An Analytical Appraisal of Thoughts on the Images from the Life Story of Buddha “Marjānai-Swat (Uḍḍiyāna)”

Abstract

The current study focuses on extremely significant relief panels discovered during salvage excavations conducted by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Peshawar in the 1980s at the Marjānai site-Swāt (Uḍḍiyāna) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and proper documentation of the relief panels owing to their aesthetic attractiveness, which was essential for future research on the Uḍḍiyāna School of Art. The site has several Buddhist sculptures that are done in the distinctively greenish phyllite of Uḍḍiyāna sculpture and were all discovered in votive stupas. Only stone sculptures are the subject of the current paper. All the sculptures at the Marjānai site can be categorized into, one group only representing the architectural elements and general figures depicted in different manners, while the other group, which is the main topic of this research paper, presents the biography of Buddha. The relief panels show different episodes from the life of the Buddha story, which contains the Birth of Siddhartha scene, the return of Siddhartha to Kapilavasthu palace, the Siddhartha school scene, the Marriage scene, and the famous Mahāparinirvāṇa and Cremation of Buddha scenes. Marjānai sculptures are indeed carved in a very mature and aesthetically good state of representation. Only one introductory report was published by the Department of Archaeology in 1995; no specific study has so far been conducted, or it was confined to a cursory description. The Marjānai site has been chosen for appraisal together with other Gandhāran relief panels that may have the same thematic approach and inspiration from foreign influence.