Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c42.s2.t2.3

v2.c42.s2.t2.3

lakṣaṇa) of the image.¹ In the Mahāvaṃsa² too is recorded a similar attempt of Aśoka who consulted the Nāga king for an account of the image. One need not be so credulous as to take these traditions as authentic, but the fact is that the practice of image-worship was taken up by the Buddhists sometime before the 4th century A.D. about which time the Divyāvadāna and the Mahāvaṃsa were composed. We may now pass on to the monumental evidences. In the Sanchi and Barhut sculptures there are no images of Buddha. The most significant fact is that the seats of Buddha are shown as vacant. The earlier methods of indicating Buddha's place in a scene were by depicting his Vajrāsana, Bodhi tree or pādukā (wooden slippers) or stūpa. If the date of Sanchi and Barhut sculptures be placed in the 2nd and 1st century B.C. we have to admit that image-worship did not prevail at that period. The practice of image-worship therefore came into vogue about the 1st or 2nd century A.D. at the earliest. The Amarāvatī sculptures, belonging to the Mahāsanghikas and their offshoots, are studded with numerous Buddha-images but the dates of these sculptures are placed by the archaeologists in the 2nd century A.D.³