Gupta rule in northern India initiated a long era (320-600) of peace, prosperity, and artistic accomplishment. From the two main artistic centers of the period, Mathura and Sarnath, issued the sculpture now regarded as forming the classical Indian style. This image of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni, with its serene countenance, embodies the Gupta balance of elegant form and inner spirituality.
Although the Gupta rulers were Hindu, they actively patronized Buddhism. Kings and devotees gained spiritual merit by pious acts: building temples, commissioning or making images of Buddha, such as this one, or worshiping them. This Buddha embodies two ideals basic to Buddhism, the perfect yogi and the universal ruler. He possesses the yogi's supple, almost buoyant body and contemplative gaze and facial expression, and the ruler's youth, strong shoulders, firm body, and webbed hands and feet. Time-honored traditions of portrayal connect the Buddha's human form with nature; his long eyes are shaped like fish, his curls like snail shells, and the profile of his left shoulder and arm is like the trunk of an elephant.
This sculpture was probably made in northern India and was influenced by Mathura and Sarnath styles. The image, long preserved in a Tibetan monastery, received there the dark indigo paint on its locks. The striated, schematic folds of the robe were common to Mathura figures, while its transparency as well as the delicate proportions of face and body and the slight weight shift to the right leg are reminiscent of Sarnath sculpture.
