The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c8.5

c8.5

Here then we are agreed : together we seek the origin of the image of the Indian mendicant who, by the prestige of his intelligence, his goodness and, perhaps, also of his personal beauty, exercized over his contemporaries an influence capable of forming a basis for one of the three great religions of the world, that which from his epithet we call Buddhism. At the first view the problem does not seem so very complicated. Granted that all these representations seem to descend from a common prototype, the question resolves itself into discovering the place, time, and occasion of the first appearance of this type. In other words, it will be necessary, but sufficient, to determine which are the most ancient known images of Buddha. Theoretically, nothing is more simple; in practice we quickly perceive that the thing is sooner said than done.