Lord Buddha in solid brass with richly decorated robes. A noble artwork.
Dimensions: 11" x 7" x 4".
Weight 7 lbs
Free Worldwide Shipping!About this artwork:This richly detailed artwork of Lord Buddha, depicts him seated in the padmasana posture. His extended right
hand is firmly planted on the earth, which defines the conventional form of
bhumisparsha mudra. The drapery known as sanghati is superbly cast in fine detail.
This image of the Buddha represents him in
bhumisparsha-mudra, a posture in which he is depicted as touching the earth. It
depicts the stage, when immediately before his Illumination, he defeats the
last of the obstacles in the path of his realization of the supreme truth.
The episode in which Lord Buddha invoked the earth has great significance
both in Buddha's life as well as in the Buddhist tradition. It was around the
end of his six year long meditation that Mara, the Evil One, renewed its
efforts to distract the Sakyamuni from his path and destroy his concentration.
Mara sent to him many of its minions, the tempting nymphs and horrifying
demons, hunger and affluence, parching heat and icy cold and the bonds of life
and the fear of death, but Gautama conquered them all. Now delusion was the
only weapon for the Mara to try. For deluding every one and every particle of
the cosmos, Mara screamed loudly acclaiming a false triumph, "You are
vanquished, Gautama". The Sakyamuni kept quiet but he extended his right
hand till his fingers reached the earth and calling upon her prayed that she
witness that he had defeated the Mara and its minions. Soon after he overcame
the Mara, the light exploded within and he was the Enlightened, the Buddha.
In the Buddhist tradition, Buddha's life cycle is classified
in three broad divisions, the Buddha, or the phase of his Enlightenment, the
Dharma, or the phase when he initiated a new doctrine and the Sangha, or the
phase when he founded a new monastic order. A number of sculptures and bronzes
recovered from various Buddhist sites depict these three phases in isolated
sculptures but sometimes also in a single stone piece or a well connected metal
cast, which seems to have enshrined an altar conjointly. The first phase, known
as Akshobhya, manifested in his bhumisparsha-mudra, the second one, known as
Vairochana, manifested in Dharmapravartana-mudra and the third, known as
Amitabha, manifested as engaged in Dhyana. Of these three, the image in
Dharmapravartana-mudra has greater significance in Buddhist tradition and is
hence usually installed in the centre and often on a double lotus pedestal, or
a more elevated pitha, while the other two have only single lotus pithas.
