the second century BCE, in some cases patronized by the increasingly affluent
classes of artisans themselves, many of whom were Jains or Buddhists. These
laterstu ̄ paswould have the form of a rotunda or “egg” (an.d.a) with a walkway
around it, up to four entryways with lintels carved with animals and symbols
depicting Buddhist themes. The carvings on these entryways included motifs
borrowed from the “folk” landscape: yaks.is(voluptuous young maidens), for
example, were depicted on the lintels entwined with vegetation – these
figures were undoubtedly borrowed from agrarian representatives of god-
desses associated with vegetation. Elephants were another such symbol – by
now, representative of royalty, insofar as emperor/warriors rode elephants
into battle, but also emblematic of the wild world of nature “domesticated”
by the spirit of Buddhism.
On top of these stu ̄ pasone would find a caitya(a three-layered pillar)
representative of the Buddha who was said to be resting in nirva ̄n.a. It is
important to note that at this stage, the Buddha was not depicted anthro-
pomorphically. Rather, he was represented by symbols: the bodhi tree
(where he is thought to have been enlightened); footprints (intimations
of his path); a wheel (the wheel of dhammaand of life, emblematic of his
first sermon); a turban (indicative of what had been renounced); a lotus
(that which was “self-created” out of the “defilements” of existence); or a
caitya, etc. It was under the aegis of the Kus.a ̄n.as, and especially Kanis.ka
(c. first or second century CE), a convert to Buddhism, that we find the
Buddha represented anthropomorphically. Artisans were brought in from
the Greco-Roman world who began to portray the Buddha first in very
Mediterranean forms, but eventually in more indigenous ways. Buddha had
come to be “divinized” as the epitome of light (as in the figure of Amita ̄bha)
perhaps under the influence of Zoroastrianism’s Ahura Mazda. A Buddhist
pantheon had begun to emerge and at the top of the cosmos, much like a
king, sat the Buddha. The Buddha gave warrant or privilege (“varan”), like
the king, to his ministers – in this case to the bodhisattvas.
The bodhisattvas indirectly helped people by serving as exemplars and
providing common people with the opportunity to gain merit by venerating
them. The emergent Buddhist “pantheon” now included various repre-
sentations of buddhas and bodhisattvas depicted iconographically. In the
meanwhile, by the third century CE, the thought of the great Buddhist
philosopherNa ̄ga ̄rjunahad provided in the doctrine of s ́u ̄ nyata ̄a rationale
for the veneration of icons and bodhisattvas. S ́u ̄ nyata ̄was the notion that
nothing had its own being (svabha ̄va); that is, nothing existed inde-
pendently;samsa ̄ra– the realm of the tangible world – did not have svabha ̄va
(its independent existence); nor did nirva ̄n.a. It followed then that samsa ̄ra
was congruent to nirva ̄n.a.Nirva ̄nawas evident in samsa ̄ra; all apparent
opposites were collapsed; buddhahood was innate in all things. Concrete
The Urban Period 57