page_title: Gupta art
section_title: Other centres
hierarchical_section_title: Gupta art / Sculpture / Other centres
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Deogarh, Dasavatara-Tempel, Vishnu
context_page_description: Gupta art is the art of the Gupta Empire, which ruled most of northern India, with its peak between about 300 and 480 CE, surviving in much reduced form until c. 550. The Gupta period is generally regarded as a classic peak and golden age of North Indian art for all the major religious groups. Although painting was evidently widespread, the surviving works are almost all religious sculpture. The period saw the emergence of the iconic carved stone deity in Hindu art, while the production of the Buddha-figure and Jain tirthankara figures continued to expand, the latter often on a very large scale. The traditional main centre of sculpture was Mathura, which continued to flourish, with the art of Gandhara, the centre of Greco-Buddhist art just beyond the northern border of Gupta territory, continuing to exert influence. Other centres emerged during the period, especially at Sarnath. Both Mathura and Sarnath exported sculpture to other parts of northern India.
  It is customary to include under "Gupta art" works from areas in north and central India that were not actually under Gupta control, in particular art produced under the Vakataka dynasty who ruled the Deccan c. 250–500.
context_section_description: Nalanda
  Gupta sculptural qualities tend to deteriorate with time, as in Nalanda in Bihar in the 6th century BCE, figures become heavier and tend to be made in metal.  This evolution suggests a third school of Gupta art in the area Nalanda and Pataliputra, besides the two main centres of Mathura and Vanarasi. The colossal Sultanganj Buddha in bronze from the area of Pataliputra is a uniquely large survival from this school, but typical in style.  In the same monastery two similar but much smaller (and slightly later) figures in stone were found, one now on display in the British Museum.
  Udayagiri Caves/Vidisha
  The "first dated sculptures in a fully-fledged early Gupta style" come from the rock-cut Udayagiri Caves and the surrounding area near Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh.  Though the caves, all but one Hindu, are "of negligible importance architecturally", around the cave entrances are a number of rock relief panels, some with large deities.  They are in a relatively crude and heavy style, but often with a powerful impact; Harle describes the mukhalinga in Cave 4 as "pulsating with psychic power".  The most famous is the 7 x 4 metre relief of Vishnu in the form of the giant boar Varaha, raising the earth from the primordial waters, watched by rows of much smaller gods, sages and celestial beings.  One cave also has an extremely rare inscription relating a site to the Gupta court, recording the donation of a minister of Candragupta II.  The famous Iron pillar of Delhi is thought likely to have been originally set up outside the caves.
  Eran
  Eran in Madhya Pradesh has a "pillar" or large single column dated 484/5 by an inscription of Buddhagupta, the only standing Gupta example, with two Garuda figures at the top (illustrated below). It had two large Varaha figures outside the ruined Gupta temple.  The style of the sculpture is somewhat provincial.  Still at the site is a huge and impressive boar on four legs, with no human characteristics, its body covered with rows of small figures representing the sages who clung to the hairs of Varaha to save themselves from the waters. Now moved to the university museum at Sagar is a figure with the same body and pose as that at Udayagiri, "one of the greatest of all Indian sculptures ... nothing can match the figure's air of insolent triumph".  Both are dated to the late fifth century.
  Others
  The surviving sanctuary of the early 6th-century Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh has a typically fine doorway, and large relief panels on the other three walls. These are now external, but would originally gave given on to the covered ambulatory.  Though "majestic", these show "the sturdiness of early Gupta sculpture is yielding to a softer, more delicate and ultimately weaker style".  The row of men beneath the sleeping Vishnu have "stylized poses, probably imitated from the theatre".
  There are also other minor centres of Gupta sculpture, particularly in the areas of Dasapura and Mandasor, where a huge eight-faced mukhalinga (probably early 6th-century) found in the river has been reinstalled in the Pashupatinath Temple, Mandsaur.
  The Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara continued a late phase through at least most of the Gupta period, having also been a formative influence.
  Very important rock-cut sites outside the Gupta Empire proper, to the south, are the Ajanta Caves and Elephanta Caves, both mostly created in the Gupta period, and the Ellora Caves which were probably begun around the end of it.  As it was mainly restricted to the Gangetic plain, the vast Gupta territories included relatively few rock-cut sites with much sculpture.  The later Ajanta style of sculpture is somewhat heavy, but sometimes "awe-inspiring" in the large seated shrine Buddhas, but other smaller figures are often very fine, as is the ornamental carving on columns and door-frames.  When combined with the painted walls, the effect can be considered over-decorated, and lacking "motifs on a larger scale to serve as focal points".  The main internal carving was probably completed by 478, though votive figures to the sides of many cave e
caption: Vishnu sleeping, protected by Shesha, Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh
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