Less than 1% of the population of modern India is Buddhist. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that India's importance for Buddhism and its art is mainly its historical influence. Not only is India the country where the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, lived and taught, but it is the land where the first images of the Buddha were produced and where Buddhist iconography and symbolism evolved. Being a student whose family originates in India, I am interested in some of the historical aspects and influences of Buddhist Art in India. Therefore, my study of this topic extends to two of the most important periods of Buddhist art in India, the Kushan and the Gupta Periods. The Kushan period is the period in which the first human images of the Buddha appeared. This paper will briefly discuss the Mathura region and will primarily focus on the styles and attributes of sculptures from the Gandharan region. This discussion will illustrate how regional differences contributed in developing two distinct styles of art within the same period. Therefore, I will briefly discuss the history and location of the Gandharan region. I will focus on the Gandharan Bodhisattva (2nd/3rd century, made of schist)

Pal, Pratapaditaya. Indian Sculpture: Volume I. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986.

The Kushan and Gupta periods of Indian art are two of the most important eras of Buddhist sculpture in India. To analyze the Kushan period I focused on the Gandharan Bodhisattva in the Art Institute. The two major regions of the Kushan dynasty, Mathura and Gandhara, were less than 500 miles apart, nevertheless, they developed two distinct styles of art. The Gandhara region was more Hellenistic in style due to the Greco-Roman influences on this region. As we progress in time, we come to the Gupta period which was indeed influenced by the styles of the prior periods. However, by the 5th century AD, it becomes obvious that the culture of this period was more concerned with aesthetic value as illustrated by the meditative and silent sculpture of the Preaching Buddha from Sarnath. By analyzing these two works and the periods in which they were developed we can see that the style of one of the sculptures was influenced by the region in which it developed, while the other was more heavily influenced by the aesthetic preferences of the time. In conclusion, the Gandharan Bodhisattva illustrated how regional location and ideals influenced the style of sculpture, and the Preaching Buddha illustrated how aesthetic preferences and rising cultural tastes influenced the style of sculpture in the Gupta period. This analysis is important in that it shows how the Buddhist sculpture in India reflects the ideals and the sophisticated aesthetics of the varied regions and periods in which it flourished.

displayed in the Art Institute. Next, the paper will discuss the Gupta Dynasty, this is period in which the culture of the period was more concerned with aesthetic values of sculpture, which I will illustrate through my discussion of the Preaching Buddha of Sarnath (c. 475 ad, Buff Sandstone). As a result, the art from the Gandharan region will show how regional location and influences affected this period's sculpture, and the art from the Gupta Period will illustrate how aesthetic preferences of the culture influenced the sculpture of this period. By discussing the Gandharan Bodhisattva and Preaching Buddha from Sarnath, we can see that the art of Buddhism in India reflects the ideals and the sophisticated aesthetics of the varied regions and periods in which it flourished.

We can observe the Greco-Roman influence on the sculpture of Gandharan art by observing the Gandharan Bodhisattva at the Art Institute. As a beginning student in Buddhist Art, the stylistic differences in this sculpture are quite obvious. After conducting research on Gandharan sculptures, I found that the sense of volume conveyed in the outline of the Buddha's garment is characteristic of Gandhara sculptures. Both the folds of the clothing and the body underneath are modeled with a greater sense of naturalism compared to the sculptures can be seen in images from Mathura. It is important to note that although most sculptures from the Gandhara region share certain stylistic and iconographic features, a tremendous variety may be seen in its works. However, "in general sculptures are characterized by naturalism in body forms, drapery, and pictorial scale, reveling a debt to Hellenistic, Roman, and other western influences" (Huntington 134). This example of a Gandharan Bodhisattva probably once stood in a stupa or temple. This sculpture is made from the material schist. According to the book "The Materials of Sculpture, Schist is a metamorphic rock of foliate character and dark silvery gray color, sometimes tending to blue or green. Used for the great school of Buddhist sculpture in Gandhara" (Penny 310). The hard schist material allowed the sculptors of Gandhara to carve the folds of the garments and details of features and jewelry much more crisply and with greater volume than materials such as sandstone (Pal 152). "Originally [such sculptures]

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