Buddha Head

Description

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, Mathurā enjoyed considerable prosperity. As the capital of the Kushan Empire, it played a decisive role in trade relations and cultural exchanges, with the dynasty exercising constant control over the routes and transactions of northern India. The dynasty’s patronage also encouraged the production of religious art, which earned Mathurā worldwide renown for its primitive Buddhist art.  

This Buddha head in pink speckled sandstone is a remarkable example of this, due to its rarity and age. Despite the absence of the ūrṇā and the uṣnῑṣa, the divine aspect is revealed thanks to the ears deformed by heavy earrings, which Prince Siddhartha removed during the episode of the Great Departure. The eyes, with their hemmed contours and wide lids, are typical of Mathurā’s art, as are the prominent superciliary arches. The high, marked corners of the mouth emphasise the smiling mouth. It is worth noting the treatment of the hair, soberly depicted in a smooth mass, which is singular in Mathurā art. Carved in very high relief or in the round, this fragment would have belonged to a stele representing the Buddha. A comparable sculpture is published in: PAL Pratapaditya, Indian Sculpture Volume 1, University of California Press, 1987, p. 181, S58. 

Provenance (by repute): Sam Saidan’s collection