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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Explain as to how the early Buddhist Stupa art, while using folk motifs and narratives and common cultural symbols, succeeded in transforming these themes for expounding the Buddhist ideals.

  • UPSC 2013
  • Period of Mahajanapadas

The stupas of Bharhut, Sanchi, and Amaravati — raised roughly between the second century BCE and the second century CE — belong to a phase of Buddhist art that predates the anthropomorphic image of the Buddha. Lacking a human figure to carry the doctrine, the sculptors of the toranas and vedikas turned to the visual…

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  • Aniconism and the Need for a Narrative Vocabulary
  • Yakshas, Yakshinis, and the Absorption of Fertility Cults
  • Animal Motifs and the Iconography of the Buddha's Qualities
  • Lotus, Tree, and Water: Reorienting Auspiciousness Toward Dharma
  • From Court Patronage to Popular Legibility

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