Gandhara Buddha Images

An early Gandhara image

A Buddha image is not only a symbol of the historical person but the human qualities that he perfected; compassion, wisdom, patience, generosity, kindness, etc. Worthy of bowing down to.

Buddha images in human form appeared much later than the construction and worship of stupas and other symbols. His presence was originally indicated by footprints, by a standing woman (his mother) representing his birth, a tree the Enlightenment, a wheel the Doctrine and the First Sermon, and the stupa his death. The lack of human cult images until the last centuries BCE was common to all classical Indian religions. Putting a date and a place of origin for the first images is difficult but it is generally agreed that it was in the last century BCE - about 500 years after the Buddha's death. The earliest imagesare either in the Mathura style of central India or the Gandhara style of what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan (see maps).

• It was once agreed that when Gandhara was ruled by Greeks from Alexander the Great's colony in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), Greek influence inspired the Buddhists of Gandhara to create the first Buddha image. This proposition was contested and a compromise view is that the Buddha image evolved in both centres

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independently and more or less simultaneously in response to a growing devotionalism in Indian religion. The majority of surviving ancient images display the Gandhara style.