Buddha Calling on Earth to Witness (800s): Art, History and Details

Buddha Calling on Earth to Witness (800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This sculpture is one of a series that depict the Buddha at different scenes in his life. Here, he is at Bodhgaya, the place where he achieved enlightenment. At the top of the composition are the branches of the ficus tree with its heart-shaped leaves, under which he achieved enlightenment. His hand gesture indicates that he is calling upon the goddess of the earth to witness the moment. During the Pala period of the eighth through 12th centuries in medieval India, Buddhism dominated and flourished in major monastic universities. After the fall of the Pala dynasty, the numerous battles between small kingdoms vying for power caused the destruction of the Buddhist monasteries, and Buddhist monks fled with texts and movable art to Nepal, Tibet, and Southeast Asia, so that by the 14th century, Buddhism was eradicated in India.

Object facts

• Title: Buddha Calling on Earth to Witness
• Date: 800s
• Culture: Northeastern India, Bihar, Tetravan, Pala Period (750-1197)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: chloritic schist
• Dimensions: Overall: 94 cm (37 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1935.146

A detail from the museum

The donors kneel at the lower corners.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Eastman, Alvan C. Catalog of the Heeramaneck Collection of Early Indian Sculptures, Paintings, Bronzes and Textiles. New York: Heeramaneck Galleries, 1934.
• Hollis, Howard C. "An Indian Buddhist Stele." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 24, no. 9 (1937): 135–137.
• Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.