Brussels Buddha

Brussels Buddha
(Inscribed "Year 5")

The Brussels Buddha, with the seated Buddha attended by Brahma and Indra in the back, and the Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokitesvara in the front.

Gandhara

Location of Gandhara, where the Brussels Buddha was probably created.

The Brussels Buddha is a famous Buddha statue from the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.^[1] It is named after the first collection to which it belonged, the Claude de Marteau collection in Brussels, Belgium, although it is now in a private collection in Japan, belonging to the Agonshū sect of Buddhism.^[1] The Brussels Buddha belongs to the category of the "Seated Buddha triads", which can be seen contemporaneously in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara and in the art of Mathura in the early Kushan period.^[2] The precise location where the statue was discovered is unknown, but it was acquired in Peshawar, and it is thought to have been excavated in Sahri Bahlol due to its similarity with a statue from the same location, now in the Peshawar Museum.^[3]

Characteristics[]

In this statue, the seated Buddha is attended by Brahma and Indra, as well as two Bodhisattvas.^[4] The scene shows the "Miracle at Śrāvastī".^[5]

The statue is remarkable in that it is one of the rare Gandhara Buddhist statues to bear a dedication with a date.^[1] The inscription in Kharoshti reads: