Bimaran Casket. Personal photograph 2005. British Museum
Français : Reliquaire (prov. stupa de Bimaran), N-O Gandhara. Maitreya de face, les cheveux au vent, portant le dhoti, un cordon attaché à son épaule droite et portant des bracelets. Il est encadré par des figures nimbées de profil faisant le signe d'hommage (anjali mudrā) à Buddha (visible sur l'autre face). Ces deux figures ont été identifiées comme étant Sakra et Brahma. Or et grenats, H. 6,5 cm. Vers 50 de notre ère . Deux groupes de trois figures sont séparés par la représentation d'un dévot en adoration vu de face. Chaque groupe de trois se compose de deux déités en dévotion, vues de profil, entourant une image de Bouddha, vu de face avec un léger hanchement.
Reference : Gérard Fussman and Anna Maria Quagliotti, The early iconography of Avalokitesvara : L'iconographie ancienne d'Avalokitesvara, Collège de France, Publications de l'Institut de Civilisation indienne. Paris, Diffusion De Boccard, 2012. ISBN978-2-86803-080-1. Page 35 : in english, quotation from the text of Gérard Fussman : "These images are some of the first created, Avalokitesvara is depicted without the laksana-s, because they were not yet needed to identify him, and probably because these laksana-s were not yet devised."
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Captions
View of the Bimaran Casket, featuring a devotee, possibly a Bodhisattva. Eastern Afghanistan, mid-1st century CE. British Museum, London