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According to religious texts, the historical
Buddha Shayamuni was cremated after his death
and his ashes distributed between eight
reliquaries. These were placed in eight
hemispherical mounds known as stupas. In the
third century B.C. the north Indian ruler, King
Ashoka, is reputed to have opened these
monuments and further subdivided the ashes
between a larger number of stupas. This was
regarded as an act of great piety as it enabled
many more believers to have access to the relics.
Buddhism spread to Gandhara from the Ganges
basin in northern India in the second century B.C.
In the following centuries many religious sites in
Gandhara claimed to possess relics of the
Buddha and they became important pilgrimage
destinations, visited by devotees from all over
Asia, especially China.
This vessel may have contained a relic as well as
other small offerings such as glass beads or
coins. Such containers were often donated to
monastic foundations by lay followers as a
means to earn merit and generate good karma.
The design of the vessel is simple and elegant,
its rounded form emphasized by several
unevenly spaced incised circles. The small
umbrella-like finial is a reference to the
architecture of the stupas in which relics were
stored. These were designed to reflect the order
of the cosmos. The base was associated with the
earthly sphere, whilst the ‘umbrellas’ symbolized
the heavens. This remarkable object is carved
from schist, a material indigenous to the region
and therefore popular with local carvers. As a
physical manifestation of early Buddhist piety
this object has importance historical and
religious associations.
Similar examples (with donor inscriptions) can be
found in, ‘The Art of Gandhara in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art,’ (New York, 2007),
p. 23.
- (LK.024)
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