Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

B UDDHA
I MAGES
head, which came to be called snail-shell curls. In
some artistic traditions, these curls developed into
rows of small bumps.
The Buddha, however, was not simply a monk; he
was born a great man (mahapurusa) and was identified
as such by certain bodily signs (laksana). Some of
these, such as his sweet voice, could not be produced
in art, but others, such as his cranial protuberance,
could be depicted. The extent to which the artists attempted
to reproduce the laksana varied according to
place and time, but the cranial bump became standard
for most images.
There are, of course, many different buddhas, but
the Buddha of our historic period, Śakyamuni, was a
human being, and it is overwhelmingly Śakyamuni
who is represented in the earliest images in India. Thus,
he consistently has two arms, unlike images of Hindu
deities from the same period, who often have multiple
arms. Also associated with Śakyamuni Buddha are certain
hand positions (mudra) and postures. One popular
early type depicted the Buddha seated with his legs
crossed and his right hand held up with the palm out.
Although artistic depictions of these gestures and postures
developed over time and came to be associated
with certain narrative events, they are highly restricted
in number and reappear again and again.
Thus, the shared iconography—the monk’s robe,
shaved hair, certain bodily marks, and limited hand
positions and body postures—have made it possible
for the Buddha image, no matter the style, to be identifiable
across time and geography.
Two of the most intriguing, yet controversial, questions
regarding Buddha images are when they were first
made and why. The earliest images were produced in
two locations in South Asia: Mathura, a city sixty miles
south of Delhi, and Gandhara, a region centered on
Taxila in present-day Pakistan. The first Buddha image
is usually believed to have been created around the
first century C.E. The Buddha image types produced in
these two regions were radically different in style. Although
the iconographic parameters outlined above
were generally followed in both places, the Gandhara
images are related to Western classical (Roman and
Hellenistic) art, whereas the Mathura images are related
to the north Indian style seen in earlier anthropomorphic
sculptures of various local or pan-Indian
deities, such as YAKSAs.
The early Mathura type, such as the nine-foot-tall
Buddha dedicated by the monk Bala, is a monumental
image that stands with knees locked, staring straight
ahead, his left arm akimbo with a fist on his hip. The
robe is thin and transparent, revealing the body. The
Gandhara type, on the other hand, wears all three garments,
completely masking the body underneath, the
emphasis being on the pattern of the heavy, deep folds
of fabric.
It is clear to scholars today, however, that the earliest
images were probably not as sophisticated and
well-defined as those described above, and some scholars
have begun to identify groups and individual images
that suggest an earlier development. While these
images vary considerably, they share a modest size and
nascent iconography that includes the uttarasaṅga
worn not as a covering robe but, like a layman, as a
bunched shawl.
Also at issue is the interplay of the development of
the Buddha image with that of images of other anthropomorphic
deities of the same period—both
Hindu and Jain. All three religions were practiced in
Mathura, and some of the earliest images developed
there. Of the three religious groups, the Jains probably
produced the first anthropomorphic icons at Mathura;
these are tiny figures of their naked Jinas on
stone reliefs dated to as early as the second century
B.C.E. It seems reasonable to expect that the three religions
interacted and competed at Mathura, with their
anthropomorphic images developing together. Indeed,
images from Mathura shared the same style, whether
Jain, Buddhist, or Hindu.
Given such evidence, it is likely that the first small,
rather indifferent, Buddha figures were created around
the first century B.C.E. It is unlikely that such figures
were the focus initially of worship or an icon cult, although
by around 100 C.E., when the Bala and Gandhara
Buddha images were created, such cults were
certainly in place.
Still, assuming the Buddha lived in the fifth century
B.C.E., it is of interest that no anthropomorphic images
of the Buddha existed until some four hundred years
after his death. This early period was not without Buddhist
art, however. Although the famous King AŚOKA
of the third century B.C.E. was predisposed to Buddhism,
the only artwork from his reign that might be
labeled Buddhist is the single lion capital with a wheel
(cakra) from Sarnath. But from the mid-second and
first centuries B.C.E., there is an explosion of Buddhist
art associated with stupas, including those at Bharhut
and SAN CI. At these and other sites, extensive narrative
reliefs depicting the Buddha’s life stories and past lives
(JATAKA) were carved in stone. However, even though
80 E NCYCLOPEDIA OF B UDDHISM