LOT 0231

Gandharan Gold Clad Figural Buddha Bead Group

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-2ND CENTURY A.D. OR LATER

1 3/8 - 1 3/4 in. (78.32 grams total, 34-43 mm).

The majority displaying standing figures in repoussé to both faces of a lozenge-shaped body; five formed as naked male figures with hands clasped in front of the waist; a single bead formed as a full-bodied figure wearing a headdress, one hand held over the pubic region, which is pierced; sheet-gold over bituminous cores; from a ritual headdress; most complete. [21]

Acquired 1970s onwards.
Private collection of Michael O'Hara, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Ex private collection of Benjamin Hyde-Smith, Hertfordshire, UK.

Cf. grave II of Tillya-Tepe, in Cambon, P., (ed.), Hidden Afghanistan, Amsterdam, 2007, no.75 p.177, for technique used for the two gold musician figures.

Although the Buddha himself never visited Gandhara, with the passage of time the area became a veritable holy land for his followers. Mahayanism – a liberal and progressive school of Buddhism – flourished in Gandhara and laid emphasis among other things, on the transformation of the Buddha into a great mythological, almost eternal, god, and on the deification of future Buddhas as holding providences. In the visual arts, Buddha was permitted for the first time to be represented in human form.