DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0419
The Buddhist Primitives
else it is an art about Buddhism, rather than Buddhist
art.
The Buddhist Primitives
We have explained above under the heading ‘ Beginnings
of the Mahayana,’ in what manner the Buddha came
to be regarded as a personal god, and how the Early
Buddhist intellectual discipline is gradually modified by
the growth of a spirit of devotion which finds expression
in worship and the creation of a cult. This may to a
large extent reflect the growing influence of the lay com-
munity, and it is paralleled by similar tendencies in the
development of other contemporary phases of belief.
With what passionate abandon even the symbols of the
* Feet of the Lord ’ were adored will appear in the
illustration (Plate Q) from the sculptures of Amaravatl,
a Buddhist shrine in southern India, lavishly decorated
with carvings in low relief, mostly of the second century
a.d. Feeling such as this could not but demand an
object of worship more personal and more accessible
than the abstract conception of one whose being lay
beyond the grasp of thought, for “exceeding hard” in
the words of the Bhagavad Gita, “ is the unshown
way.” Thus the Buddha, and together with him first one
and then another of the Bodhisattva saviours, originally
idealizations of particular virtues, came to be regarded
as personal gods responsive to the prayers of their
worshippers, and extending the vessel of their divine
benevolence and infinite compassion to all who seek their
aid. This was the human need which alike in Buddhist
and Hindu churches determined the development of
iconography.
The form of the Buddha image—the figure of the seated
else it is an art about Buddhism, rather than Buddhist
art.
The Buddhist Primitives
We have explained above under the heading ‘ Beginnings
of the Mahayana,’ in what manner the Buddha came
to be regarded as a personal god, and how the Early
Buddhist intellectual discipline is gradually modified by
the growth of a spirit of devotion which finds expression
in worship and the creation of a cult. This may to a
large extent reflect the growing influence of the lay com-
munity, and it is paralleled by similar tendencies in the
development of other contemporary phases of belief.
With what passionate abandon even the symbols of the
* Feet of the Lord ’ were adored will appear in the
illustration (Plate Q) from the sculptures of Amaravatl,
a Buddhist shrine in southern India, lavishly decorated
with carvings in low relief, mostly of the second century
a.d. Feeling such as this could not but demand an
object of worship more personal and more accessible
than the abstract conception of one whose being lay
beyond the grasp of thought, for “exceeding hard” in
the words of the Bhagavad Gita, “ is the unshown
way.” Thus the Buddha, and together with him first one
and then another of the Bodhisattva saviours, originally
idealizations of particular virtues, came to be regarded
as personal gods responsive to the prayers of their
worshippers, and extending the vessel of their divine
benevolence and infinite compassion to all who seek their
aid. This was the human need which alike in Buddhist
and Hindu churches determined the development of
iconography.
The form of the Buddha image—the figure of the seated