The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c5.s1.2

c5.s1.2

Let us go straight to the most striking feature of this old Buddhist school. Although well known to specialists, it will not fail to surprise uninformed readers. When we find the ancient stone-carvers of India in full activity, we observe that they are very industriously engaged in carrying out the strange undertaking of representing the life of Buddha without Buddha. We have here a fact which, improbable as it may seem, Cunningham long ago demonstrated. It is established on the written testimony of the artists themselves. Those of Barhut inform us by an inscription, that such and such a person on his knees before a throne « is rendering homage to the Blessed One ». Now, without exception, the throne is vacant; at the most, there is a symbol indicating the invisible presence of Buddha (¹). The latest researches have only opened our eyes to the extent of the field of application of this constant rule; it holds good for the years which preceded as also for those which followed the *Sambodhi*, for the youth as also for the old age of the Master. The façade of the middle lintel of the eastern gate of Sânchî illustrates his departure on horseback from his house : the embroidered rug which serves as a saddle for his steed is empty (²). A medallion of Bodh-Gayâ represents his first meditation : empty again is the seat before which the traditional ploughman is driving his plough (³). Some panels of Amarâvatî show us his birth and presentation to the sage Asita; only his footprints — a direct ideographic transcription of the formula which was in use in India to designate respectfully a « person » — mark the swaddling clothes on which in one place the gods, in another the old *rishi* are reputed to have received him into their arms (⁴). These selected examples suffice to demonstrate that the ancient Indian sculptors abstained absolutely from representing either Bodhisattva or Buddha in the course of his last earthy existence (⁵). Such is the abnormal, but indisputable fact of which every history of Buddhist art will have at the outset to render account.