Amaravati School of Art

The third type of sculpture art that Flourished during the Kushana time was at Amaravati and Nagarjunkonda in Andhra Pradesh.

The sculptures of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda are fully inspired works and display a mastery in which detailed ornamentation and elegance of figure sculpture are joined in a rare harmony. They unfold the cultural story of a glorious people who had adopted Buddhism as their creed and “linked it with their dynamism both on land and sea as merchants and mariners.

Numerous scenes of dance and music adorn these reliefs, which are very tender in conception and bespeak an irrepressible joy of life.

The sculptural remains of Amaravati have found their way to the British Museum and the Madras Museum. But the carvings of Nagarjunakonda are preserved almost in entirety at the site.

The white lime stone of the sculptures creates the illusion of marble and is as fresh today as it was when it left the hands of the carvers. It is a sensuous art, reflecting the joys of the people who had adopted the way of the Buddha as the new path of freedom and not of estrangement from the world. The Mahayana religious movement in the Andhra country invested the life of the people with a golden halo whose brilliance is fully reflected in the sculptures of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda.

The themes were Buddha’s life and Jatakas tales. The curly hairs of Buddha are a feature that is influenced by the Greeks.  In these schools, the Kings, Princes, Palaces etc. have got prominence.