Art of India and Southeast

Asia

The Buddha

• The Buddha (born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama)• Encountered first hand pain of old age, sickness,

and death• Renounced at 29. Search of knowledge through

meditation• Enlightened at 35. Meditating underneath the

Bodhi Tree• Preached 1st sermon at deer park in Sarnath and

formed monastic community (Sangha)

4 Noble Truths

1. Life is suffering (dukkha)

2. Cause of Suffering is desire (trishna)

3. One can overcome and extinguish desire

4. Conquer desire and end suffering, follow Eightfold Path: understanding of thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration

(Way of Good Living)

The Great Stupa (Sanchi, India) completed first century CE

Stupa- earthern mound containing relics of the Buddha. Function: walk around clockwise, belief circular movement brings the devotee into harmony with the cosmos

Circumambulation

NOT A GRAVEMARKER

Early relics: small bones, bits of hair. Buddha was cremated

(thought that Buddha is not gone)

3D mandalas, or sacred diagram of the universe

harmika/tornas/ chatras/ yasti/ veteca/

The Enlightenment from the west gateway of the Great Stupa (Sanchi, India), c. 50-25 BCE

The Great Departure, the east gateway of the Great Stupa

The Great Departure, the east gateway of the Great Stupa

Use of sensuous figures (yakshi) female nature deity

fertility & vegetation)

Interior of chaitya hall (Karli, India) c. 100

Section (left) and plan (right) of chaitya hall at Karli

Seated Buddha from Gandhara (Pakistan),

2nd to 3rd century, stone

a new image of the Buddha

Seated Buddha preaching the first

sermon, from Sarnath (India) fifth century CE

Halo and the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya/  Deer Park near Sarnath/ strong degree of

abstract idealism/ mudra/ dharma/ long-

lobed ears/ broad shoulders and thin waist/ image of a

yaksha

Differences in Styles

Gandhara Sarnath• Transparent drapery• Abstract Features:

– Elongated eyes– Attending figures– Tight hair curls– Elongated ear lobs

• Rings hold up neck• Decorated Halo (light creates growth)• Mudra: turning the wheel• Wheel of the law (bottom)• Deer: deer park at Sarnath

Left: Abhaya-mudra (granting protection to devotees and dispelling fear)

Right: Varada-mudra (denotes a deity’s charity, or power to grant a wish or fulfill a vow)

Left: Dhyana-mudra (denotes intense concentration during meditation)

Right: Dharmacakra-mudra, the “turning of the Wheel of the Law” (gesture of teaching)

Left: Vitarka-mudra (denotes exposition or argument, another form of teaching)

Right: Vajra-mudra (symbolizes the supreme widsom of Adi-Buddha (Vairocana), especially in

his Japanese manifestation as Dai Nichi; also symbolizes a mystical sexual union for Tantric

adepts)

Left: Bhumisparsha-mudra, or “touching the earth,” (most common in Thailand, a gesture

made at the point of Enlightenment)Right: Anjali-mudra (symbol of supplication or

adoration)

Vishnu Temple (Deogarh, India),

early sixth century

Hinduism/ Brahma/ Vishnu/ use of

Hindu temple as a residence for a god/ darsan/

purusha/ mandala/ more sculptural

than architectural/ sikhara

Vishnu Reclining on the Serpent

of Eternity (Deogarh), early

sixth century

Vastupurushamandala

32 padadevatas (divinities in the square borders)/ nakshatras/ Brahmasthana