Alex Claveria

March 4, 14
HAA 220
Research Paper
Throughout this whole year we have viewed many works of art
from Buddhist culture and all the art that we discussed arent what I
pictured when I signed up for this class. When I read Buddhist Art I
pictured we would be looking at some picture with a man sitting down
who is bald with a big belly showing. I was quickly mistaken after the
first day of class. We started going through the works and I learned that
the art had a meaning to what and why the art was made the way it was.
I started noticing that as we went further on in the class that all of the
works had the figures in the works holding up a hand gesture. I started
to see this more and more often in the works, which really caught my
attention, so the curious me wanted to research more into the meaning
of these gestures and why they were specifically put into the art works.
The first artwork I saw this with was Bodhisattva/Buddha
Shakyamuni from the Kushan period in India in the 2nd century.
(Figure 2.2) I found out that the meaning of this hand gestures were

symbols of a deeper meaning and that each different hand gesture had
different meaning to eat to try and teach us the audience of these art
works.
So as I stated in the pervious paragraph I first saw the hand
gesture in Figure 2.2, Bodhisattva/Buddha Shakyamuni. The work
shows a man sitting crossed legged with his one had raised with a hand
gesture and a smile on his face. Behind him on each side of him are two
other people smiling. The man seems to be sitting on some pedestal
with a circle surrounding his head and some branches all around him.
The artiest makes the man sitting as the focal point of this work. I can
identify this because of how significantly bigger he is compared to the
other people in the statue, also the man is sitting in the middle and
everything is surrounding him. By knowing that he is the focal point
there must be a reason the artist wants us to notice this and see the
message they are trying to portray to us.
The reason this piece of artwork caught my eye is by the strong
contrast between light and shade. In the background there isnt many
strong shades to really bring my attention to the background. But as
you move forward in the statue you see there is a strong shadow, given
from the light shinned upon it, under the raised arm with the hand

gesture. There are some strong shadows around the mans face, under
his legs and on the side of his chest or underarm. All these light and
shades contrast suggest to me that man is profoundly more in front of
the background to bring our attention to him. The artist did this to
show us that he has a message with the way he is sitting and by the way
his upper body is setup. The artist setup the upper body with
The unusual gestures of the hand, the subtle inclination of the
head towards

the viewers, and the soft smile on the face

All these features hold a meaning to suggest about the man,

give the pensive bodhisattva a special sense of both ethereal
aloofness and

human kindness.

I guess what the artist is trying to suggest is that the man is someone we
can look up to but at the same time is someone we can identify with as
one of us.
As we started to look at more of the artworks in class I noticed
that more and more of the statues each were showing some sort of hand
gesture. I researched the meaning of these hand gestures and the
correct term of the hand gestures is Mudras. The definition of mudras
is any of a series of arm and hand positions expressing an attitude or
action of the deity. Also I noticed that sometimes the hand gestures

were different from each other. For example, the artwork I originally
described the hand gesture in that one is different from Buddha (from
Gal Vihara) in Sri Lanka, 1153-1186. (Figure 6.15) The hand gesture in
this one is of the man laying his right hand palm up upon his left hand,
which is also palm up, resting on his lap. The previous artwork showed
the mans right hand slightly elevated and the palm turned outwards.
This mudra is called Abhaya Mudra which is The Gesture of
Fearlessness or also known as The Gesture of Renunciation. The
other mudra is called Samadhi Mudra where both hands resting on the
lap, palms upwards, known as The Gesture of Mediation. So the
slightest difference in each hands gesture has a different meaning to
each mudra. There isnt really a specific number to how many mudras
there are but there are some common mudras. There is Dharmacakra
Mudra, Varada Mudra, Dhyana Mudra, Vitarka Mudra, Tarjani Mudra,
Namaskara Mudra, Buddhashramana Mudra, Bhutadmara Mudra, and
Abhaya Mudra. With each one having a different positioning or
intertwining of the fingers and each possess an occult meaning and
magical efficacy.
The artist who created these statues incorporated the hand
gestures not only because it was what practiced in the Buddhist culture

but also because the were trying to portray a message whether it be that
the Buddha is trying to teach us or the Buddha is trying to attain
enlightenment. Another piece of art I found with such a gesture is a
statue from found in the Peshawar Valley ca. 200-250 CE. The statue is
a scene of the victory over Mara.
This scene of the victory over Mara (Maravijaya) depicts the
Buddha-to-be

at the moment of overcoming Mara and attaining the

right to enlightenment. He does so by calling the Earth goddess Prithivi

devi or Bhudevi to witness

his past lives of perfecting himself to the

point where he no longer has egoistic cravings and delusions. He calls

the goddess by simply touching the earth (Bhumisparsha) with his right
hand.
In this particular artwork the artiest was delivering a certain message to
us the viewers of the art. He used the mudra to help deliver that
message in the statue. The artist also used space to help direct our eye
towards the focal point of the statue, which is the Buddha. He did this
by having everyone else around him on top of each other where as the
Buddha in the middle is somewhat separated from them. The statue
seems to be made out of stone, which with the cravings in the stone give

a good contrast of shadows to give the viewers eye a better

understanding of the piece, an almost 3-d look to the statue.
All in all, we all know that in any artwork not in just Buddhist art
there is a message in the art to tell the audience. In Buddhist art many
artist use the hand gestures, or mudras, of the Buddhas to tell a story to
us. They use the mudras to help us get better understanding of the
Buddhas and their story from their life.
These figures obviously possessed a very important religious
meaning for

those who commissioned and made them.

This is just another reminder that these figures hold a certain meaning
and arent just some statuses holding some gang sign.

Bibliography
Huntington, John C. "Mudra in Pan-Asian Buddhism." . N.p., n.d. Web. 6
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Eileen Hsiang-Ling Hsu
Artibus Asiae , Vol. 62, No. 1 (2002) , pp. 5-32
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Article DOI: 10.2307/3250280
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250280

From Bodhisattva to Buddha: The Beginning of Iconic

Representation in Buddhist Art
Ju-Hyung Rhi
Artibus Asiae , Vol. 54, No. 3/4 (1994) , pp. 207-225
Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers
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