Cleveland Museum of Art

Temptation of Buddha by the Evil Forces of Mara

Date

700s

Medium

ivory with gold and polychrome

Culture

Northern India, Kashmir, 8th century

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Intimate shrines for personal meditation practices contained scenes from the life of the Buddha. In an episode just prior to his achievement of enlightenment, the Buddha sat in meditation and faced personifications of the final obstacles. In this exquisite rendering derived from the Greco-Roman realism of Gandharan art, demons attack him in an attempt to scare him off the path. Seductive women do their best to distract him. He remains placid and firm in his conviction that these beings have no inherent reality, and he renders them powerless.

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