Buddha

Bronze images of the Buddha in the style of ancient Gandhara, a historical region in northern Pakistan, are rare. This sculpture shows the Buddha in a common standing representation, raising his right hand in a greeting gesture of reassurance, termed "fear not" (abhaya) in Indian culture, and holding the end of his robe in his left hand. Typical for Gandharan images, he wears heavy robes with folds that cover his body in irregular curves. The halo, shown at right, is somewhat large for this image, and thus it can be discerned that it did not originally belong to it, but it is still of the same region and time period. An unusual feature, it depicts a band of flying geese inside its edge of projecting rays of light.