Fondukistan: Ghorband Valley, Afthanistan, Post-Gandhara sculpture, Buddha figure
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Rowland, Benjamin
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The head is a plastic compromise between the dry, mask-like treatment of Gandhara and the fullness of Kusana Buddhas, and, as in innumerable 5th-cent. Indian Buddhas, the hair is represented by snailshell curls, The robe, indicated by grooves incised before the clay was baked, is still in the Gandhara style, but the bodily form is conceived with a suggestion of mass that is entirely Indian, The three-pointed, jewel-studded chasuble that the Buddha wears over the monastic garment is of particular interest, This attribute, as well as the heavy earrings: seemingly inappropriate for one who had renounced worldly riches: are a symbolical device to indicate that this is the Buddha in his transcendent, glorified form, the apotheosis in which he reveals himself to the host of Bodhisattvas, It is possible that originally Hinayana statues of the monastic Buddha were dressed up into Mahayana icons of the transfigured Sakyamuni: the "bejewelled Buddha" is seen in many statues of the last phase of Mahayana Buddhism in India and in the art of regions like Tibet, Nepal and Indonesia which were directly influenced by the Buddhism of Bengal from 8th: late 12th cent.
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Basham Collection
Date created
1953
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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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