page_title: Art of Mathura
section_title: Calligraphy (end 1st century BCE - 1st century CE)
hierarchical_section_title: Art of Mathura / Indo-Scythian period (circa 60 BCE-90 CE) / Mathura sculpture styles in the 1st century CE / Calligraphy (end 1st century BCE - 1st century CE)
caption_attribution_description: English: Svamisya Mahakshatrapasya Sudasasya (cleaned)
context_page_description: The Art of Mathura refers to a particular school of Indian art, almost entirely surviving in the form of sculpture, starting in the 2nd century BCE, which centered on the city of Mathura, in central northern India, during a period in which Buddhism, Jainism together with Hinduism flourished in India. Mathura "was the first artistic center to produce devotional icons for all the three faiths", and the pre-eminent center of religious artistic expression in India at least until the Gupta period, and was influential throughout the sub-continent.
  Chronologically, Mathuran sculpture becomes prominent after Mauryan art, the art of the Mauryan Empire. It is said to represent a "sharp break" with the previous Mauryan style, either in scale, material or style. Mathura became India's most important artistic production center from the second century BCE, with its highly recognizable red sandstone statues being admired and exported all over India.
context_section_description: The calligraphy of the Brahmi script had remained virtually unchanged from the time of the Maurya Empire to the end of the 1st century BCE. The Indo-Scythians, following their establishment in northern India introduced "revolutionary changes" in the way Brahmi was written. In the 1st century BCE, the shape of Brahmi characters became more angular, and the vertical segments of letters were equalized, a phenomenon which is clearly visible in coin legends and made the script visually more similarly to Greek. In this new typeface, the letter were "neat and well-formed". The probable introduction of ink and pen writing, with the characteristic thickenned start of each stroke generated by the usage of ink, was reproduced in the calligraphy of stone inscriptions by the creation of a triangle-shaped form at the beginning of each stroke. This new writing style is particularly visible in the numerous dedicatory inscriptions made in Mathura, in association with devotional works of art. This new calligraphy of the Brahmi script was adopted in the rest of the subcontinent of the next half century. The "new-pen-style" initiated a rapid evolution of the script from the 1st century CE, with regional variations starting to emerge.
caption: A sample of the new calligraphic style introduced by the Indo-Scythians: fragment of the Mirzapur stele inscription, in the vicinity of Mathura, circa 15 CE.[141][142]
  Gupta ashoka svaa.jpgGupta ashoka mi.jpgGupta ashoka sya.svgGupta ashoka m.svgGupta ashoka h.svgGupta ashoka kss.jpgGupta ashoka tr.jpgGupta ashoka p.svgGupta ashoka sya.svg Gupta ashoka shu.jpgGupta gujarat daa.jpgGupta ashoka s.svgGupta ashoka sya.svg
  Svāmisya Mahakṣatrapasya Śudasasya
  "Of the Lord and Great Satrap Śudāsa"[143][144]
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