A Study on the Incarnation of Buddha in Indian Art: Symbolic to Figurative

The representation of Buddha’s image in the art of India, has always been associated with the necessities of life, beliefs and customs of Indian people. Buddha’s representation, could be divided into two phases: the symbolic phase which sometimes called the first period (2B.C to 1A.D) and the figurative phase which is also called the second period (from 1A.D. on). During his lifetime (563 B.C -483 B.C), Buddha was opposed to his objectivity in form of a human, and therefore his mythical visage was shown with the help of symbols and signs, throughout the first phase. These symbols and signs were related to Buddha’s life, the objects he used, the places he has been to, and the events happened to him or by him. It was about 1A.D that his human figure emerged in Indian art. This emergence was basically in art of northern regions such as Gandhara and Mathura. The Buddha of Gandhara had Indo-Greek features, and that was due to the former influence of the Greek culture after the Alexander’s reign in this area, which is in today Afghanistan and Pakistan.  While Mathuran Buddha had indigenous characteristics of Indian art. Despite of the style, Buddha’s image began to be created clearly after first century A.D. It should be noted that, the worship of image has had a long history in India and is dated back to pre-Vedic period. Indian people were used to concentrate on their gods’ and goddesses’ images while worshipping. It was so in all the religions and sects in this country. The dominant assumption in this analytical paper is that, despite the prohibition of displaying the human figure in the first phase of Buddhist art, Buddha’s followers, has always tried to develop a mental image of his face, influenced by various factors such as adjacency with other religions such as Hinduism and Jainism.  And it was only after the disappearance of the extremisms in Buddhism, that they found the opportunity to create his image with a perfect aesthetic elegance and maturity. Because a picture, this perfect and sublime couldn’t be created all of sudden, and after 600 years of banishment, and without any planning. The purpose of this paper is to study this transitional period of the symbols changing to human figure, and also the facts affecting it. This paper is also trying to answer this question that, whether the image of Buddha, mental or real, existed during the first period or not? If yes, what are the reasons to this answer? And if there was any image created, what has happened to them, and why there is no archeological evidence left? To achieve this goal, gathering data is done through documentary method via library resources. Religious texts, artefacts discovered, Buddhist myths and the cultural terms of the Buddhist societies are also referred to, to prove the hypothesis of this study. According to the conclusions of this study, the image described, have been existed since Buddha was alive.