thezensite: Museum

Images from Museums

Although there is no agreement on when the first images of the Buddha were produced (indeed, there is even controversy about when the Buddha lived), it was centuries after the Buddha died. It is generally agreed that the earliest figures come from the Gandharan region which today is the area from the Kabul Valley to the Indus River in India. It was in Gandhara that the great Mauryan king, Asoka (273-232 BC), began his rule.
Gandharan Buddhist sculpture is distinctively Greco-Roman as this was the area conquered by Alexander the Great between 329-326 BC and trade continued with the Hellenist civilisation. From about the first century to the fifth, Gandharan art flourished. The Buddha images had a distinctive Greco-Roman look about them. The earliest figures often had the head of Apollo with the body dressed in a Roman-style toga. The usina (the cranial bump on the Buddha's head) may be represented by a top-knot of hair. Sometimes the Buddha images, and especially the bodhisattvas, may have a mustache. While Gandhara refers to the area, Kushana refers to the cultural group that came to dominate the area.

standing Buddha, 5th C Mathura Museum	early Kushana Buddha Mathura Museum	seated Buddha; Kushana period Mathura Museum
late Kushana period; seated Buddha Mathura Museum	Gandhara period Buddha Delhi Museum	Kushana period Maitreya Delhi Museum
Gandharan standing Buddha Delhi Museum	Gandharan Budda Calcutta Museum	back to Buddha Trail index