Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham2019-05-242019-05-24circa 1970IA-564IA-5649http://hdl.handle.net/1885/163302The worship of relics is an old tradition in India, Even the first stupas were actually reliquary shrines, for the bones of ancestors were interred beneath them and, later, relics of the Buddhas, The specific decoration for any reliquary vessel called for imagery of Buddhist origin, hence, the caskets assumed a variety of shapes related to Buddhist iconography, This one has taken the image of the Bodhi tree of Enlightenment though it has been given abstract forms to accomplish this, the 'tree' looks like a wand of bells set into a stand35mmmounted transparencyb&wsepiaimage/tiffen-AUGandharaArchaeology & ArchitectureTaxilastone sculpturemounted transparency setRelic casket from the Stupa at Jualian, Stucco, Taxila, Museum2019-05-24This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.