The story of Indian sculpture begins with the epoch of the Indus Valley Civilization and it is already an astoundingly mature achievement. The figurine of the dancing girl that has come down to us testified to good knowledge of bronze casting. This indicates the fascination of the feminine figure that will endure throughout, points to the close relation between sculpture and dance in the Indian tradition.

Terracotta is the medium for objects used in ritual like mother goddess figurines as well as for recreation like toys of a great variety. Despite their small size stone sculpture achieves monumentalism and animals like bulls represented in the small steatite seals have a vibrant realism.

The dispersal of Persian craftsmen when the Achaemenid Empire was overrun by the Greeks in the fourth century B.C. may have contributed to the monumental stylization of the figure of the lions in the Asokan pillar that has been adopted as India's national emblem. But the Mauryan age also evolved a gentler style in the bull of the Rampurva pillar and the sympathetic treatment of animals continues through Indian sculpture. The Yakshas and the Yakshis (spirits of hills and trees) are at first rather rigid figures but the feminine figure soon become sensuously refined, even though remaining ample, in the Didaranganhj Yakshi.

The Satavahanas (second century B.C. to second century A.D.) further developed these traditions. The dryads of Sanchi are the most lissome representations of the type. Narrative sculpture at Amaravati brilliantly solved the problem of composition in awkward shapes like that of the medallion.

The age of the imperial Guptas (300-600) achieved the classic stabilization of the icon of Buddha, represented as seated or standing, and with various symbolic gestures of the hands. The circular medallion that had decorated the railing in Sungan and Kushan times evolves here to the splendid aureole of halo of the Buddha. 

The Gupta creation of the classical icon of the Buddha is a   landmark in the art of Asia for, like the Padmapani of Ajanta, it radiated to many lands. This age also created magnificent sculpture on Hindu themes like the incarnations of Vishnu in the late fifth century temple of Deogarh and the powerful representation of the boar (Varaha) incarnation salvaging the earth, hewn from the rock at Udayagiri.

The Vakatakas of the Deccan see the contemporaries of the Guptas and under their patronage fine-sculpture came up in abundance, mostly Buddhist at Ajanta, Hindu at Ellora. The achievement has great range, from the lightness of flying figures and the elegant rhythmic balance of dancing groups such as the one at Aurangabad to the majesty and wealth of symbolic meaning of the figure Mahesa at Elaphanta.

In the eighth century, the Rashtrakutas carved a whole hill of rock at Ellora to simulate a structural temple and peopled it with sculpture on the exploits of Shiva, which share the turbulent power of their unique architectural achievement. The Gujarat Pratiharas who were their contemporaries evolved a less turbulent though still monumental style in such creations as the cosmic form of Vishnu, created poetically sensitive sculptures like the one showing the wedding of Shiva and Parvathi and contributed one of the loveliest dryads in the Indian tradition.

But far more sensitive in modeling and poetic in sensibility are the representatives of woman in her various moods of longing, expectation, reverie; Eroticism is found in the sculptures of Konark and Bhuvaneshwar of the epoch of the Eastern Ganges (thirteenth century). But here again the poetic and romantic figurations of women are more sensitive.

Moving further south, the great achievement of the Pallavas (eighth century) was the gigantic tableau at Mahabalipuram where a whole rock face has been carved into a representation of the descent of the Ganges and the teeming animal and human life on its banks. There are some exceptionally fine and deeply sympathetic studies of animal life here.

Shiva is the towering figure in Chola sculpture (eleventh and twelfth centuries) in stone besides bronze. But it is the work in bronze, especially the Nataraja or dancing Siva, that has become world famous, and deservedly so. Matching profound concept with perfect plastic form, this great iconic creation sees the incessant change of the world, the gyration of the electron as well as the galaxy, as ordered process, assumes man that it is a benign order.

Stone sculpture influenced by the pallava tradition and bronzes influenced by the Chola style were produced in Kerala, but its unique achievement in sculpture is in wood.

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