Elements of Buddhist Iconography c5.5

c5.5

In other words, anthropomorphic elements have now been combined with the earlier and more abstract symbolism; that was an inevitable result of the emergence of Buddhism as a popular religion, its extension as an emotional (*bhakti-vāda*) persuasion. That may have been just what the Buddha is said to have prophesied with regret on the occasion of the admission of women to the monastic order; and as we have seen a use of anthropomorphic images had been condemned as “groundless and fanciful.” Even if this is not original, as it may well be, at least it represents an iconoclastic tendency, subsequent to the development of the anthropomorphic imagery. Not that monastic orthodoxy could really have feared “idolatry” in the fetishistic sense, but that he who had denied that he was either Gandhabba, Yakkha, or Man, asserting thereby his Principial essence, might have sensed, or been thought of as sensing, a psychological danger in the use of a cult image in the form of a man, danger in fact in any sort of cult susceptible of an "animistic" interpretation. Nothing, however, is really changed in principle; the "anthropomorphic" image in India remains "abstract," 85 and rightly understood is merely a means to the realization of a given station of consciousness. Actually, in the theological development, the Principial Essence of the Tathāgata is more and more strongly emphasized, the content of the iconography, anthropomorphic or otherwise, becomes more and more ontological, less and less historical. It is just this emancipation from the historical point of view which determines the character and permits the expansion of Mahāyāna art, preoccupied as it is with the concept of the Buddha’s transcendental Perfection: when it is realized that the Buddha’s Comprehension (Sambodhi) dates from the beginning of time, and was merely "displayed" at Bodhgayā, and that he "has never left his seat on Mt Gṛdhrakūṭa," a mistaken attachment to his human personality is precluded. The mediaeval development of Christianity and of Christian art after the decline of Iconoclasm presents an exact analogy; here likewise it was realized that "Christ’s birth is eternal," and so there came into being an art that emphasizes the Perfection of his being in Glory, far more than the course of his earthly ministry.86