Indian Sculpture c9.91

c9.91

The Bīmarān casket (Afghānistān) has the earliest Buddha figures and its date is about the beginning of the Christian era. The dated stone figures from Loriyān Tāngai, etc., however, show a considerable linearisation of the drapery, a different relation of body and robe, and a novel sense of volume, so that a century may not be too long an interval to divide them from the Bīmarān reliquary. In this connection it is the Buddha from Loriyān Tāngai (Bachhofer, op. cit., Pl. 142, figure to the right) which appears to be the earliest stone image bearing a date; affinities with the Kaniṣka casket would assign it to approximately the same phase, whereas the Buddha from Chārsadda appears to belong to a later date. The eras to which the inscriptions on the images refer have not been identified as yet.