A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c11.s2.51

c11.s2.51

A seated Bodhisattva (Fig. 93) in the Mathurā Museum, bearing a dedicatory inscription, ‘for the welfare and happiness of all beings,’ incised in script not later than the first or second century after Christ, is of special interest as exhibiting at that early date the saint seated in the traditional *yogī* attitude, which became general subsequently, and with his right shoulder bare. But for the inscription the principal figure might well be supposed to be of much later date. His drapery is excessively formal in its folds. The attendant figures are more ancient in appearance and well modelled. The simple foliage decoration is in good taste, and the flying spirits above are fairly successful. ‘Palaeographical evidence,’ Dr. Vogel observes, ‘points to the sculpture belonging to the early Kushāṇa period. It is, with the Buddha image of Anyor (No. A 2), the oldest image of Sākyamuni of which the date can approximately be fixed by an inscription, and must be one of the first Buddhist images made in Mathurā. On account of its artistic merit and excellent preservation also, this Bodhisattva is one of the most remarkable sculptures preserved in the Museum.' It is called a Bodhisattva in the inscription, and must represent Gautama Sākyamuni before he became a Buddha, because the tree shown over the image is the *pīpal* (*Ficus religiosa*), the tree of Gautama.