The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c9.s5.6

c9.s5.6

When a reference is made to the numerous images executed in the different schools of art it also becomes palpable that the Buddhist pantheon was not well developed before the Tantras got wide publicity in about the middle of the 7th century A D. In the Gandhara school, for instance, besides the Buddha images, there are images of Jambhala Kubera, Indra, Maitreya, Hārītī and several unidentified Bodhisattva images. In the Mathura school which was either contemporaneous or somewhat later than the Gandhara school there are numerous Buddha and Bodhisattva images along with those of Kubera, the Yakṣas and Nāgas. The Mathura school extended to the early Gupta period² and here also later Buddhist images of Tāntric flavour are not met with. Not even the images of Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī are to be found in this school. The case of the later Magadha school however, is otherwise. The Magadha school included the images found in Sarnath, Nālandā, Odantapuri, Kurkihar, Gaya and other ancient sites in Bihar. The most flourishing period of the Magadha school