Buddha Preaching his First Sermon (Sarnath)

*Buddha Preaching his First Sermon* (Sarnath)
Buddha Preaching his First Sermon (Sarnath)
	The Buddha in the Sarnath Museum, in the teaching posture
Material	Sandstone
Size	5'3"
Created	5th century CE
Discovered	Sarnath, India
Present location	Sarnath Museum, India
Registration	B(b)181
	Sarnath

The Buddha Preaching his First Sermon is a stone sculpture of the 5th-century CE showing Gautama Buddha in the "teaching posture" or dharmachakra pravartana mudrā.^[2] The relief is 5' 3" tall, and was excavated at Sarnath, India by F. O. Oertel during the 1904–1905 excavation season of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI); it was found in an area to the south of the Dhamek Stupa.^[1]

A product of the local Sarnath school of sculpture, it has been displayed at the Archaeological Museum at Sarnath, the first site museum of the ASI, from the time of the museum's completion in 1910. It is best known for the Buddha images showing the subject, "type considered a hallmark of the Sarnath school of Buddhist art",^[2]^[3] and is described by Denise Leidy as "justifiably one of the most famous representations of the Buddha in Asian art",^[4] and by Robert E. Fisher as "the most famous Gupta [Buddha] image".^[5]

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference DRS70 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Eck, Diana L. (1982), Banāras, City of Light, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 63, ISBN 0-394-51971-X, In the most famous of these images in the Sarnath museum, the Buddha sits cross-legged, his limbs in the perfect proportions prescribed by the iconometry of the day, his hands in a teaching pose, his eyes downcast, half-shut in meditation, his head backed by a beautifully ornamented circular nimbus
^ Pal, Pratapaditya, Light of Asia : Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian art, p. 109 (quoted), 1984, LACMA, Internet archive. Pal is discussing a similar sculpture in Kolkata, that he describes as "not as well known as the famous fifth-century image preserved in the Sarnath museum..."
^ Leidy, Denise Patry, The Art of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its History and Meaning, p. 50, 2009, Shambhala Publications, ISBN 9781590306703
^ Fisher, 55

[DRS70-1] Cite error: The named reference DRS70 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[eck-banaras-sarnath-seated-buddha-2] Eck, Diana L. (1982), Banāras, City of Light, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 63, ISBN 0-394-51971-X, In the most famous of these images in the Sarnath museum, the Buddha sits cross-legged, his limbs in the perfect proportions prescribed by the iconometry of the day, his hands in a teaching pose, his eyes downcast, half-shut in meditation, his head backed by a beautifully ornamented circular nimbus

[3] Pal, Pratapaditya, Light of Asia : Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian art, p. 109 (quoted), 1984, LACMA, Internet archive. Pal is discussing a similar sculpture in Kolkata, that he describes as "not as well known as the famous fifth-century image preserved in the Sarnath museum..."

[4] Leidy, Denise Patry, The Art of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its History and Meaning, p. 50, 2009, Shambhala Publications, ISBN 9781590306703

[5] Fisher, 55

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