standing of whoever gave it.