Pilgrim's Treasures, Artifacts and Artwork

As the story of the Buddha became known, various places became especially revered for their association with particular events in the Buddhaʼs life; places like Lumbini – the birthplace of the Buddha; Bodh Gaya – where he was enlightened; Sarnath – where he first taught; Sravasti – where he performed numerous miracles; and Kusinagar – where he experienced parinirvana and left this world. These places along with many others such as the locations of the first eight great stupas that enshrined his relics, along with great Buddhist universities and their revered teachers, special temples, monasteries and sites with peculiar or “miraculous” phenomena associated with legends of the Buddha – such as where hand-prints or footprints were seen in the natural rock – all these became destinations for pilgrims. For people wanting to experience something connected to a Buddha legend or life-event, these pilgrimage places became extremely important – as they are to Buddhists today. Inevitably pilgrims wanted to leave for home with remembrance items, souvenirs, items to treasure, wear as amulets or place on their home altars. These pilgrimʼs treasures, very often of little intrinsic value but sometimes costly, can tell us a lot about the art, culture and belief-system of the time. This section of our “Out of Uddiyana” exhibit includes a variety of such pilgrimage items as well as portable art works.

Of note are an interesting group of small terra-cotta seated, standing, walking and miracle-making Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in relief, including one showing Mayamaya and the Buddha nativity, all cast from molds – allegedly from the Bamiyan region, site of the huge Buddha sculptures recently destroyed by the Taliban. Some of these terra-cottas when fired became reddish brown and resemble the natural color of Mathura stone sculptures; others when fired became grey and resemble the color of Gandharan schist sculptures. This exhibition includes both types, as well as one perhaps from Sarnath. There is also a fascinating group of several small Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and a “Fasting Buddha” recovered from Swat/Uddiyana, carved from bone. There are also two small but exquisite Gandharan grey schist “seal” stamps with Buddha heads surmounted and a fine and most unusual
reddish stone Janus-type head of the Buddha Shakyamuni and the Future Buddha Maitreya.

Pilgrims visited Gandhara and Uddiyana not only for purposes of trade or study but primarily to gain merit by circumambulating the great stupas and offering lamps, incense, flowers, silk or jewelry – especially at those places with notorious legendary histories. No doubt there were pilgrim guide-books as well as pilgrimʼs guides, advising what to offer where and the benefits to be had. But what was taken away and partly survived were the small portable items purchased during the pilgrimage. From them we can look, touch and glean just something of the pilgrimage experience.

As well as pilgrim souvenirs of Buddhist subjects, and small items of different types including coins, seals, bronze roundels, miniature figures of deities, strange Indo-Greek or Roman-inspired items – finds from some of the diverse cultures which had passed through these regions – these artifacts and art-works sometimes were taken away by pilgrims and, also, some were brought from far away. Included in this category are a rare silver and two bronze images of Hariti – a goddess associated with children. Also in this category is a small Gandhara-style stone sculpture of the Buddha with two Bodhisattva attendants carved from the distinctive pink-speckled “Sikri” stone from Mathura (one of only three known in this medium found in Gandhara), two unusual stone sculptures of portable Fasting Buddhas from Swat/Uddiyana, and a Wheel of Law fragment of a larger composition, carved from Amaravati stone.