Subject: arakshadhikrta infantry guard
Culture: Gandharan
Setting: Great Kushan empire, northern India/Afghanistan 2nd-3rdc
* Freer and Sackler Galleries > Freer
After meditating for forty days beneath a pipal tree, the Buddha approached the moment of omniscience. Evil demons have failed to distract him, and he calmly touches the earth goddess to witness his attainment of enlightenment. His right hand, lowered in the earth-touching gesture (bhumisparsha mudra), signals that moment. The Buddha is depicted with the characteristic forehead mole (urna) and cranial bump (ushnisha) that symbolize his immense spiritual capacity."
* Dallas Museum of Art > Owsley Gallery of South Asian Art
"Relief depicting the Bodhisattva Maitreya India: Gandharan period, 3rd century Green stone ...
The Bodhisattva Maitreya represents the Buddha of the Future. It was believed that his rebirth as a Buddha would usher in a utopian era."
* Brooklyn Museum > South and South-East Asian Art
"Attack of Mara India, Gandhara, 2nd-3rd century A.D. Gray schist ...
This sculpture is only a fragment of a larger narrative panel depicting a key scene in the life of the Buddha, one in which Mara, the god of desire, attempts to interrupt the Buddha's meditations and thwart his path to enlightenment (nirvana). Alternating between tempting the Buddha with sensual pleasures and attacking him with demon hordes and a host of natural weapons such as wind, rain, and rocks, Mara tries relentlessly to disturb the Buddha, but to no avail. The Buddha figure, which is missing from this sculptural panel, would have been seated to the right of the human and animal figures so animatedly focusing their gazes in that direction." ...
