Handbook to the sculptures in the Peshawar Museum / by D. Brainerd Spooner.

  • Peshawar Museum
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook to the sculptures in the Peshawar Museum / by D. Brainerd Spooner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/108 page 1
    INTRODUCTION. To the student of Buddhist sculpture, the enquiry as to how far the various legends connected with the life of Gautama Buddha are historical, is not one of importance. It is the legends alone that can explain the scenes represented in the sculptures, and for this reason a brief account of the Buddha’s life, as it is known and believed in by his followers, is a necessary introduction to our subject. The exact date of the Buddha’s birth is not known. His death, according to Dr. Fleet, took place on the 13th of October, 483 B. c., and, as he is said to have been 80 years of age at the time, it is probably a close approximation to the truth to date his birth in 563 B. c. The legend has it that this event was not only attended by countless supernatural phenomena, but was also presaged by divers dreams and visions, whose interpretation was a matter of moment to the astrologers. Siddhartha himself, they say, was resident in the Tushita Heaven when the time approached for him to be reborn on earth, and he long deliberated as to who among men were worthy of being his parents, and ultimately decided to be born of Maya, the queen of King ^uddhodana, the ruler of the &akya clan whose capital was Kapilavastu in the present Nepal Tarai. Accordingly, he descended from heaven and entered the right side of Maya the queen under the form, as it seemed to the sleeping Maya, of a white elephant with
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