Buddha Shakyamuni
Meditation Under the Bodhi Tree
Artefact Description
This statue is a rare, almost unblemished specimen of Gandharan arts. At a height of 65cm, the statue displays Buddha Shakyamuni, in the Dhyana (meditation) posture, with His right hand on top of His left, palms facing upwards.
His divinity is marked by the nimbus, or halo behind His head, rendered in a chipped plain disk, as seen on many sacred images from Gandhara.
He sits with a straight back and legs in the full Vajra posture, with His eyes half-closed, looking straight ahead, but with His gaze lowered. He has long earlobes and wavy hair on His head and His Ushnisha. An Urna is found between His eyebrows. With slightly chubby facial features, His pursed lips form a subtly gentle smiling expression.
His robes feature distinctive U-shaped folds draping from His shoulders.
In the middle of its base façade is a carved bas-relief panel, executed in alto-relievo, showing a smaller image of Him, most probably before His Enlightenment, seated in exactly the same manner as the main statue but in princely garments, with two ordained worshippers on His right and two lay worshippers on His left.
All four figures stand and prostrate towards the Buddha in the middle, with their hands in the Añjali (offering or homage) mudra. The panel is framed by a curtain backdrop, with folds that echo those of the seated Buddha above, with concentric drapes and bordered on both sides by straight, angular folds.
Historical Background
After dwelling on the banks of the Nairanjana River, with five ascetic followers for six years practising austerities, Siddhartha eventually abandoned his practice, when he realised that austerities could not lead to realisation. Siddhartha then moved towards the village of Bodhgaya.1 c18
It was the morning of Wesak full-moon day, in the year 598 B C. Lady Sujata of Senani was preparing for her annual milk-rice offering to the holy pipal tree, where she believed a powerful deity was residing.1, c19,2c0; 2 p37, 8 p206, 9 c2, 10 c3
She started this practice many years back when her request for a son was believed to have been granted by the deity. While making milk-rice for the offering, she sent her maid Punna to clean and sweep around the tree.
Punna saw Siddhartha sitting cross-legged in the shade of the tree and amazed at the impressively handsome figure, she ran back to inform Sujata that she witnessed the deity appearing in the shade of the tree. Elated with happiness, Sujata, wasting no time, carried her milk-rice in a golden bowl to where the banyan tree was, hoping to see the deity with her own eyes.
She witnessed Siddhartha still sitting in the shade of the tree and was delighted, taking him as her deity. She offered the milk-rice to the hands of Siddhartha, and said, "As my wish had come true, let your wish also come true." She left the golden bowl to Siddhartha and went back sizzling with joy.
After consuming the milk-rice offered by Sujatha, Siddhartha went to the riverbank and floated the golden bowl in the river and wished:
"I want to attain Enlightenment today itself. If my wish could be fulfilled let the bowl float upstream." And to his delight, the bowl went upstream and sank in the middle of the river.
Encouraged by that miracle, Siddhartha spent the afternoon in the Sala (Canon Ball) tree garden nearby, refreshing the samadhis attained during his stay with Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta.
In the evening, Siddhartha was walking towards the Pipal tree (now the Bodhi tree) when a grass cutter Sotthiya saw him. Thinking that Siddhartha needed something to sit on, the grass cutter offered him eight bunches of grass.4 fig 61, 76 Then Siddhartha prepared a seat in the shade of the tree and sat facing east.4 fig101
While sitting on it, he made a firm resolution that he would not get up from the seat without attaining Enlightenment.
He said:
"Here on this seat my body may shrivel up,
my skin, my bones, my flesh may dissolve,
but my body will not move from this very seat
until I have attained Enlightenment,
so difficult to attain in the course of many kalpas."
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum Similar Artefacts
Artefact Description
This exquisite sculpture depicts the Buddha in the Dhyana (meditation) posture, with His right hand on top of His left, palms facing upwards. The sculpture illustrates some of the Mahapurusalaksanas (thirty-two features of a Great Man) - the Urna (forehead mark in the form of a white tuff of hair between the eyebrows) and Ushnisha (fleshy crown on the head). The sculpture also illustrates elongated ears belonging to Anubyanjana (eighty secondary features of a Great Man).
The well rounded body and the deep U the way His robe is hanging in front of His chest, is typical of Tang-Song Dynasty style.
Bibliography:
- Lalitavistara 'The Play in Full', Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, 2013
- Ven. Weragoda Sarada Maha Thero, Life of The Buddha In Gandhara Art, 2006, ISBN 981-05-7045-7
- Department of Tourism, Government of India, Walking with the Buddha, 2nd edition 2004, ISBN 81-87780-24-X
- Sir John Marshall, The Buddhist Art of Gandara, 3rd edition 2008, ISBN 978-81-215-0967-1
- Indian Museum, Kolkata, The Way of The Buddha, reprint 2005
- Ratan Parimoo, Life of the Buddha in Indian Sculpture, 1936, ISBN 13:9788124605523
- Charles F. Chicarelli, Buddhist Art: An Illustrated Introduction, 2004, ISBN 974-9575-54-7
- Awakenings in Bodhgaya, Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee, 2010
- Ven. Narada Maha Thero, Vision of The Buddha, The Buddha and His Teachings, 2006, ISBN-10: 8179926176
- Saddhaloka, Encounters With Enlightenment, Stories from the Life of the Buddha, Windhorse Publications, 2001, ISBN 978 1 899579 37 2