The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c9.14

c9.14

By far the most important material for the study of Buddhist iconography is represented by sculptures, bronzes, metal images and miniatures. The earlier phases of Buddhism are more or less free from the representations of gods and goddesses. But scenes from Buddha's life, and Jātaka stories were given preference in the earlier Buddhism. Such scenes and stories are found represented in stone at Sanchi, Bharhut, Amaravati and also in the Gandhara school. According to Professor Foucher the first image of the Buddha was fashioned in the Gandhara school of art.(¹) Sculptures of Bodhisattvas and Hindu gods are not rare in this school. The sculpture remains at Amaravati are contemporaneous with those of the Gandhara school. The Mathura school followed closely and then came the sculptures of Sarnath, Magadha, Bengal, Orissa, Java and Nepal in the Tāntric age. The paintings at Ajaṇṭā begin from the first century A.D. and the sculptures of Ellora and many other places, Buddhist cave temples of Southern and Northern India show the influence of immature Tantra on them. Sculptures produced in the earlier schools have received ample attention of great scholars, but images belonging to the Tāntric and post-Tāntric periods and profoundly influenced by the Tantras have not been so fortunate. The excavations at Sarnath, Nālandā, Kurkihar have brought to light a large number of images of Buddhist gods and goddesses belonging to the Tantra school, and it may be reasonably expected that the old strongholds of Tāntric learning such as Odanta-