The Iconography of the Buddha Image

For the following report the range of a function of mental imageography in regard to the images of Buddha from the South Asia region (1-5 cc. A. D. ) is important. In general, pictureography in prowess stands for studying the imagery or symbolism of the work of art in regard to the Asian Buddha images, iconographical elements provide the worshipper and observer with multiple signs to dissever between unique Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. There is a hot discourse in research literature about the nature and developmental stages of Buddhistic iconography.Up to the 2-3 c. A. D. , Buddhist art used to be predominantly narrative consisting of jatakas (accounts of the Buddhas old incarnations) and nidanakathas (historical events related to the founder of religion, Buddha Shakyamuni or Prince Siddhartha Gautama). Due to the very nature of Buddhism, its iconography has been associated with aniconic symbols for a long time. Once Jainist claimed that before its material anthropomorphous tra nsformations the Buddha icon used to be initially of intellectual and imagi primaeval nature.The idea echoes someways with Diskul and Lyonss proposition about the iconography in regard to the Buddha image stand up for the goals of maintaining traditions and sacrificing exuberant decorative elements for the sake of immortality, sanctity and transitivity of Buddhism. However, the Buddha image is perceive mostly in its anthropomorphic dimension nowadays with a determined system of metaphors and symbols stand for iconographical elements. All the researchers agree on the fact that the image of Buddha as anthropomorphic icon started universe created approximately in the initiatory coke A.D. The gold and copper coins of Kanishka (Appendix A) contain Buddha images on the reverse sides. It is limpid to assume that those images were simple and rather abstract because of the small size of those coins. During the pentad centuries of modern era, the iconography of the Buddha image has b een made rich and complicated. According to Diskul and Lyons, there argon trinity key elements in the iconography of the Buddha image these be anatomy, dress, and posture.Diskul and Lyons menti iodined that the anatomy of the Buddha encompassed the canons of equalizer and the form of the supernatural details the dress might look each as the monks garb (being placed on either two shoulders or the left shoulder only), or a princely garment (though in all the cases the elements of dressing are highly stylized) and, so far as postures are concerned, Buddha was portrayed as either walking, or standing, or sit down, or reclining, not to forget less than a dozen usual gestures of the baseball mitt.In Jains chronology of the Buddhist iconography, the researcher listed the specific elements of Sarnath Buddha images (3-4 cc. A. D. ) with their graceful and attractively shaped bodies within eight iconographical types depending on the scheme of the dress (either the cover iodine with both shoulders being draped, or the open unrivalled with the secure shoulder being bare) and the four gesture patterns.Mean bit, the Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Related Art ignored anatomy and dress, concentrating instead on sacrosanct bodily label (lakshanas) and attributes (objects held by or belonging to the fig) or associated objects as the media through which the icon communicated to the observer. For the posture category, the Huntington Archive proposed the sub-division into postures per se (the one of sitting body is called asana, and the one of standing is sthana) and gestures (position of the hands, mudra, and position of the arms, hasta).The Grove Art Online derived the iconography of the Buddha from the one of pre-Buddhist yakss with 32 major and 64 minor prescribed signs five gestures (mudras) fearlessness (abhaya mudra), bestowing boons (varada mudra), meditation (dhyana mudra), touching the earth (bhumisparsa mudra) and turning the Wheel of La w and three main postures the one with crossed legs is called adamantine (vajraparyanka), the one where the Buddha is sitting with one leg placed across the other thigh is sattvaparyank asana, and the one with both legs hanging down is referred to as bhadrasana.Whatever the iconographical systematizations are, the image of the Buddha has been developing from abstractly mold prototypes to the detailed icons of magnitude and aesthetic recklessness. Under the Kushan dynasty that ruled from about the start to the seventh centuries A. D. in Afghanistan, north-western India, the Punjab, and in present-day Pakistan, there were two trait schools of portrayal Buddha the Gandhara and the Mathura ones.While in the north (Gandhara) the images of Buddha belonged to wandering craftsmen from the roman type East, in the conspiracy (Mathura or Muttra) the technique derived itself from autochthonous Indian sources. Both schools, though being distinct in iconographical elements and methods, p ortrayed Buddha both standing, seated or reclining (in scenes of the undischarged Demise) either as a single and independent image or the one of the figures on panels. The earliest image of the Gandhara Buddhas Rowland referred to the second and tierce centuries A.D. judging from inscriptions. In regard to the standing Buddhas, there is one key characteristic of Gandhara images though on the very first sight they look want computer backups, they can not be observed from the back, their back side is unremarkably flat and unfinished. As for the material used, craftsmen carved the statues from rocknroll and stucco or lime-plaster. The latter was popular in the first century A. D. already, and by the third century A. D. it has replaced stone.Another favourite medium for carving was the blue schist and green phyllite, while metal was less popular. Besides artists used to decorate both stone and stucco images with polychromy and gold leaf. In Mathura the sculptures were also cover ed in an kindred personal manner because craftsmen usually carved the statues of Buddha of red sandstone, which was an exceedingly ugly stone, ofttimes marred by veins of yellow and white, so that streaks and spots of these lighter colours disfigure the surface.The researcher may compare two schools of portraying Buddha on the basis of the Gandhara Standing Buddha from the Guides Mess at Hoti-Mardan, near Peshawar, and a life-sized standing Bodhisattva of Sarnath with an inscription about a certain beggar Bala dedicating the sculpture to the deity in around A. D. 131-147 (Appendices B and C). One distinctive point between the two sculptures is anatomical proportion. The Gandhara school adhered to the antique canons when the organic height of the body was five times bigger that the head afterwards late Roman and Early-Christian models.The Mathura school choose special unit of measurement, the thalam, which had zero in common with human physical anatomy. It is the distance b etween the exit of the forehead and the chin, which is divided nine times into the total height of the figure to convey the heroic and superhuman posture. Subsequently, the bodies of the Gandhara standing Buddhas are much kindly and natural, possessing the Praxitelean dehanchement beneath the robe, which is also typical of Greco-Roman art.Meanwhile, the Mathura Bodhisattva is more colossal and erect. Modern iconography owes lakshanas of the Buddha to the Mathura school. Rowland stated that whilst the shaping of the body in the Mathura images is greatly alter and still represented by the archaic technique of incised lines, the example of the drapery reveals both texture and volume in result, an observer may sense the warmth and firmness of flesh and a powerful perception for the presence of the inner breath or prana. In regard to the ardor of drapery (Diskul and Lyons), the Gandhara Standing Buddha from the Guides Mess at Hoti-Mardan reminds of a Roman noble of the Imperia l Period. The eye of an observer catches heavy folds of the dress, which is a kind of Roman toga instead of Buddhist mantle. The Mathura images are often nude to the waist. The Bodhisattva of Sarnath rests his feet firmly on the basement, raising the right hand in the gesture of reassurance, and supporting the folds of his native Indian robe or dhoti by the left hand on the hip.So far as the physiognomic characteristics are concerned, the Gandhara Buddhas resemble of the Apollo Belvedere callable to the head, with its insipid features and wavy cop, though some distinctive Buddhist iconographical elements the put-on marks or lakshanas may be also present. The Mathuras Buddha images, as Jain pointed out, are more round-faced with underlined spiritual realization and beatitude. There are also physiognomic distinctions between the two schools In Mathura art tradition, Buddha image has semipermanent earlobes, thicker lips, wider eyes and prominent noses.In Gandhara images, eyes a re longer, chin more angular, earlobes shorter and noses more sharp and better defined. Under the rule of the Gupta dynasty (starting from A. D. 320), the Buddha images became even more anthropomorphic due to Mahayana Buddhism, and, at the same time more sacred due to the sharpening of the Buddhas superhuman nature and his Oriental origin. In regard to the iconographical systems, the Gupta images are synthetic. For example, the body of Standing Buddha from Mathura (Indian Museum, Calcutta) (Appendix D) is fully covered by the monks mantel after the Gandhara models.At the same time, the folds of initial pseudo-togas gave space to stylized series of strings instead of multiple folds. Rowland provided the link to the classic Mathura school in regard to the rhythmical goal of stringed drapery, stating that the repetition of the loops provides a kind of relief to the static columnar mass of the body. At the same time, un handle the betimes Buddhas of originally Indian type, this Shak yamuni, though being rather winding and powerful, is not crude or roughly carved.Jain noted that the Gupta Buddha images were remarkable for the facial expressions mission celestial calm, serenity, a gentle smile, divine glow and unique composure. Rowland interpret dithyrambs to Gupta Buddhas from Sarnath because of the exquisite carving of their haloes. After having defined the concept of iconography in proportion to the Buddha images in South Asia and having traced the development of iconographical systems from the first up to the fifth centuries A. D. , it is manageable to summarize the key trends of the craftsmen having been portraying Buddha in the multitude of forms, styles and types.The first anthropomorphic images of Buddha appeared in the first century A. D. and adopted the iconographical elements of both Greek-Roman Antiquity and native Indian styles. During the Kushan period (25 AD 150 AD), there were the so-called Gandhara and Mathura (the north-west part of moder n Pakistan) schools of portraying the Buddha. The Gandhara Buddhas adopted many iconographical features of antique sculptures in regard to the slightly slew posture, anatomic and physiognomic verity and refinement, heavy and voluminous drapery organized in parallel folds and mask-like expressions of the faces with matted hair on the head.The early Kushan Buddhas from Mathura were more massive and heavily built than Gandhara ones and demonstrated stricter bond certificate to the native Indian canons. There was a greater accent on lakshanas and attributes in the Mathura school. Both standing and seated Buddhas were depicted in one of the assigned postures and their gestures bore sacred meaning for the worshippers. The garment looked more like the typical dress of Indian princes with the folds having given space to the strings standing for native muslin or silk dhotis or monastic robes.The torsos of Mathura Buddhas bore distinctive marks of heroic and sacred life of the Buddha (the m arks of wheel, the three white hair between the eyebrows, etc. ). Starting from A. D. 320 within the Gupta period, the iconography of the Buddha images became more synergetic having adopted both Gandhara and Mathura elements. After the Gandhara canon, the proportions were ideal and aimed to produce the effect of magnitude and super-human power. It could give-up the ghost due to the distinction between the mortal Prince Siddhartha and the real Buddha as deity.The individualistic parts of the body were depicted in purely Indian manner with the emphasis being made on lakshanas (elongated earlobes, urna, webbed fingers and toes, etc. ) and attributes ( sacred lotus, wet bowl, etc. ). The faces of the Gupta Buddhas served the arena for metaphorical transformation the eyes had the form of the lotus flower, the hair looked like snails or shells, the lips were full and ripe like strange fruit and there was a mild smile on them, the eyebrows were curved like the Indian bow.Thus, one may say that since the first century A. D. up to the fifth century the iconography of the Buddha image has been remarkable for the shift from Greek-Roman models to the synthetical type with prevalence of Indian iconographical elements and from anthropomorphic and individualistic depiction to the icon of the super-human mighty deity with traditionally assigned symbols. Bibliography Diskul, M. C. Subhadradis, and Elizabeth Lyons. The Arts of Thailand A vade mecum of the Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting of Thailand (Siam).Ed. Theodore Robert Bowie. Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1960. Huntington, John C. , and/or Susan L. Huntington. The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art (a photographic research and teaching archive). 15 Oct. 1995/Oct. 2004. College of the Arts, The Ohio demesne University, Columbus, Ohio, USA. 13 Jan. 2006 . Jain, P. C. Evolution of the Buddha Image. Exotic India Art. May 2004. 13 Jan. 2006 . Indian subcontinent, II, 2 Budd hist iconography and subject-matter, (i) The Buddha. Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 12 Jan. 2006 . Rowland, Benjamin. The Art and Architecture of India Buddhist, Hindu, Jain. capital of the United Kingdom Penguin Books, 1953. Appendices Appendix A Kanishka Coin (100 B. C. ), gold and copper. Benjamin Rowland, The Art and