On the Dated Carvings of Sarnath

Abstract

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Chapter I. The Mahâyâna And The Middle Period In Indian Buddhism Through A Chinese Looking-Glass

“…At these two traditionally important sites the ¤rst occurrences of the MahOEyOEna ideal come-as they do in the Western caves-in the ¤fth/sixth century and occur in connection with the renovation of what were probably inactive and run-down, if not entirely derelict, Buddhist complexes. 34 It would appear, then, that when the MahOEyOEna ideal was ¤nally expressed in donative records and when the MahOEyOEna ¤nally emerged in India in the ¤fth/sixth century as a clearly identi¤able named group having its [19] own monasteries, this seems to have occurred either in peripheral, marginal areas with little or no previous Buddhist presence or at established Buddhist sites that were declining, if not already abandoned, and at which the old order had broken down. The decline of the old orders is in fact con¤rmed by yet another parallel: the appearance of the MahOEyOEna and êOEkyabhik•us in Indian inscriptions coincides all but exactly with the virtual disappearance of inscriptional references to the old monastic orders.…”

The Dhanesar Kherā Buddha in the British Museum and the ‘Politische Strukturen’ of the Gupta Kingdom in India

“…It should be noted that the suggestions about the dates made by John Rosenfield in his landmark article on the Sārnāth School in 1963 need to be updated in the light of the developments in our understanding of the Gupta calendar outlined in the preceding paragraph. 31 The Sārnāth sculptures have been published many times and do not need to be illustrated here. 32 The style is characterised by extreme refinement and abstract serenity.…”