Buddhist Art & Culture: Symbols & Significance (Set of two vols.)

Roman Diaspora in the making of India thrived on a syncrtic goddess ushered by the Greco-Buddhist reliquary cult. Lustrated by royal elephant identified with Africa, goddess Gajalakshmi on lotus of rebirth coexists with Isis-Venus and Nemesis symbolized by the Wheel of Low (Retribution), winged griffin and other rebus memory devices .Metaphors originally distilled faith in afterlife but these necromantic signs are now translated as Buddha’s external presence in a neural religion. Unprecedented cult images of goddess invoked as Maha Maya (Mega Maia) and Maha Vuhara Devi on the Great Boat (Mahayana) radically transformed the cultural landscape of South Asia. Subject to Influences, Meaning of art correlated with Mystery religions moved eastward from the Mediterranean to reach the gateway to heaven (Torana).The search for immortality demonstrates inter-connectedness of all art objects from Gandhara to Sri Lanka giving to ample scope for portraiture, Narrative techniques and symbol