Oppositely, Buddhism is an aniconic belief. In other words, they believe that creating images with human or even animal figure to represent the Buddha is offensive and the prohibited to use any figure of human an animal in spiritual practice. Therefore, in the early Buddhist history, they only use symbol like empty throne, Bodhi tree or dharma wheel to represent Buddha; however, Buddhism has changed as time goes by. During Gupta Period, Buddhism has become iconic which is the opposite of aniconic. They started to created sculpture of Buddha instead of using symbols to represent Buddhism. The Gupta period sometimes also well known as the Golden Age of Buddhism because it created the “ideal image” of Buddha by combining the selected traits from the Gandharan region with the Mathura’s sensuous emotions. The Buddha I have chosen today is one of the Buddha from the Gupta period. This Buddha is a typical Gupta type that includes both Gandharan and Mathura styles. The figure is standing on the plain road. The body is covered by a transparent drapery that comes with a lot of folds which adopted from Sarnath.
Oppositely, Buddhism is an aniconic belief. In other words, they believe that creating images with human or even animal figure to represent the Buddha is offensive and the prohibited to use any figure of human an animal in spiritual practice. Therefore, in the early Buddhist history, they only use symbol like empty throne, Bodhi tree or dharma wheel to represent Buddha; however, Buddhism has changed as time goes by. During Gupta Period, Buddhism has become iconic which is the opposite of aniconic. They started to created sculpture of Buddha instead of using symbols to represent Buddhism. The Gupta period sometimes also well known as the Golden Age of Buddhism because it created the “ideal image” of Buddha by combining the selected traits from the Gandharan region with the Mathura’s sensuous emotions. The Buddha I have chosen today is one of the Buddha from the Gupta period. This Buddha is a typical Gupta type that includes both Gandharan and Mathura styles. The figure is standing on the plain road. The body is covered by a transparent drapery that comes with a lot of folds which adopted from Sarnath.