DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0420
Buddha the Gospel of Buddhism
yogi—was determined in another way. We have already
under the headings of ‘Yoga’ and ‘Spiritual Exercise,’
explained the large part that is played, even in Early
Buddhism, by the practice of contemplation. At a very
early date, probably already, in fact, in the time of Buddha,
the seated yogi, practising a mental discipline or attaining
the highest station of Samadhi, must have represented to
the Indian mind the ultimate achievement of spiritual
effort, and the attainment of the Great Quest. And so,
when it was desired to represent by a visible icon the
figure of Him-who-had-thus-attained, the appropriate
form was ready to hand. It is most likely that images
of the seated Buddha were already in local and private
use as cult objects, but it is not until the beginning of the
Christian era that they begin to play a recognized part in
official Buddhist art,1 and the Buddha figure is introduced
in narrative sculpture.
It is very probable that examples of these earliest
Buddhist primitives are no longer extant, but even
if that be so, the splendid and monumental figures
of Anuradhapura and Amaravatl of perhaps the second
century a.d., still reflect almost the full force of primitive
inspiration. Of these figures there is none finer—
and perhaps nothing finer in the whole range of Buddhist
art—than the colossal figure at Anuradhapura illus-
trated in Plate K. With this figure are to be associated
a standing image of Buddha (Plate E) and one of
a Bodhisattva, and these again are closely related to
1 As pointed out by M. Foucher, the image on the Kanishka reliquary
‘ indicates an already stereotyped art . . . and this votive document
suffices to throw back by at least a century the creation of the plastic type
of the Blessed One, and thus to take us back to the first century before
our era.’—L'Origine grecque de I’lmage du Botiddha, Paris, 1913, p. 31.
328
yogi—was determined in another way. We have already
under the headings of ‘Yoga’ and ‘Spiritual Exercise,’
explained the large part that is played, even in Early
Buddhism, by the practice of contemplation. At a very
early date, probably already, in fact, in the time of Buddha,
the seated yogi, practising a mental discipline or attaining
the highest station of Samadhi, must have represented to
the Indian mind the ultimate achievement of spiritual
effort, and the attainment of the Great Quest. And so,
when it was desired to represent by a visible icon the
figure of Him-who-had-thus-attained, the appropriate
form was ready to hand. It is most likely that images
of the seated Buddha were already in local and private
use as cult objects, but it is not until the beginning of the
Christian era that they begin to play a recognized part in
official Buddhist art,1 and the Buddha figure is introduced
in narrative sculpture.
It is very probable that examples of these earliest
Buddhist primitives are no longer extant, but even
if that be so, the splendid and monumental figures
of Anuradhapura and Amaravatl of perhaps the second
century a.d., still reflect almost the full force of primitive
inspiration. Of these figures there is none finer—
and perhaps nothing finer in the whole range of Buddhist
art—than the colossal figure at Anuradhapura illus-
trated in Plate K. With this figure are to be associated
a standing image of Buddha (Plate E) and one of
a Bodhisattva, and these again are closely related to
1 As pointed out by M. Foucher, the image on the Kanishka reliquary
‘ indicates an already stereotyped art . . . and this votive document
suffices to throw back by at least a century the creation of the plastic type
of the Blessed One, and thus to take us back to the first century before
our era.’—L'Origine grecque de I’lmage du Botiddha, Paris, 1913, p. 31.
328