Standing Buddha offering reassurance, copper alloy, Gandhara, Pakistan, c 6th century

Standing figure of the Buddha with the right hand raised in a gesture of reassurance (abhaya- mudra). The hair is represented by wavy lines which cover a prominent ushnisha. The robes cover both shoulders and hang in loose folds. With its radiating backplate and characteristic typology, this 'Gandhara bronze' has a single pearl on the extremity of the spokes, the pearl on the oval's inner edge is now positioned on its either side rather in the centre; and a spike protrudes from the top of the nimbus. The figure shows its right knee flexed and the weight of the body resting on the left leg, more relaxed. The face, with its fleshy cheeks, pursed lips, high forehead and wide-open eyes with incised pupils, has greater individuality and the hair, in contrast to the Indianising flattened curls is wavy in the manner of conventional Gandhara schist Buddhas. The stepped and moulded base has been seen before in more elevated form on the 'Gandhara bronze' from Afghanistan.

The original function of the' Gandhara bronze' as a portable shrine becomes fully apparent here with the assemblage of all three componant parts. However, the curiously unfinished appearance of the protruding spike on the statue suggests that the composition may lack yet another component.The spike here may signify a stupa spire, the Buddhist equivalent of the axis mundi, and it may also have supported an umbrella, possibly of similar post-Gupta type.
The evidence deriving from the style of the face and base combined with that of the backplate design and halo spike can be seen to support the same fifth to seventh century AD range assigned the other 'Gandhara bronzes'.

Purchased from Major General A L Haughton. A similar bronze owned by Mr P Jeannerat's collection.

Sahri Bahlol, Gandhara

This standing Buddha was originally a portable processional shrine. It is assembled from a figure, base and nimbus. The projection at the summit of the nimbus was intended to support an honorific umbrella, a signifier of rank.

The sophisticated figure conforms closely to a known group of such processional images from Gandhara, north-west India. Here he stands with his right hand raised in a gesture of reassurance (‘abhaya-mudra’), looking directly at the devotee. The right knee is flexed and the deeply fluted, gracefully draped robes clearly define the body of the Buddha.

The hair is represented with wavy lines that cover a prominent skull protruberance (‘ushnisha’). The figure is framed by a radiating back plate with flames and pearl projections. These are reminiscent of the flaming aureole associated with the Buddha imagery as a source of light (‘radiance’). They also perhaps allude to when he made flames miraculously emit from his shoulders.

The figure stands on a moulded rectangular base close in style to those being produced in Gupta workshops of northern India in the 5th and 6th centuries. It displays a number of the Buddha’s auspicious body markings (‘laksanas’), notably the ‘ushnisha’, the forehead mark (‘urna’), extended earlobes, hand-markings and webbed fingers.

IS.12-1948