Which of the following best characterizes the Mathura school of Buddhist art and architecture?

Correct — C. The Mathura school grew out of an indigenous sculptural tradition. Its early Buddha images are modelled on the older Yaksha figures, the large nature-spirit statues of the region.

NCERT sets this against Gandhara, whose Buddha has Hellenistic features. Indigenous features with Yaksha influence → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Use of sandstone and floral arches — Half true. Mathura did carve in red sandstone, but a material is not a style, and floral arches are no signature of the school.
• (b)
  Hellenistic drapery and realism — Hellenistic drapery and realism describe Gandhara, the Greco-Buddhist school of the north-west, whose Buddha wears heavy Greco-Roman robes. Mathura's idiom is the indigenous one.
• (d)
  Predominantly wooden monastery design — Mathura's legacy is stone sculpture, Buddhist, Jain and Hindu images in red sandstone, not timber monasteries.

Two schools shaped the early images of the Buddha under the Kushanas. Gandhara, in the north-west, worked in grey schist with Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) features.

Mathura, on the Yamuna, worked in spotted red sandstone in an indigenous idiom drawn from Yaksha figures. It made devotional images for Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism alike.

Key facts

• Mathura school: spotted red sandstone, indigenous style, flourishing under the Kushanas.
• NCERT: the Mathura Buddha is modelled on earlier Yaksha images, while the Gandhara Buddha has Hellenistic features.
• Gandhara school: grey schist, Greco-Roman (Hellenistic) influence.
• Mathura produced devotional images for Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism.

Common traps

• Picking (a) because Mathura really used sandstone. The question asks for the characterising feature, and a material is not a style.
• Crediting Mathura with the draped, wavy-haired Buddha. That realism belongs to Gandhara.

No directly related past PYQ was found.