ANCIENNE REGION DU GANDHARA, IIEME-IIIEME SIECLE

The present schist sculpture of a bodhisattva is of exceptional sculptural quality. The sculpture's refinement and elegant restraint place it in 2nd/3rd centuries, often considered the high period of Gandharan art. It is likely he would have held a water vessel in the left hand, identifying him as the bodhisattva Maitreya. This identification is reinforced by the hairstyle, which is generally reserved for this Bodhisattva. Maitreya is considered the Buddha of the future. When the dharma is forgotten on Earth, he will descend from the Tushita Heaven, where he resides, to be born in our realm as the next Buddha. His iconic water vessel, the kundika, is found in many different contexts within Indian sculpture, but is almost always a symbol of fertility and life. It is an apt visual icon, therefore, for Maitreya's role as a progenitor of future peace and order. When he is born on Earth, Maitreya is depicted in rich robes similar to that of the historical Gautama Buddha, prior to his renunciation of worldly goods. His vestments include a foliate collar, a rope-work necklace with makara-head pendant, and a cord with cylindrical amulet boxes of a type still in use in South Asia. In the Gandharan period, Maitreya is considered as the most important Bodhisattva.

The bodhisattva, or enlightened being, was a central feature of Mahayana Buddhism. The Mahayana ideology advocated the importance of faith in the Buddha principle, expressed through love and devotion, as the most important element in the achievement of salvation. The means through which salvation could be attained was worship of the bodhisattva, who was also a model of benevolence and compassion, qualities exemplified in the present sculpture.

The present figure may be compared with two comparable sculptures of youthful bodhisattvas in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum (acc. 939.18.1 & 940.18.1) see Isao Kurita, Gandharan Art II: The World of the Buddha, Tokyo, 2003, pl.15 & 16.