Kushanas as Patrons of Art

Kushanas are considered to be the great patrons of art. Kusana period is known for rise of a new art movement with abundant dimensions and creativity. Mathura emerged as the new centre of art under the rule of the Kusana emperors – Kanishka , Huvishka and Vasudeva. The Mathura art represented an important formative stage in the history of Indian art. It is here that buddha images came out of the cocoon of symbolism and slowly was carved out in iconographic forms.

During Kusana period, an exceedingly active school of sculpture and architecture flourished in Gandhara. The Gandhara school specialized in Buddha and Bodhisattva images, stupas and monasteries. These were built mostly of blue schist stone and of stone masonry. The first Buddha image appeared more or less simultaneously in Mathura and Gandhara regions in the first century C.E. under the Kushana ; a flurry of images appeared during the reign of Kanishka. Thus, two schools, viz. Mathura School of Art and Gandhara School of Art flourished in the Kushana Era. Kushana had a cultural influence of the Hellenistic Greeks and this impact is seen these schools of arts as well.