Indian Influence in the Iconography and Functions of Clay Tablets Excavated from Xi’an

• In Event: Panel 2: Reception of Indian Influences in Tang Buddhist Art

Abstract

In this presentation I would like to discuss a group of clay tablets excavated from Xi’an. They have the unusual inscription of “Indian Buddha Image” 印度佛像 stamped on the back side of the tablets, indicating that they are copies of Indian Buddha statues. The image depicted on the front of the tablets is the seated Buddha in bhūmisparśa-mudrā (earth-touching gesture) rendered in “Indian” style. The most notable point is the dharma-verse (Skt; pratītyasamutpāda gātha) stamped beneath the Buddha image. We can find similar tablets in East India. In my opinion, these Xi’an clay tablets were made in the Early Tang, ca. 650~670s, and the producers were court officers who had connections with the famous monk Xuangzang 玄奘. Yijing’s 義浄Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan (南海寄帰内法伝) tells us that in the seventh century Indian Buddhists enshrined two kinds of śarīras (relics) in stūpas; one is the real śarīras of the Buddha and the other is the so called dharma-śarīras (法頌舎利). The clay tablets stamped with the dharma-verse must have functioned as dharma-śarīras. It is said that Xuanzang dedicated over ten million śarīras at the Dayanta 大雁塔, the stūpa that he had designed. I think this refers to the enshrinement of the “Indian Buddha Image” (印度佛像) clay tablets, in the hope that the transcendent power of the dharma-verse would protect the Dayanta stūpa forever.

Author

• Romi Hida, Waseda University