Footnotes

Seated as if before an audience, Buddha's downcast eyes attend to the gesture of his fingers, which depict him forwarding the dharma for all sentient beings. Two deer listen from below, alluding to his first sermon at Deer Park after reaching enlightenment. Meanwhile, to his right is an effigy of his immaculate birth, and above each shoulder are stupa reliquaries that house his sacred ashes, forming a poignant visual synecdoche encapsulating Buddha's time and purpose spent within the mortal realm. An inscription encircling his frame decrees:

"All phenomena arise from causes;
Those causes have been explained by the Tathagatha,
And their cessation too has been taught by the Great Shramaṇa."

This wonderfully compact sculptural homage to the great sage and his teachings is finished with a lustrous, high polish to the black chlorite characteristic of Pala stone sculpture. His distinctive pose finds precedent at least as far back as a 6th-century sandstone stele from nearby Sarnath, and is repeated in a number of Pala examples which can all be viewed on the Huntington Archive, scan nos.1588 and 2795, 3146 & 3613.

Provenance
Acquired from Georg Hartl, Munich, 1 July 1981


黑石佛陀說法碑
印度東北部，帕拉時期，十／十一世紀
高30釐米（11 7/8英吋）

300,000-400,000港元

佛陀雙手結說法印，雙目俯視身前，好似向眾人講述義理，以佛法之智慧開悟世人。其足下有雙鹿做聆聽狀，暗指釋迦摩尼成佛後在鹿野苑第一次宣說佛法。主像右下方刻劃了摩耶夫人在蘭毘尼園生下釋迦牟尼之場景，兩座保有其骨灰的舍利塔座落於佛陀雙肩之上，從誕生至涅槃，看似簡單的構圖巧妙地囊括了佛陀在世間暫留的意義。一行銘文環繞主尊法身：

"諸法從緣起，如來說是因，彼法因緣盡，是大沙門說。"

石碑黝黑锃亮，所用石材為帕拉所特有，以簡潔的藝術形式頂禮聖人及其所宣揚之佛法。此處佛陀坐姿獨特，此種坐姿在早至六世紀的鹿野苑附近砂岩雕像上便有使用，後亦重複出現於帕拉作品中，參見佛教圖像資料庫Huntington Archive文獻編號1588，2795，3146及3613。

來源
於1981年7月1日購於Georg Hartl，慕尼黑