ORIGIN OF BUDDHIST ART :

A SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF VOTIVE EMBLEMS

First let’s define Buddhist Art. Art is an expression of life and thought attuned to its vast
natural background and its socio-religious traditions. Its style, technique or general tenor
has nothing to do with any particular religous outlook. By Buddhist Art we mean those
monuments and paintings, which were built for the main purpose of spreading and
practicing Buddhist teachings. In India there are innumerable monuments representing
different phases of Buddhism which help us to visualize the trend of Buddhist Art
through the ages.
During the 2nd to 1st century BCE sculptures became more explicit, representing
episodes of the Buddha’s life and teachings. These took the form of votive tablets or
friezes usually in relation to the decoration of stupas. Although India had a long
sculptural tradition and a mastery of rich iconography, the Buddha was never represented
in human form, but only through some of his symbols.
Amongst these symbols, some of the commonest are the lotus, the Wheel of the Law,
the Bodhi tree, the Buddha’s footprints and so forth. Each sign had a definite meaning.
The lotus symbolises the purity of Buddha’s teaching and Buddha’s presence in the world
of the impurity just as it grows from the muddy swamp. But the lotus is untarnished by
the impurity of the mud from which it has grown. The Wheel of the Law symbolises the
wheel of teachings that keeps turning, carrying the sentient beings from the afflicted and
suffering world to the sorrowfree state of nirvana. The Bodhi tree symbolizes Buddha’s
complete enlightenment which every body should personally achieve for the sake of
others. The Buddha’s footprints symbolize the Supremely enlightened one’s feet marked
with one of the thirty two marks only peculiar to the Buddha. There were also other
symbols used in those days like Elephant, Lion, Empty throne. Elephant is represented
for the birth of Buddha. Lion is used in the sense that Buddha is like a lion whose
teaching scares all the heretics away. An empty throne was used to represent the royalty.
Horse was used to symbolize the renunciation of worldly pleasure.
Mr. Foucher in his Beginnings of Buddhist Art also has rightly observed that the
beginnings of Buddhist art are characterized by the use of some of these symbols and
one or two others; and that they were used to designate the presence of the Buddha in the
story-telling reliefs of Bharhut and Sanchi, where no anthropomorphic representation of
the Buddha can be found. Not only in Bharhut and Sanchi, but in Bodhgaya and
Amaravati and some other places also show no anthropomorphic representation of the
Buddha. Thus in the long Abhiniskramana scene, Siddhartha’s presence on Kanthaka is
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indicated only by the royal umbrella borne beside him; his sojourn in the wilderness is
indicated by foot-prints (paduka); and the First Meditation by the central railed-vrksa.
Some of these symbols taken alone came to be used to designate the Four Great Events
(afterwards eight) of the Buddha’s life; as already said, the Bodhi tree (a similar caitya
vrksa) designated the Enlightenment, the Dharmacakra, the First Sermon at Sarnath and
the Stupa, the Parinirvana.
The reluctance towards anthromorphic representations of the Buddha, and the
sophisticated developmentof aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative scene where
other human figures would appear), seems to be connected to 70 of the Buddha’s sayings,
reported in the Dighanikaya, that disfavored representations of himself after the
extinction of his body. Even after the anthromorphization of Buddha, the implication is
never to show that Buddha is the god as depicted in the non Buddhist tradition, but to
base our achievement of final goal Nirvana or Buddhahood as attained by the Buddha
himself on the image.
Anthromorphic representation of the Buddha started to emerge from the 1st century
CE in northern India. The two main centers of creation have been identified as Gandhara
in today’s North West Frontier Province, in Pakistan, and the region of Mathura in central
northern India.
Even after anthromorphic representation of Buddha is a rich culture of Buddhist
tradition today, the symbolic representation has its own implication so far as the
Vajrayana Buddhism is concerned. Because Buddhism has not so much to do with the
external theistic pantheon than the inner mind. It is best understood if it is embodied in
different symbols of animals, nature and so on. In this way, the Buddhist symbolism was
enriched by the cultures it came into contact with. The central symbols of Buddhism now
are the Eight Auspicious Symbols known in sanskrit as astamangala (asta meaning eight
and mangala meaning auspicious). The Eight Auspicious Symbols are printed on Tibetan
prayer flags, incorporated into mandalas and thangkas, and used in other forms of ritual
art. Another important symbol is the Wheel of Life, representing the core Buddhist
teaching of twelve linked Dependent Origination (pratitya samutpada).
Other important types of symbolism in Buddhism include colors, especially the five
colors of white, yellow, red, blue and green, and symbolic hand gestures called mudras.

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 BUDDHIST MANUSCRIPT PAINTINGS OF NEPAL
The earliest examples of Nepali painting consist of manuscript paintings. All early
manuscripts from Nepal are written on palm-leaves. (Pal, 1978: 36). According to P. P.
Pal, the earliest palm leaf manuscript in Nepal is as old as the seventh century, but no
manuscript painting or illuminated manuscript goes back beyond the eleventh.
These manuscripts invariably consist of narrow strips of palm leaves, sometimes as
long as twelve inches but rarely wider than three, loosely held together by means of
strings and protected by wooden boards. Often these wooden covers, a large number of
which has fortunately survived, are even more lavishly painted than the manuscripts
themselves. When paper began to replace palm leaf after the thirteenth century, it did not
substantially alter the shape of the manuscripts. Usually a small panel in the center of the
folio is devoted to illumination, but at times as many as three compositions may be
accomodated on one folio. Occasionally the ends of the folios are also provided with
narrow bands decorated with floral or geometric designs. The average size of an
illumination is generally no larger than two inches square, and yet often compositions
appear to be deceptively monumental.
Buddhist manuscripts are mostly illuminated with hieratic images of gods and
goddesses. Sometimes the manuscript itself was left unadorned, but the covers were
sumptuously painted with representations of divinities. Even when the text is
predominantly narrative and hence ideally suited for illustration, only the covers are
adorned with schematic icons which are not always relevant to the text. For example, but
for one or two exceptions, there is no direct relationship between the illuminations in a
Prajnaparamita manuscript and the text itself. Since the manuscripts themselves were
worshipped directly as if they were images, it was only logical to beautify them with
figures of deities and thereby further augment the sanctity of the books. At the same time,
by their sheer presence the images would protect the manuscripts from both natural and
supernatural evils and misfortunes.
Nepalese Manuscript Painting offers important material to students of the history of
South Asian and Central Asian art. It is difficult to know exactly when the tradition of
illustrated manuscript paintings began. But from the available documents it seems that
copying and writing manuscripts began as early as the tenth century in Nepal, i.e. during
Narendra deva’s reign (998 AD.). These include miniatures and painted book covers. The
manuscripts on which the miniatures are painted were prepared in Buddhist monasteries
of Eastern India, or in Nepal by monks’ professional painters.

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 The Pala School of Eastern India influenced Nepalese Manuscript painting of the
eleventh century and the first half of the twelfth century. When Atisa Dipankarasrijnana
from Vikramasila Vihara of Eastern India visited Nepal in 1041 AD., he brought 60 loads
of travelling appurtenances on thirty horses, including Buddhist manuscripts. At that time
he not only had copies of these manuscripts but also wrote new Buddhist texts like
Caryasangrahapradipa and Vimalaratnalekhanama.
While copying these manuscripts, Nepalese painters must have copied the style of
eastern India, integrating it into their indigenous Newar style. These two styles continued
to interact for two hundred years. The Buddhist art of the Pala dynasty in Bengal had an
important influence in Nepalese art until at least the thirteenth century.
After the influence of the eastern Indian style faded, Nepalese art continued to
develop its own character and style until the end of eighteenth century.
The earliest manuscript paintings of Nepal date from the tenth century, notably in a
manuscript of the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, copied in 135 NS or 1035 AD now in
the Cambridge University Library, England.
On the last leaf are written twelve stanzas of a text entitled Vajradhvajaparinamana. It
should be noted, however that there is no connection between the miniatures and the
Prajnaparamita text. The manuscripts on which the early miniatures are painted were
prepared in Buddhist monasteries in Nepal or sometimes in Eastern India by Buddhist
monks or Chitrakars.
Another specimen of Nepalese manuscript painting is the painting on the cover of a
manuscript dating from 148 NS., ie. 1028 AD now in the collection of Prof. S. K.
Saraswati. This is the second oldest Newar manuscript so far known. Since the name of
King Rudra Deva is mentioned in the colophon of the manuscript.
A manuscript of the Astasahasrika prajnaparamita dated 174 NS (1054 AD) from the
Heeramaneck Collection shows the eight miracles of the Buddha’s life in an unusual
manner.
A copy of the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita dated 191 NS (1071 AD), from the
collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, is another Buddhist manuscript with a
profusion of miniatures. The illustrations depict main deities such as Tara and Lokesvara,
along with their associates.

BY MILAN SHAKYA
MA in Buddhist Studies
Tribhuvan University

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