<P> The Gupta period is generally regarded as a classic peak of North Indian art for all the major religious groups . Although painting was evidently widespread, the surviving works are almost all religious sculpture . The period saw the emergence of the iconic carved stone deity in Hindu art, as well as the Buddha figure and Jain tirthankara figures, the latter often on a very large scale . The two great centres of sculpture were Mathura and Gandhara, the latter the centre of Greco - Buddhist art . Both exported sculpture to other parts of northern India . Unlike the preceding Kushan Empire there was no artistic depiction of the monarchs, even in the very fine Guptan coinage, with the exception of some coins of the Western Satraps, or influenced by them . </P> <P> The most famous remaining monuments in a broadly Gupta style, the caves at Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora (respectively Buddhist, Hindu, and mixed including Jain) were in fact produced under later dynasties, but primarily reflect the monumentality and balance of Guptan style . Ajanta contains by far the most significant survivals of painting from this and the surrounding periods, showing a mature form which had probably had a long development, mainly in painting palaces . The Hindu Udayagiri Caves actually record connections with the dynasty and its ministers, and the Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh is a major temple, one of the earliest to survive, with important sculpture . </P> <Ul> <Li> <P> Vishnu reclining on the serpent Shesha (Ananta), Dashavatara Temple 5th century </P> </Li> <Li> <P> Buddha from Sarnath, 5--6th century CE </P> </Li> <Li> <P> The Colossal trimurti at the Elephanta Caves </P> </Li> <Li> <P> Rock - cut temples at Ellora </P> </Li> <Li> <P> Painting of Padmapani Cave 1 at Ajanta </P> </Li> </Ul> <Li> <P> Vishnu reclining on the serpent Shesha (Ananta), Dashavatara Temple 5th century </P> </Li>

Explain the process of development of state formation under the gupta period