Budha images

Essay by lordvader September 2004

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A Buddha image is not only a symbol of the historical person but the human qualities that he perfected; compassion, wisdom, patience, generosity, kindness etc. Buddha images in human form appeared much later than the construction and worship of stupas and other symbols. His presence was originally indicated by footprints, by a standing woman (his mother) representing his birth, a tree the Enlightenment, a wheel the Doctrine and the First Sermon, and the stupa his death. The lack of human cult images until the last centuries BCE was common to all classical Indian religions. Putting a date and a place of origin for the first images is difficult but it is generally agreed that it was in the last century BCE - about 500 years after the Buddha's death. The earliest images are either in the Mathura style of central India or the Gandhara style of what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan

It was once agreed that when Gandhara was ruled by Greeks from Alexander the Great's colony in Bactria (northern Afghanistan); Greek influence inspired the Buddhists of Gandhara to create the first Buddha image. This proposition was contested and a compromise view is that the Buddha image evolved in both centers independently and more or less simultaneously in response to growing devotionals in Indian religion. The majority of surviving ancient images displays the Gandhara style.

The first images that influence it that are either in the Mathura style of central India or the Gandhara style of what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Gandharan figure with the Bactrian, it was the earlieast datable images which in used by Kaniska supports which references to his involvement in Buddhism. The naturalistic hairstlye of the Gandharan images explained that Mathura began to represent the Budha with snail shell curls...