Jamalpur: Buddha, the Enlightened One, set up by a Buddhist monk, Yasadinna, Gupta Period, Mathura, Curzon Museum,
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Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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The origin of the Buddha image is placed in the Mathura region under the Kushans where the first pressures to break tradition and actually represent the Buddha in his physical form came about in the reign of Kanishka, the greatest ruler of the Kushans, Very quickly, Buddha images developed from Yaksha physical types and emerged as graceful, spiritually powerful figures, which to this day have been the classical creations of Buddhist art, The Gupta artists managed to standardize the Buddhas, which then were exported to Indonesia and the Far East in stylistic formula, so that wherever the image appears it is based on Guptan prototypes, whether in India or Japan, Stylistic remnants of Kushan geometry are as yet present in this Gupta figure of the Buddha found at Jamalpur, The red sandstone used for the figure is the standard sculptural material of Mathura and lends itself to working in some detail, For this reason, the geometric units underlying the sculpture are made part of the sculptural system, especially the details, None of the graceful curves delineated [sic] mouth, eyes, drapery or whatever are free curve, All are geometric arcs carefully organized to achieve a calm, restful effect,
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Basham Collection
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circa 1970s
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This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.
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