Since both this image from the Gandhara region and that from Mathura both feature the same subject (the bodhisattva Maitreya), by comparing these two sculptures we are able to obtain a good understanding of the differences between these two regional styles.

While the Mathura style is generally considered to demonstrate a continuation of an indigenous sculptural style, the style of sculpture practiced in Gandhara is heavily influenced by the Greco-Roman tradition. We can see this influence most clearly in the robes, which hang in a naturalistic fashion, obeying the contours of the body. Gandharan sculptors were also interested in the accurate description of human musculature, an aspect Mathuran sculptors did not emphasize in their work.

The Greco-Roman influence seen in Gandharan art may have its origins in earlier centuries, when the descendents of Alexander and his governors ruled the region now known as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Furthermore, though the Parthians frequently warred with the Romans throughout the first two centuries of the Common Era, there was quite a bit of commercial exchange between these two cultures, and through trade with the Parthian Empire, many different Roman motifs and styles found their way into Kushan art (note, for example, the two centaurs that support the talisman hanging around the bodhisattva's neck).

Another theory is that foreign workers (either tradesmen from Roman provinces or Parthians trained in the Hellenistic style) were responsible for the introduction of the Greco-Roman style. In fact, some attribute the influence of Roman iconic statuary as the impetus for the creation of the first Buddhist figural sculptures. But whatever the origins of the Gandharan sculptural style may be, the presence of two distinctive sculptural styles under the same ruling dynasty may indicate the perceived need on the part of the Kushans to establish themselves as the legitimate successors (both political and cultural) of the previous rulers of each geographical region: the Greco-Macedonians in the west of the Empire, and the Mauryans and Shungas in the east.