Buddha Shakyamuni Seated in Meditation (Dhyanamudra)
India (Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu)
Chola period, about 12th century
- Medium
- Granite
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 160 × 120.2 × 56.3 cm (63 × 47 5/16 × 22 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Nagapattinam
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Andrew Brown
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This meditating Buddha comes from the coastal town of Nagapattinam in southern India, which was, as a result of settlers from Srivijaya (Indonesia), one of the few places where Buddhism was still flourishing in the twelfth century. The Buddha—with his elongated earlobes, the wheel marks on his palms, the urna between his brows, and the cranial protuberance covered with snail-shell curls—is seated in the posture of meditation, with his hands resting on his lap (dhyanamudra), wearing a seemingly diaphanous monastic garment. As in other images from Nagapattinam, a flame emerges out of the Buddha’s cranial protuberance, probably signifying wisdom. This monumental granite sculpture originally would have graced a monastic site at Nagapattinam, which is also well known for its Buddhist bronzes. The Tamil inscription covering its back is no longer legible.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
