Buddhist Studies

Rather than offering a comprehensive survey, this course deals with select themes that shed light on the origins, development and diffusion of Buddhist art chronologically and geographically through a combined study that considers the archaeological record (excavations, coins, etc.), key religious texts and epigraphy. Typical themes will be the early notion of aniconism and the evolution of iconic art (Buddha and bodhisattva images); the depiction of Jatakas and other narratives in reliefs and painting; the cave sculptures of the Western Deccan; tantric art, temples and monasteries; the art, archaeology and architecture of South India and Sri Lanka; Indic Buddhist monuments in South-East Asia such Bagan in Burma, Borobudur, and Angkor.

Spriing 2024:

The course will be focused on the events in the life of the historical Buddha as depicted in the earliest works of art, first from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and then from Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and to some extent, China. The life story of the Buddha is represented in ancient art in different—and sometimes conflicting—ways. This can be traced to confusion over sometimes profound differences in the way the events are narrated in the earliest sacred texts. Among the life episodes we will discuss are the birth of the Buddha as the prince Siddhārtha; the Buddha’s final motivation before The Great Departure (abhiniṣkramaṇa); the birth of his son Rāhula; the time the Buddha spent in the vicinity of the Bodhi tree after his Enlightenment; and how and where the Buddha performed the ‘Twin Miracle’ (yamakapāṭihāriya). In this course we will examine how the early texts (the Lalitavistara, the Mahāvastu and the Buddhacharita, as well as the Chinese and Tibetan translations of the original Sanskrit texts of the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Vinay and the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya) have inspired the artists and their mentors as they came up with confident and aesthetically pleasing solutions for how to depict the key life events of the Buddha. Finally, the story of the Buddha's life cannot be understood without taking into account the narratives of the Pāli Nidānakathā, composed in the fifth century CE in Sri Lanka, as the Nidānakathā and other Pāli texts in turn inspired the later paintings of the Kandyan period in Sri Lanka and, to some extent, the art of Southeast Asia.

This course will also provide a multi-disciplinary approach by exploring the origin, development and diffusion of Buddhist art chronologically and geographically through a combined study of archaeological records, key religious texts, and epigraphy. The following major sites of Buddhist art in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be discussed: Bharhut, Sāñcī, Amarāvatī, Kanaganahalli and Nagrjunakonda, Gandhāra and Mathurā. These early
forms of Indian art will then be compared with Sri Lankan, Burmese, Thai, Javanese, and Chinese art.