Fragment of a Buddha image

When the earliest images of the Buddha were made is  a question scholars have been debating for more than  a century. Several early Buddha images are shown in  this gallery.

This fragment probably comes from a standing figure. It has several of the features of early Buddha images from north central India, such as a smooth hairdress with a large coil of hair at the top and a monk’s robe that is smooth and clinging except where it is bunched up over the left shoulder and arm.

Very little architecture survives from this region in this early period, so we have little idea of the original placement and surroundings of an image like this one.