Buddha images and their significance

Devotees of the Buddha needed to know what the Great Master physically looked like, and consequently the Buddha image evolved over the centuries. Following the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great’s invasion of north India, Hellenic culture took root in the Ghandara Valley. Artists carved in sandstone beautiful figures of the Gotama Buddha. The Ghandara civilisation was the cradle of Buddhist art and an oasis of Buddhist culture.

It was in that age that the intellectual monk Nagasena started to convert royalty. …