인도 초기 불교미술의 太陽戰車 圖像

Abstract

Iconography of the sun­god riding on a chariot drawn by horses is one of various schemes symbolizing the sun in ancient art. The concept of mythical chariot­riding sun god who travels the sky from east to west is found in a vast range of regions of the ancient Mediterranean world, West Asia, South Asia and more. However the establishment of the chariot­riding sun god iconography in art is observed in the Greek sun god Helios. The natural and diverse representations of Helios, who rises resplendently in his two­wheeled chariot drawn by four winged­horses, which was represented en face or also in profile, changed into a schematized and heraldic form by arranging the driver en face and the steeds deployed to its right and left symmetrically in profile influenced by the West Asian tradition. The iconography of chariot­riding Helios was introduced to India through the Greco­Bactrian Kingdom, and this is evidenced by the coin of Plato of the mid­second century B.C.E. It was, however, through northwest India during the Śaka­Parthian period that the chariot­riding sun god was introduced, which was regularly depicted in Indian art in symmetrical and frontal view. The chariot­riding sun iconography was used for the Vēdic mythical sun god, Sūrya. This study investigates various Buddhist canons such as Sutta­Nipāta, Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara, Mahāvastu, and also Chinese translated versions of Fosuoxingzan, Fangguangdazhuangyanjing, Fobenxingjijing to demonstrate the iconographical context of the appearance of the chariot­riding sun in the early Indian Buddhist art. I would like to gratefully acknowledge that my research is indebted to and derived from the works of earlier scholars like Benjamin Rowland who laid the foundation of exploring Buddha's solar nature in Buddhist art. Sūrya in its chariot and enclosed in the solar roundel appears above the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven in the Nanda's Attempt to Escape in the Peshawar Museum which was excavated from Sahrī Bahrol. The appearance of Sūrya in the sky indicates that the space in this relief was set up as the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, so the Sūrya was simply represented as the sun itself in the sky. A standing bodhisattva in the Royal Ontario Museum bears insignia of Sūrya on the top roundel of its turban. This type of bodhisattva, wearing a turban, and posed with his right hand in abhayamudrā and left hand placed on his waist is commonly identified as the bodhisattva Siddhārtha, the prince. Prince Siddhārtha in the same manner is found in some narrative scenes from Buddha's life story such as the Marriage or the Resolution for the Great Departure. A variety of Buddhist sūtras frequently mention that Gautama Siddārtha is of the race of Ikṣvāku or ādicca (aditya), which is a kinsman of the sun. The solar symbol on the turban of the prince thus seems to indicate his genealogy. The chariot of Sūrya is sometimes associated with the Defeat of Mara or Buddha's Enlightenment. Buddha's life stories often use metaphorical expression to describe the enlightened one saving the world of ignorance as the rising sun dispelling the darkness. Of the pillars that compose the vedikā of Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, one contains the image of Sūrya under the image of bodhigara, the house of bodhi­tree which was chosen as an aniconic symbol of the Buddha's enlightenment. As Janice Leoshko suggests, this composition is explicated as a metaphorical symbol of enlightenment. Likewise, the seated Buddha in bhūmisparśa mudrā, which symbolize the victory over Māra, and the Sūrya image in a series of narrative scenes from the lintel relief stored in State Museum, Lucknow also can be explained as the light symbolism of enlightenment. Sometimes Buddha himself was depicted just like a sun god in his solar chariot. Prince Siddhārtha was described en face riding in a quadriga in a Gandhāran narrative relief showing the prince meets the sick. This corresponds with the scene in Buddhacarita which describes prince in a golden quadriga. The sparkling golden chariot and the frontal representation of the god in his quadriga in art are both peculiar characteristics of the sun god. Some of the Gandhāran narrative scene reliefs depicting the Great Departure portrayed the prince en face riding his beloved horse. As suggested by Alexander Soper, this frontal representation was likely borrowed from the characteristic appearance of chariot­riding sun god. According to the Buddhist texts, when the prince crosses the wall of Kapilavastu in a dark midnight, the radiance emanating from him illuminates the earth. So the dark midnight was interpreted as the night­goddess in the corner of some Great Departure relief as thoroughly proposed by Tanabe Katsumi, and the light illuminating prince was illustrated in the posture of the sun god. A relief depicting the scene of Transportation of the Relics recovered from Butkara I site in Swat shows a conventional representation of a solar chariot. The man holding the reliquary rides on a chariot drawn by four horses deployed left and right symmetrically. The śarīra or relics of the Buddha which were thought to be inside the reliquary and regarded as the Buddha itself portrayed as a chariot­riding sun god, rather than the man in the center holding the reliquary. This piece is reminiscent of the so­called “toilet trays” of Śaka­Parthian period, decorated with a frontal chariot which possibly was a ritual object for a blissful afterlife for the dead.