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Buddha granting boons

late 5th–6th century CE
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
The production of cast-metal images marked a new stage in Buddhist devotional practice. Rituals and texts for their care and worship became regular features of monastic life by the middle of the first millennium. This bronze Buddha represents the later development of Deccan Buddhist imagery, which grew stylistically out of the stone sculpting tradition. This is seen in the body’s symmetrical frontality and the drapery’s curvilinear folds. A Buddha in The Met collection (1998.414) has traces of an inscription on the pedestal that names a monastery—otherwise unrecorded—and a donor. The script firmly dates this icon to the fifth-century Deccan, in all likelihood the Andhra territories.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Buddha granting boons
  • Period: Visnukundin
  • Date: late 5th–6th century CE
  • Culture: India, Buddham (Buddhapad), Gunter District, Andhra Pradesh
  • Medium: Copper alloy
  • Dimensions: H. 12 1/2 in. (31.7 cm); W. 3 15/16 in. (10 cm); D. 3 1/8 in. (8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Lent by British Museum, London
  • Rights and Reproduction: © The Trustees of the British Museum
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art