Akshobhya Buddha

Akshobhya Buddha

Before the arrival of Islam in South Asia, no artist signed their work. Inscriptions on objects are rare and identify only the patron or donor. It is only by a careful analysis of unique details and extraordinary technical skills that we can identify an un-named artist, studio, or regional style.

By his elegant but restrained style, his balance of exquisite detail and broad areas of open space, and his extraordinary ability to capture the emotions of his subjects, we can identify the nameless sculptor of this Buddhist sculpture as one of the greatest artists of the Pala dynasty

This sculpture of a buddha and his attendants was carved a 1000 years ago during the Pala dynasty and may have been a royal commission. This Buddha wears the unadorned robe of a monk who has renounced the material world.  The smooth, highly polished surface of his unadorned robe make this buddha stand out from all of the details that surround him. The hand gestures called “mudras”, a “sign language” of actions and ideas, and symbolic objects , above his right and below his left hand, now missing,  would enable us to easily identify this buddha.  It is very likely that they were broken off when the sculpture was toppled by a major earthquake. 

His long ear lobes remind us that he was once a prince who has given up his crown, his massive gold ear rings, and jewels to pursue the path of enlightenment.

His broad face, high cheek bones, and perfectly arched eye-brows do not conform with standard representations of the face of a buddha. He is not meditating but looking directly at us. The sculptor has given a high polish to the pupil of these piercing eyes that seem to see not only what is but what could be. His radiant smile welcomes us into the Eastern Paradise of Vajrayana Buddhism as taught in the great universities of Bangladesh during the Pala period. It is quite possible that the sculptor used as his model a young monk he loved and admired.

On the Buddha’s right side, Padmapani, who has dedicated his countless reincarnations to the relief of human suffering, holds in his right hand a pearl of wisdom to guide us to salvation. For this Bodhisattva, once a great teacher and scholar, his jewels and elegant clothes symbolize wisdom not material wealth.

His smiling face radiates with love and compassion. Perhaps in creating him, the artist has been inspired by a favorite teacher.

A Bodhisattva on the Buddha’s left side raises his right hand in the gesture of offering us his blessing.  His robes ripple and his sash sways in the breeze as he steps forward to greet us. The sculptor was clearly familiar with the imperial court and has given us a remarkable look at the elegance and fashion of the Pala court. However, look closely, this Bodhisattva has also given away his crown and jewels. Behind both Bodhisattvas, diminutive servants, perhaps students, await in the shadows to serve their spiritual guide and teacher.

This Buddha and his Bodhisattva attendants dwell in a world whirling with action figures.

Find and carefully observe the sculptor’s attention to the details on even the smallest figures.

A boy escapes from the mouth of a sea serpent. 

Warriors riding mythological beasts engage in a battle where light will triumph over darkness.

Amongst the first converts to Buddhism, and the subject of the earliest monumental stone sculptures in South Asia, this diminutive Yaksha, as depicted in the earliest stone chaitya halls of Buddhism, literally and figuratively supports the earth on which the Buddha walks.

But it is the five Dhyana Buddhas above the head of this buddha, the umbrella at the top, and the heavenly angels, musicians, and dancers of the five Pure Land heavens awaiting those who have achieved enlightenment, that identify this sculpture as one from a set of five or more sculptures that once welcomed devotees at the four entrances and the central hall of a great Buddhist mahavihara like the one at Paharpur.

Each offers a different path to enlightenment, each presides over a different paradise, and each is identified with a different color and associated with a different animal, natural element, and direction. When painted together, they preside over Buddhist altars and the doorways of the homes of devout Buddhists.

The Dhyana Buddhas are also painted individually in sets of five paintings. Akshobya is blue. Each is identified with a different element and his is water, a different direction, and his is the East. As with other Hindu and Buddhist deities, each Dhyana Buddha is identified with an animal on which he rides. In all representations of Akshobya, he is identified by the elephants under his throne.

Look to see which animal is under the lotus of the central figure of this Varendra Museum sculpture.

The elephant identifies this sculpture as depicting the Eastern Paradise of Akshobya.

Akshobya presides over the Eastern Paradise in mandala paintings for meditation, and at the eastern entrance of mahaviharas and stupas for devotees to meditate upon his teaching before entering.

In this mandala painting, a representation of the Buddhist paradise, a magnificent palace in the middle of a cosmic ocean has four towered gateways at the four directions of the compass through which the devotee can enter upon Enlightenment. Akshobya greets his devotees at the eastern gateway.

This ground plan of Somapura  should also be placed against a blue background. A slow cross dissolve should be used to superimpose the ground plan of the Somapura Mahavihara over the mandala and for the mandala to then slowly fade away while the narrator is speaking]

In this drawing by archaeologists of the floor plan of the Somapura Mahavihara at Paharpur,  four entrances at the four sides of the compass lead to four chapels with the fifth chapel at the center. Devotees circumambulated the Mahavihara clockwise to pray to the Dhyana Buddha at each entrance before entering the central chapel.

[A second cross fade of the floor plan out as the photograph of the Somapura Mahavihari fades in will make clear that we are now approaching the vihara from ground perspective]

With the arrival of Islam, the monks at Paharpur and many Buddhist sculptors and other artists migrated to Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet in search of patronage. Their knowledge and skills created a renaissance in the arts in the Himalayas.Without royal patronage, the Buddhist viharas  in Bangladesh were abandoned. They were stripped of their valuable ornamentation. Monsoon rains washed away their elaborate stucco decorations and earthquakes toppled their towers.Over the following centuries, millions of bricks from Buddhist viharas were carted away for new construction.

It is now difficult for visitors to visualize that the Somapura Mahavihara at Paharpur, like other viharas in Vajrayana Buddhism, was a three dimensional mandala created for both personal and group meditation.

 [Here a slow cross fade will slowly superimpose the three-dimensional painting of a mandala over this side entrance to the Somapura Mahavihara  and the photograph of the vihara will fade away]

Unless they have visited viharas based on similar architectural plans in countries where Buddhism is still practiced, it is difficult for today’s visitor to imagine how magnificent the Buddhist viharas of Bangladesh were during the Pala dynasty.  

This contemporary three-dimensional mandala painting of the Paradise of the Buddha is based on ancient texts for building a mahavihara and examples of Buddhist temples in Tibet and China built around the same time as Somapura. The vihara was very likely as ornately decorated and vividly painted as this mandala painting.

[A cross dissolve will then bring the viewer from the mandala painting to a closer view of one of the entrances to the mahavihara]

  

[The following Akshobya sculpture should appear to scale (it would be about the same size as the visitors in the foreground) and be placed in the very center of the entrance at the center of this photograph. The sculpture should slowly increase in size until it fills the screen and at the same time the photograph of the vihara should fade out.]

It is very likely that the Varendra Research Museum’s Dhyana Buddha was one of a set of five or more sculptures by the same artist that were commissioned during the Pala Period for a great mahavihara.

Found in Dinajpur and brought to this museum, the precise location of the find was not recorded. What else was found at the same site is unknown. Was it found amidst the ruins of a great unexcavated vihara?

When a young student of archaeology, trained in using the latest technology to locate stone and brick structures, and stone and metal sculptures deep under the ground or at the bottom of sacred ponds and rivers, discovers these missing sculptures, we may be able to firmly identify if this young monk is, indeed, Akshobya Buddha, and why he is wearing the simple robes of a Buddhist monk and not the elaborate crown, jewelry, and robes he is often depicted as wearing in other sculptures and painting.

Perhaps you, or your son or daughter, will study to become that young archeologist who makes this amazing discovery.

Last updated by admin at 11 September, 2020