malayan books. RITUAL OBJECTS, usually made of
metal alloys, were always in demand for Buddhist cer-
emonies and initiations.
The themes of the earliest Buddhist arts in India
celebrate nature’s abundance, ironically in Western
eyes, around the stupas that commemorate the Bud-
dha’s death. The flourishing forces of water, plant life,
and animals and spirits are all evoked in the reliefs at
Bharhut and SAN
CI. The motivation for this “iconog-
raphy of abundance” has piqued the curiosity of many
generations of art historians. When MAHAYANABud-
dhism arose in India, with its emphasis not on the hu-
manity of the Buddha S ́akyamuni but on his spiritual
attainment, another irony was embodied by repre-
senting this ethereal spirit in physical form. Images of
the Buddha and BODHISATTVAs became the focus of
devotion and complicated meditations. The primacy
and the very existence of bodhisattvas, beings whose
only purpose is to devote their enlightened energies
to the benefit of others, may have been the impetus
for formulating images of the Great Persons (Maha-
purusas) in the first century C.E.INDIA, BUDDHISTART INThe exterior of cave 19 at Ajanta, Maharashtra, India. © Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis. Reproduced by permission.