Lord Buddha

Lord Buddha

Gandhar School, 1st Century CE

 Unlike the Indian artist, the Greek artist emphasised the muscular structure of the body. Here we see a muscular Lord Buddha under his clothes. The rippling muscles of Greek art is combined with the serenity of Indian art. The 'abhay mudra' ( the gesture of blessing, of assurance, of saying 'fear not') is a typical gesture of Indian iconography. The Gandhar artist beautifully combined the materialism of the West with the spirituality of the East. That is the great achievement of this School of art.