Elements of Buddhist Iconography c5.4

c5.4

In early Buddhist art, as is well known, the Buddha is constantly represented by a simple seat or throne (*pallaṅka*) situated at the foot of a Mahābodhi-tree, the Prince of Trees, *duminda*. After the second century A.D., in the case of *māra-dharṣaṇa* images (recognizable by the *bhūmi-sparśa-mudrā*), the manifested form of the Buddha himself, seated on a lotus-throne, or combined lotus- and lion-throne, has become the most prominent feature of the whole, the Wisdom-tree being now reduced from its original supremacy to a function merely indicative of place and event; or if some other of the *aṣṭasthāna* is in question, or indeed any scene from the Life, the Buddha is seated on a lotus-throne, or stands on a lotus-pedestal, the representation including at the same time the necessary indications of place and event. In just the same way the anthropomorphic figure displaces the Wheel, which is relegated to the pedestal as an indication of the event of the First Preaching; though it appears also as *lakṣaṇa* on the soles of the feet and palms of the hands, for the Buddha even in human form is essentially the Wheel, his Existence is its revolution.