Sarnath Buddha Statue
Grade 11 · ART · Buddhist Art
A study of the Sarnath Buddha Statue, exploring its artistic features, Gupta-period characteristics, posture, mudra, and historical significance in Buddhist art.
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"Sarnath Buddha Statue" is a lesson presentation for Grade 11 Art, filed under Buddhist Art, prepared by Nilmini Jayasekara.
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Slides work best as revision after the lesson rather than instead of it: read the matching pages in the reading book first, then use these to check what you remember. For Grade 11 this is usually a single topic per file.
The seated Buddha from Sarnath (Gupta period, roughly 5th century CE) is one of the most influential single sculptures in Buddhist art: shown in the dharmachakra mudra (teaching gesture, since Sarnath is where the Buddha delivered his first sermon), with a serene, idealised face, smooth unbroken drapery clinging closely to the body, and an elaborately carved halo behind the head.
Its influence is the detail worth remembering specifically - this Gupta-period model of an idealised, serene Buddha face and smooth drapery became a template that spread across Asia and shaped later Buddha imagery, including in Sri Lanka, which is exactly why it's taught alongside the island's own Buddhist sculpture in this syllabus.
