Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c31.25

c31.25

With regard to figure sculpture, we do not know the date of the earliest stone figures of Buddha in Ceylon. To judge from the remains at Barāhat the early Buddhist artists represented the Buddha by symbols only. Hence it has been assumed, in view of the Greeko-Roman character of the Gandhāra sculptures, that “The ideal type of Buddha was created for Buddhist art by foreigners.”* The improbability of this is discussed in the Appendix to this chapter. In any case, it is fairly evident that the first sculptors of Buddhist images in Ceylon must have been Indians, and they may not have come to Ceylon until some time later than the Aśokan missions, and the beginning of the general influence of Northern Buddhist Art in Ceylon.