Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c5.57

c5.57

The first division includes images of Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Dhyāni-Buddhas and other minor deities. Among these Buddhist images we come across, for the first time, images of a new class. These are single images which partake of the characteristics of a basrelief. They are images of the Master, but at the same time, they represent particular incidents in the life of the Master. In the older schools we are familiar with such incidents in regular basreliefs, while there are also images of the Buddha or of the various Bodhisattvas. So far as our knowledge goes, no image has been discovered in India, belonging to the earlier schools, which represents a particular incident in the life of Buddha. These images are really a transformation of the basreliefs. In the Gāndhāra and Mathurā Schools there is a tendency to represent Buddha as being larger in size comparatively than other human or divine beings. This tendency is also noticeable in some basreliefs of the Benares School. In the latter, this particular tendency transforms the main figure into an image and makes the specimen lose the general characteristics of a basrelief. The adjuncts necessary to represent a particular incident of the Master's life are then depicted either on the pedestal or the backslab of the image. The introduction of this new class of images is, therefore, one of the peculiar characteristics of the Gupta sculpture. Two examples of images of this sort may be cited. One is a large image found by Mr. Oertel in 1904-05, representing the illumination of Buddha. The Master is seated in the posture of touching the earth (*bhūmisparśa* or *sākshi-mudrā*) while the Earth-spirit, invoked by him as a witness, rushes up from the earth in front of the adamantine throne, on which the Bodhisattva is seated.¹ In this particular image, we have an image of Buddha in a particular *mudrā*, but along with the image we have certain other details denoting the particular event of the illumination of the Bodhisattva, which are depicted in regular bassi relievi of the older schools of sculpture. Another image of this particular type was discovered at the same spot. This represents the incident of the first turning of the wheel of Law (*dharmmachakra-pravarttana*) or "the first sermon at Benares." Here we find the Master seated, with his legs crossed, and his hands in that conventional posture, to which later Buddhism has given the name of *dharmmachakra-mudrā*. In front of the pedestal there is a small basrelief representing a wheel, standing on a solid cube in the centre, with the *Bhadra-Vargīya* five and two lay devotees.² Such images are more common in the later schools and specially in the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture.