Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s5.3

c13.s5.3

All this evidence indicates that the emergence of the Buddha image was the outcome of a movement amongst the Buddhists for worshipping the Master in a human form in response to the same religious impulse as characterised the followers of the Bhāgavata cult. When the Vaishṇavas developed a psychological background and a religious emotion suitable for image worship the Buddhist could not long remain unaffected. They felt the need of a visual human symbol to whom they could pay homage and religious worship. This culminated in the representation of the Buddha in an anthropomorphic form.