THE STYLISTIC CHANGES IN THE ICONOGRAPHIES OF BUDDHA
Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in the royal family
of the Shakyas at Lumbini at 562/566 B.C. One day, as he was
wandering around the royal park, he saw an old decrepit man, a sick
man, and a corpse- leaving a strong impression on him and realized
the futility of the material world. But, this nomadic humble beggar
brought hope and consolidation. He attained enlightenment at the
age of 32 seated under a pipal tree on the outskirts of Gaya (now
Bodh Gaya).
Gautama Buddha spent rest of his life in travelling extensively
to preach his faith. Aft er him, his followers showed great zeal in
the propagation of Buddhism. During the fi rst hundred years,
the numbers of the followers was very small and only confi ned to
Koshala and Magadha. Buddhism spread far and wide in a short
period of time because of royal patronage from Ajatashatru and
Bimbisara in the 6th-5th centuries BC, and later under Asoka (272-
232 BC).
In the earlier period, Buddha was not worshipped in the human
form. Symbols such as the stupa, the Bodhi tree, his foot prints, and
so on, were worshipped. Hence we do not see a Buddha image in the
early sculptures. Th is belonged to the Hinayana sect of Buddhism,
which was the older and perhaps more orthodox sect. But Buddha’s
images began to appear from 79-80 AD onwards, when followers
of the Mahayana sect began to worship Buddha’s images. Under
the Kushanas, in the early centuries of the Christian era, Buddhism
spread to Central Asia, China and other countries in the subcontinent
but gradually began declining from 6th century AD.
It is signifi cant to mention that the doctrine of rebirth plays
an important role in Buddhism. Buddha had many incarnations
in his previous births as man, animal, bird, and so on. Th ese have
been described in Jataka stories that amount to over fi ve hundred
in number. In all these stories, Buddha has been described as
Bodhisatva