Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c8.s3.32

c8.s3.32

It will be evident from the detailed examination of the inscribed specimens in the Indian Museum in Chapter III above that among them, the majority of the Buddhist images of the eighth and ninth centuries belonged to the cult of Lōkanātha or Lōkēśvara. Images of the Śaktis or Tārās are present, but they are very few in number. We do not find any images from this period which may be delegated to the Tāntrika forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism, *e.g.*, Mantrayāna or Kālachakrayāna. Outside the Indian Museum, such images belonging to the first period of the activity of the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture, *i.e.*, the eighth and ninth centuries, are altogether absent in the great Buddhist centres of Bodh Gaya, Kurkihar and Nālandā. In fact the recent excavations at Nālandā have not yielded even a single Tāntrika Buddhist image which can be safely relegated to the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. Tāntrika forms of Buddhism may have existed in the eighth and ninth centuries in the eastern provinces of Northern India, but it is extremely doubtful whether their tenets had become sufficiently popular to ensure public worship of their peculiar images in or near famous shrines or noted sacred places of Buddhism. The earliest form of Buddhist Śaktis is the ordinary Tārā, *i.e.*, the Sita or the Mahattarī Tārā. In the Indian Museum the only specimens of this period are Nos. 3820³ and 5862⁴.