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SOUTH ASIAN OBJECTS FROM THE COLLECTION
INDIA
Sculpture from the Kushan Period
Sculpture from North India, 5th-7th Centuries
Jain sculpture
Sculpture of the Pala Period
Stone Sculpture from Hindu Temples
Sculptures from South India, 8th-9th Centuries
Bronze Sculpture of the Chola Period
Art for the Mughal and Rajput Courts
Hindu Temple Hangings
Buddhist Painting from India, Nepal, and Tibet
NEPAL
Buddhist Painting from India, Nepal, and Tibet
Sculpture from Nepal
PAKISTAN
Sculpture from the Kushan Period
SRI LANKA
Two Bodhisattvas from Sri Lanka
Sculpture from the Kushan Period

The Kushans, descendants of nomads from various parts of Central Asia, settled in what is present-day northern India, the Gandhara region of Pakistan, and eastern Afghanistan by the 2nd century B.C.E., although it was not until the 1st century C.E. that the empire was united under one ruler. There were two artistic centers of the Kushan empire, each with a distinctive style: a northern one in the Gandhara region centered around Peshawar and later in Taxila, and a southern one in Mathura, south of present-day New Delhi. Art from the Gandhara region shows the strong impact of Greek and Roman sculpture, owing in part to the conquests of Alexander the Great in that part of the world in the 4th century B.C.E. and to the strong diplomatic and trade relations between the Kushans and Rome. Its images wear toga-like garments and have wavy hair and straight Roman noses. Sculpture is usually created from dark gray phyllite, schist, stucco, or terra-cotta. By contrast, art from the southern Mathuran region developed from indigenous Indian traditions, emphasizing rounded bodily forms. Its voluptuous sculptural images wear minimal garments and are usually carved from red mottled sandstone.
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Woman Beneath a Tree


Head of Buddha


Buddha


Kneeling Figure


Head of a Man
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