Buddha Sculptures

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The earliest representations of the Buddha are symbols or scenes associated with the Buddha’s life without actually depicting his physical form. Two of the most common symbols of the Buddha in these so-called “aniconic” images are the Wheel of the Dharma (representing the first sermon) and the Bodhi Tree, where he achieved his Awakening. Aniconic representations of the “Great Departure,” when Siddhartha left his palace to become a wandering ascetic, show an empty horse shielded by a parasol, with a group of deities muffling the sound of the horse’s hooves, according to one legend. A common example of this early type of representation is simply the mark of the footprints left behind by the Buddha.

Early in the Common Era, Buddhists began to represent the Buddha’s physical form. In the region of Gandhara, on the present-day border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, sculptures of the Buddha were very strongly influenced by the Hellenistic art of the Greek kingdoms of Afghanistan and western Central Asia.

In the region of Mathura, in the middle reaches of the Ganges river, the Buddha was sculpted in a robust, down-to-earth style derived from the traditional Indian decorative arts. These two styles coalesced during the period of the Gupta dynasty of Indian rulers (320—540CE) to produce the classic sculptures of the Buddha that have had such wide impact throughout the Buddhist world. The Gupta style is also evident in the paintings on the wall of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta in western India and in the serene, elegant, sensuous, but otherworldly depiction of Buddha teaching at Sarnath.