India`s stupas and temples were not just religious monuments but also cultural centers showing the spiritual and secular significance. The secular nature of Indian sculptural art can be illustrated from the incorporation of various images from secular life. The Indian temples incorporated the images or figures of musicians, dancers, acrobats and romantic couples, with that of the deities. With all this features erotic themes also made their mark in sculptures.

Sensuality and sexual appeal is shown without inhibition through the carvings on the temples of Khajuraho, or sun temple. The eroticism may be treated as shocking and scandalous to the Western art but it illustrates the fact that tantric ideas on the compatibility of human sexuality with human spirituality had entered the mainstream in that period. Due to this erotic desires were not considered as an antagonistic to spiritual liberation but instead of that it was considered as an important component of spiritual release.

Indian sculpture is meant to take the onlookers of the art, to the journey of aesthetic ecstasy, which is India`s great aesthetician dignified with recognition as enlightenment. And the only road to that ecstasy is the dedicated absorption of all the suggestions, visual, sensuous, tactile and kinetic, that every work of art has to offer all human being. The important works of Indian sculptural arts includes the sculptures at temples of Khajuraho, Bodhgaya and the Sun temple of Konark. The list is long that shows the glorious past of sculptural art.

Sculpture at Buddhist Temples: The Buddhist art in sculptures can be marked with special features and distinct characters of its own. After the sculptures of Indus Valley, the next golden chapter in the history of Indian sculpture opened in the 4th century BC. When King Ashoka, adopted the Buddhist philosophy, he then immediately followed the mission to spread the teachings of this faith in all possible directions. This resulted in the creation of over 85,000 stupas or dome-shaped monuments, where the teachings of Buddhism were also engraved along the rocks and the pillars. These constructions, which served as edicts can be easily noticed in Buddhist monuments, created in the Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The monuments of above mentioned places show the vibrant art of Buddhist.

2. Sculpture at Bodhgaya
The Maha Bodhi Temple: King Ashoka visited Bodhgaya about 250 years after the Enlightenment took place and it is considered as he constructed the Maha Bodhi Temple. It is said that Ashoka with establishing a monastery erected a diamond throne shrine at this spot with a canopy supported by four pillars over a stone representation of the Vajrasana, the seat of enlightenment, for which the temple of Maha Bodhi is famous.

3.The Bodhi Tree: At the backside of the main temple, towards the west, there is an ancient peepal tree Ficus religiosa or Bodhi tree. Sitting under this tree only the Gautama reached to the enlightenment stage. Not less than but for seven days after the phase of Enlightenment, the Buddha continued his meditation sitting under the Bodhi tree without moving from his seat. After this, during the second week he had practiced walking meditation.

4. Sculpture at Bhaja & Karle Caves
The caves at Karle and Bhaja illustrate the Buddhist art. The magnificent chaitya hall at Karle features the skills of art. There are total 18 caves located in Bhaja, belonging to the 2nd century BC situated near Pune, in Maharashtra. These caves have been given numbers and out of these ones, no.12 is the largest cave, which is noted for the fine stilted vault. Here, an arched structure found in sculpturing is very much different from other caves.

Hindu Sculptures: The art of Hindus is equally influenced by both religious & spiritual thoughts. The period of 4th, 5th and 6th centuries AD witnessed a tremendous resurgence of Hinduism, since Hinduism became the official religion of the Gupta Empire. This in turn was a boost for the emergence of innumerable images of popular Hindu Gods and Goddesses like Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, the Sun God and goddess Durga to be carved in sculptures. Their appearance & attributions also evolved in this period. The Khajuraho temples in Madhya Pradesh also house many images of deities of that period. And more importantly the medium used for sculptures in Hindu art was preferably the stone or hard rock.

Similarly, other statues or relief of this period, which are now placed in various temples and museums are indicative of the various dimensions of early Hindu art and sculpture. However, the future years, witnessed a unique fusion of the art and sculpture like the art embodied in the caves at Ajanta and Ellora and the temples of Central and South India.

1. Sculptures at Ellora Caves
The Ellora caves were carved into the sides of a basaltic rock of the Charanadari hill in Deccan, at Aurangabad. There are 34 caves at Ellora, covering a distance of about 2-km in length, of which 12 of the caves are of Buddhist most probably of 600 AD to 800 AD, 17 are of Hindus from the period of 600 AD - 900 AD and the rest are of Jain from 800 AD - 1000 AD.

2. Sculpture at Kailasa Temple: Approximately 200,000 tonnes of rock was excavated for the construction of temple, making the temple world`s largest monolithic structure. Among the interiors, pillars were decorated rather than only being the functional. Kailasa is the home of Lord Shiva at Himalayas. The entire volume of the temple is covered with exquisite sculptures that are depicting various scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharatha.

3. Sculpture at Elephanta Caves
Elephanta is a dark cave in a tiny island housing one of the most imposing examples of early rock- cut architecture. The entire cave temple complex covers an area of about 60000 sq. feet. It consists of a main chamber and two lateral ones, courtyards and several shrines. The entrances of the east and the west sides form the axis of the architecture of temple. A hall containing 20-pillar lines the axis of the temple. Above the temple is the mass of natural rock, maintaining the cave structure. Massive pillars support the main cave known as Elephanta, with a square base having fluted shafts. And at the inner walls of the caves, various sculptures of the gods from the Hindu mythology appear in almost same sizes.

4. Sculpture of Sun Temple of Konark
The most of the excellent appearance and vitality of the structure of Konark are due to the roof in pyramidal style with its three tiers and sculptured figures. The sculpture that embellishes the outer surfaces of this architectural masterpiece is equally exquisite in its luxuriance and also employs many techniques of invention than the vast structure itself. The exterior part of temple structure is chiseled and molded with either using abstract designs, or fantastic human and animal forms. The sculptors, hence, have tried their best to use every motif and subject known to the Indian mind in the theme of carvings. All the artwork of the sculptures has been executed in hard stone guarantying its preservation. It displays a rarely encountered exuberance of mood and appearance in the architecture. From designs to design, the technique of carving with minute precision also varies. For the vigorous groups modeled on massive scale employ repetitive structures.