The document covers the historical development of Buddhism, highlighting its foundations in the Indus Valley civilization and the subsequent emergence of the Vedic period. It details the life of Siddharta Gautama, who became the Buddha, and the establishment of different Buddhist sects such as Theravada and Mahayana, as well as fundamental concepts like the Four Noble Truths. Additionally, it describes significant architectural features and art forms associated with Buddhism from ancient times through the Gupta period.

1. Buddhism
Prepared for FA 18 by Prof. Fara Manuel
UP College of Fine Arts, Department of Theory

2. INDUS CIVILIZATION
• Early South Asian
• Centered in the Indus Valley, Pakistan and
extended beyond India
• The earliest South Asia cities in the Indus Valley
have rational plans and sophisticated water
supply and sewage system
• Indus Civilization art is small scale and has
stylistic parallels in the art of Mesopotamia
• Alexander the Great reached India ca. 300 BCE
and witnessed the developed civilization
2600-1500 BCE

3. South ASIA
• Present-day
India,
Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Nepal,
Bhutan,
Bangladesh,
and
Sri Lanka
Countries

4. map

5. Indus Civilization:
Mohenjo-Daro (Pakistan)
• Population of around 35,000
• Sophisticated water-supply (wells providing fresh
water) and sewage system
• Private baths
• Feature: The Great Bath – used for ritual bathing
still practiced in South Asia today

8. Seals on Clay
• Seal depicting a
figure wearing a
horned
headdress and
seated in yogic
posture indicates
that this Indian
practice began
during the period
of Indus
civilization

10. Vedic
Period
• Veda – “knowledge”
• (c. 1750-500 BCE) is named for the Vedas, the oldest scriptures in
Hinduism, which were composed during this period
• Vedas - Oral hymns of the Aryans – a mobile herding people that originated from
Central Asia and occupied Punjab

11. Aryans and
Brahmins
Aryans –”The noble ones”
composed 1st of 4 vedas in 1500
BCE
- spoke SANSKRIT, the
oldest language spoken in South
Asia
VEDAS - intended for Brahmins or
priests; headed the social
hierarchy or caste system that
still form basis of the Indian
society today.
The Aryan religion centered on
sacrifice where ritual offering is
auspicious

12. Hindu Caste
system
• Brahmin
• Warriors
• Traders
• Manual Laborers
(artists and architects)
• Untouchables

13. Upanishads
Period
• Ca. 800 to 500 BCE;
religious thinkers
composed a variety of
texts called Upanishads
• They were innovative
ideas like: samsara or
belief in an endless cycle
of re-births. Rebirth can
vary and depending on
deeds or past actions
(karma) either good or
bad determine nature of
future rebirths.
The wheel of Samsara >

14. Buddha’s life
• Mayadevi, queen of the Shakya clan and mother of
the Buddha receives a prophecy through a dream
that she will bear a son who would become a great
world conqueror or a great religious leader. His
husband, King of the Shakya clan, aspired for the
secular role and would groom their son for kingship.
Mayadevi dies 7 days after giving birth to his son,
later known as Buddha, the Enlightened One.
• 562 BCE Prince Siddharta Gautama was born,
eldest of the Shakya clan
• At 29 y.o. Prince Siddharta rode out of the palace
and abandoned his wife and family, outside the
palace, he encountered the pain of old age,
sickness and death for the first time. Siddharta
responded by renouncing his opulent lifeand
becoming a wandering ascetic. 6 years later, he
attains enlightenment or complete Buddhahood
while meditating under a Bodhi tree.
Birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini
(present-day Nepal)
Bodh Gaya in Eastern India
(“Place of Enlightenment)

15. Buddhism
• Theravada earliest form of Buddhism; main
thrust is to attain nirvana by following
Buddha’s path
• Mahayana belief in a larger goal of
Buddhahood for all; they also revere
Bodhisattvas (Buddhas-to-be) – they wrho
restrain themselves at the threshold of
nirvana to aid others in earning merit and
achieving Buddhahood.
• Amitabha buddhist sect – worships
Amitabha Buddha (Amida in Japanese)
Birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini
(present-day Nepal)
Bodh Gaya in Eastern India
(“Place of Enlightenment)

16. Buddhism
• Theravada Buddhism dominant sect in
Southern India, Sri Lanka, and mainland
Southeast Asia
• Mahayana Buddhism took root in Northern
India and spread to China, Korea, Japan
and Nepal
Birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini
(present-day Nepal)
Bodh Gaya in Eastern India
(“Place of Enlightenment)

17. Four Noble Truths
• 1 Life is Suffering
• 2 The cause of suffering is desire
• 3 One can overcome and extinguish desire
• 4 the way to conquer desire and end suffering is to follow
the Buddha’s Eight-fold Path of:
right understanding, right thought, right speech,
right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness
and right concentration

18. The Buddha’s path
leads to Nirvana
• Claimed from observance of Buddha’s path
• Ending the endless cycle of painful life, death and re-birth
• Cessation from re-birth samsara

19. Maurya Period
• Ashoka (r. 272-231 BCE) converts to Buddhism
• He builds the Great Stupa at Sanchi, India
• Lion – Buddha as son a leader;
The Lions on this capital from Sarnath
supported the Wheel of the Law. Texts refer
to Buddha as the leader of the Shakya clan.
323-185 BCE

20. Ashoka’s pillars
The Lion Pillar
• Monolithic structure that
contained inscriptions of
Ashoka’s legal code
• Axis mundi – connecting earth
and sky; towering 30-40 ft.
• First large-scale stone work in
India
• Lion – king beast and symbol
od Mauryan royal motif

22. Shunga, Satavahana, Kushan
• Successors of Maurya
• First representations of the
Buddha in human form appear
based on Greco-Roman art
prototypes
185 BCE-320 CE
Standing Buddha by Gandhara artists, 3rd CE

23. The Stupa at Sanchi, India

24. The Stupa
• A large circular mound modeled on earlier South
Asian burial mounds of a type familiar in many
other ancient cultures
• Monument housing the remains of Buddha
(not a tomb)
• Functioned as a reliquary of the cremated
remains of Buddha
• Originally, Buddha’s ashes were spread int 8
stupas
• Buried in solid earthen mound; not accessible
• King Ashoka opened the 8 and distributed
Buddha’s ashes in thousands of stupas in all
corners of the land he ruled

26. A R C H I T E C T U R A L B A S I C S
The Stupa
• Circumambulation – Buddhists
venerated the Buddha’s (walking
around the stupa in a clockwise
direction)
• Echoing the movement of the
earth and sun – to be in harmony
with the cosmos
• Monumental stupas (like Sanchi)
are 3D mandalas or sacred
diagrams of the universe

27. A R C H I T E C T U R A L B A S I C S
The Stupa
• Domed stupa – world mountain
• Toranas – gateways; mark the
cardinal points
• Harmika – atop the stupa;
encloses a square area
symbolizing the sacred domain
• yasti – pole marking center/axis of
the universe
• 3 chatras – stone disks; crown the
yasti

28. Yakshi
Goddesses that personify
fertility and vegetation
The Sanchi yakshis make mango
trees
Relief sculpture of toranas
depict episodes of Buddha’s life
and tales of his past lives
(jatakas)

29. Union between heaven
and earth
Yasti rises from the Mountain dome passes through the Harmika
Stone fence separates Buddha’s relics from the profane world outside
The Stupa
and space

30. A R C H I T E C T U R A L B A S I C S
Chaitya halls at
Karle, India
• C. 100 CE; 45 ft. high x 125 ft. long
• Buddhist stupa hall
• Rock-cut cave imitate the earliest timber
halls
• The pillared ambulatory (walking path)
enabled worshipers to circumambulate the
stupa in the apse of the cave
• Mithunas or amorous couples flank the
entrance; symbolize the creative life force

32. B U D D H I S T I C O N O G R A P H Y
Meditating Buddha from
Gandhara, Pakistan 2nd C.
• Many early portrayals of the
Buddha in human form come from
Gandhara and depicted the
Enlightened one as a robed monk
and divinity (rather than
enlightened mortal)
• The style owes much to Greco-
Roman Art
• Hand gesture of meditation –
dyana mudra

33. Buddhist Iconography
• Earliest (1st century CE) depictions depict Buddha in human
form as a robed monk
• lakshanas (body attributes indicating Buddha’s suprahuman
nature):
- Urna – curl of hair between eyebrows, shown as a dot
- Ushnisha – cranial bump (shown as hair and later part of the
head
- Palms and soles imprinted with a wheel
- Elongated ears – royal status as a prince (he wore heavy
earrings)
- Halo or sundisk behind his head (Enlightenment)

35. Episodes from
Buddha’s Life
• Birth at Lumbini from the side of her mother,
Queen Maya
• Achievement of Buddhahood under a Bodhi
Tree
• First Sermon at Sarnath to 5 followers
• Attainment of Nirvana (Paranirvana) when he
died at Kushinagara

37. B U D D H I S T I C O N O G R A P H Y
Meditating Buddha
from Mathura, India

38. Gupta and Post-Gupta
• Gupta sculptors set the standard
for canonical image of the Buddha
• Ajanta cave painting – oldest
preserved
320-647

43. Preah Khan, Cambodia

44. Angkor Thom, Cambodia

45. Death of the Buddha
(Paranirvana)
Gal Vihara, near Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

46. Medieval
• Distinct regional styles emerge in South Asian temple
architecture
• Regional variations from both sculptural and
architectural prototypes appear throughout Southeast
Asia
647-1200

48. reference
• Kleiner, F. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 15th edition.