One is the protective snake, the Naga, which you see coiled, poised, ready to strike in the foreground at the center of the drum. JOHN GUY: The decoration of the stupa is dominated by two motifs. They provided essential space to deploy those teachings through imagery and narrative storytelling. NARRATOR: These stupas contained the Buddha’s relics and his teachings making them central to Buddhist worship. JOHN GUY: This is a large limestone panel which would have decorated the lower section of a Buddhist funerary mound, what’s known as a stupa. To help us understand the role of trees and serpents in this particular cultural and religious context is John Guy, Florence and Herbert Irving curator for South and Southeast Asian Art at the Met. In the grand piece before you, you'll find a multi-headed serpent under the cover of a tree. NARRATOR: These stories are told through imagery from an incredible sculptural tradition that existed long before the introduction of Buddhism in Southern India. JOHN GUY: When Buddhist art appears in India it’s sophisticated, complex, iconographically elaborate, and embedded with great stories, great narratives. This exhibition showcases rarely seen objects from the Deccan in Southern India, representing the origins of Buddhist art. NARRATOR: Welcome to Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE to 400 CE. Ho Family Foundation Global, and the Fred Eychaner Fund. The exhibition is made possible by Reliance Industries Limited, The Robert H. To access the booklet of all large-print exhibition text, click here. Highlights include spectacular sculptures from southern India-newly discovered and never before publicly exhibited masterpieces-that add to the world canon of early Buddhist art. The exhibition showcases objects in various media, including limestone sculptures, gold, silver, bronze, rock crystal, and ivory. Objects associated with Indo-Roman exchange reveal India’s place in early global trade. With major loans from a dozen lenders across India, as well as from the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, it transports visitors into the world of early Buddhist imagery that gave expression to this new religion as it grew from a core set of ethical teachings into one of the world’s great religions. Featuring more than 125 objects dating from 200 BCE to 400 CE, the exhibition presents a series of evocative and interlocking themes to reveal both the pre-Buddhist origins of figurative sculpture in India and the early narrative traditions that were central to this formative moment in early Indian art. Original relics and reliquaries are at the heart of this exhibition, which culminates with the Buddha image itself. The stupa not only housed the relics of the Buddha but also honored him through symbolic representations and visual storytelling. Sublime imagery adorned the most ancient monumental religious structures in ancient India, known as stupas. The religious landscape of ancient India was transformed by the teachings of the Buddha, which in turn inspired art devoted to expressing his message. This is the story of the origins of Buddhist art.
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