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ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 2ND-3RD CENTURY 29 ? in. (74.9 cm.) high
Christie's Amsterdam, 13 April 1999, lot 23.
Depictions of the footsteps of the Buddha were one of the early aniconic symbols used to represent the presence of Buddha. In Gandharan art, they are often found alongside images of the Buddha himself.
The footprint of the Buddha represents the proliferation of the dharma and its size conveys the power of Buddhist teachings. The swastikas--ancient fertility symbols--on each toe represent immutability, while the omega symbol upon the ball of the foot points to the Greek influence on the Hellenized Kushan civilization. The symbolic form was appropriated from the Mauryan Empire of India, the first Buddhist empire from which these forms of representation were born.
For a very similar buddhapada in the Lahore Museum collection, see A. Proser, The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan, New York, 2011, p.146, pl. 54. Also compare the symbology, scale and motif of the present lot with another contemporaneous buddhapada in the Yale University Art Gallery collection (acc. no. 2015.141.1), illustrated in K. H. Selig-Brown, Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art, exh. cat., Katonah Museum of Art, New York, 2004, 34–35, pl. 1.