RECLINING BUDDHA

RECLINING BUDDHA

Subject : Culture

Context : Recently, India’s largest statue of the Reclining Buddha was to have been installed at the Buddha International Welfare Mission temple in Bodh Gaya on the occasion of Buddha Purnima. The ceremony has been put off due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Concept :

Reclining Buddha

• The reclining Buddha statue or image represents The Buddha during his last illness, about to enter Parinirvana.
• Parinirvana the stage of great salvation after death that can only be attained by enlightened souls.
• Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha is supposed to be a very important event that happened in Kushinagar; it is not simply a demise, it is the great demise, after which there is no rebirth for him.
• The Buddha’s death came when he was 80 years old, in a state of meditation, in Kushinagarin eastern Uttar Pradesh, close to the state’s border with Bihar.
• It signifies the Buddha’s last deeksha i.e. even while on his deathbed, he took a follower into the fold.

Reclining Buddha in India

• Cave No. 26 of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ajanta contains a 24-foot-long and nine-foot-tall sculpture of the Reclining Buddha, believed to have been carved in the 5th century AD.
• It shows the Buddha reclining on his right side, and behind him are two sala trees.
• At the base of the sculpture are his begging bowl, a water pitcher and walking stick.
• Kushinagar, where the Buddha actually attained parinirvana, has a 6-metre-long red sandstone monolith statue of the Reclining Buddha inside the Parinirvana Stupa.

Other depictions of the Buddha

• In India, there are a lot of Buddhas in sitting postures, mostly pertaining to his Enlightenment rather than to his demise.
• At the Mahabodhi temple, the Buddha is sitting in the bhoomi-sparsha mudra, where his hand is pointing towards the ground.
• At Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, the stone statue has a hand gesture called the dharma-chakra mudra, which signifies preaching.
• It is also the most popular depiction in India, along with the Bodhi tree depiction.
• The Buddha statues found in South East Asia are an amalgamation of all his various postures and life events, including mahaparinirvana, but not limited to it.