Mathura
The Government Museum of Mathura houses one of the finest collections of ancient Indian sculpture in existence — Kushan, Gupta, and early medieval periods represented through hundreds of pieces, many excavated from the Mathura region itself. The red-speckled sandstone sculptures of the Mathura school are considered among the first fully indigenous Indian representations of the Buddha, and their expressiveness and grace are extraordinary.
The museum is significantly undervisited given the quality of its collection — you may have many galleries entirely to yourself. The Jain sculpture collection on the upper floor is world-class and almost unknown.