Figure

The hair is represented with wavy lines that cover a prominent skull protruberance (‘ushnisha’). The figure is framed by a radiating back plate with flames and pearl projections. These are reminiscent of the flaming aureole associated with the Buddha imagery as a source of light (‘radiance’). They also perhaps allude to when he made flames miraculously emit from his shoulders.

The figure stands on a moulded rectangular base close in style to those being produced in Gupta workshops of northern India in the 5th and 6th centuries. It displays a number of the Buddha’s auspicious body markings (‘laksanas’), notably the ‘ushnisha’, the forehead mark (‘urna’), extended earlobes, hand-markings and webbed fingers.