Title: Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni
Period: Kushan period
Date: 3rd–5th century
Culture: Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara)
Dimensions: H. 10 15/16 in. (27.8 cm)
Classification: Sculpture
This sculpture captures the moment of Shakyamuni meditating and fasting for forty-nine days after he reached enlightenment at Bodhgaya. Therefore, showing him as an emaciated renouncer has related to his enlightenment and his status as an ascetic who could control his body. The head portion of this artwork is missing. The Buddha was shown as a thin body reduced to a skeletal framework and there are impressions of intercostal spaces between the ribs. He is seated in the position of meditation, legs crossed at the ankles with the soles upward, and his back is completely straight.
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