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Relief of the Indra Sala Cave Scene, Peshawar, Museum

Date

Authors

Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham

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Volume Title

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Abstract

Description

During many of Buddha's meditations, he chose to seat himself within a cave in order to find solitude, An ancient site supposedly used by the Buddha for this meditation was at Indra Sala, located in Giriyeka, it is believed, since a citadel has been uncovered there revealing that a shrine might have at one time been built on the spot, All around the Buddha are deities, for the cave also symbolizes the realm of Indra, the heavenly palace of all the gods, By showing the meditative Buddha with the model cave, the artists have made the little sculpture both a shrine with the Buddha image, and an image inclusive of the cave, The surface has been treated as a single sculptural unit, from which individual figures do emerge, the most important being, of course, the Buddha himself, this particular Buddha image is on the level of that in slide 28 with respect to introverted personality and spiritual expression,

Citation

Source

Type

Archives Series

Basham Collection

Date created

circa 1970s

Access Statement

License Rights

This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.

DOI

Restricted until

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