By evolving the Nagara and the Dravida styles, the Gupta art ushers in a formative and creative age in the history of Indian architecture with considerable scope for future development.
Rock-cut Temples
- The rock-cut caves continue the old forms to a great extent but possess striking novelty by bringing about extensive changes in the ornamentation of the facade and in the designs of the pillars in the interior.
- The most notable groups of the rock-cut caves are found at Ajanta and Ellora (Maharashtra) and Bagh (Madhya Pradesh). The Udayagiri caves (Odisha) are also of this type.
Structural Temples
- The structural temples have the following attributes:-
(1) flat-roofed square temples;
(2) flat-roofed square temple with a vimana (second storey);
(3) square temple with a curvilinear tower (shikara) above;
(4) rectangular temple; and
(5) circular temple.
- The second group of temples shows many of the characteristic features of the Dravida style.
- The importance of the third group lies in the innovation of a shikhara that caps the sanctum sanctorum, the main feature of the Nagara style.
Stupas
- Stupas were also built in large numbers but the best are found at Samat (Uttar Pradesh), Ratnagiri (Odisha) and Mirpur Khas (Sind).
Sculpture: Stone Sculpture
- A good specimen of stone sculpture is the well-known erect Buddha from Sarnath.
- Of the puranic images, perhaps the most impressive is the great Boar (Varaha) at the entrance of a cave at Udayagiri.
Metal statues
- The technology of casting statues on a large scale of core process was practised by the craftsmen during the Gupta period with great workmanship.
- Two remarkable examples of Gupta metal sculpture are:-
(1) a copper image of the Buddha about eighteen feet high at Nalanda in Bihar and
(2) the Sultanganj Buddha of seven-and-a-half feet in height.
Painting
- The art of painting seems to have been in popular demand in the Gupta period than the art of stone sculptures.
- The mural paintings of this period are found at Ajanta, Bagh, Badami and other places.
- From the point of technique, the surface of these paintings was perhaps done in a very simple way.
- The mural paintings of Ajanta are not true frescoes, for frescoes is painted while the plaster is still damp and the murals of Ajanta were made after it had set.
- The art of Ajanta and Bagh shows the Madhyadesa School of painting at its best.
Terracotta and Pottery
- Clay figurines were used both for religious and secular purposes.
- We have figurines of Vishnu, Karttikeya, Durga, Naga and other gods and goddesses.
- Gupta pottery remains found at Ahchichhatra, Rajgarh, Hastinapur and Bashar afford proof of excellence of pottery.
- The most distinctive class of pottery of this period is the “red ware”.