Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE – 400 CE at The Met Fifth Avenue

Fragment of a coping: a winged griffin and youthful combatant
Amaravati stupa, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh Sada, 2nd –1st century BCE.
Limestone, 48.3 × 76.2 × 14 cm
Collection: Archaeological Museum, Amaravati, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh

Tree & Serpent

Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE – 400 CE

July 21, 2023 — November 13th, 2023

This is the story of the origins of Buddhist art. The religious landscape of ancient India was transformed by the teachings of the Buddha, which in turn inspired art devoted to expressing his message. Sublime imagery adorned the most ancient monumental religious structures in ancient India, known as stupas. The stupa not only housed the relics of the Buddha but also honored him through symbolic representations and visual storytelling. Original relics and reliquaries are at the heart of this exhibition, which culminates with the Buddha image itself.

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. 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. Objects associated with Indo-Roman exchange reveal India’s place in early global trade. The exhibition showcases objects in various media, including limestone sculptures, gold, silver, bronze, rock crystal, and ivory. 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.

Learn More

Click the image below to watch the Annual Distinguished Lecture on the Arts of South and Southeast Asia — Fragrant Stories: Buddhist Art in Early India presented by John Guy, Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia, Department of Asian Art, The Met.

The Met Fifth Avenue

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New York, NY 10028

Exhibition Highlights

Āyaka platform cornice with three narrative scenes from the life of the Buddha
Nagarjunakonda,Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh Ikṣvāku, 3rd century CE
Limestone, 40 × 145 × 18 cm
Collection: Archaeological Survey of India, Site Museum, Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh

Railing pillar fragment: yakṣa with lotus vine emerging from mouth
Bharhut stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh Śuṅga, ca. 150–100 BCE
Sandstone, 104.1 × 58.4 cm
Collection: Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh

Railing pillar medallion with veneration of the Dharma-wheel (dharmacakra)
Bharhut stupa, Madhya Pradesh
Śuṅga, ca. 150 BCE
Sandstone, 59.7 × 50.2 × 14.6 cm Collection: Indian Museum, Kolkata

Coping fragment with lotus bloom meander
Bharhut stupa, Satna District, Madhya Pradesh Śuṅga, ca. 150–100 BCE
Sandstone, 36 × 169 cm
Collection: Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh

Coping railing with forest dwellers probably quarrying a rockface
Bharhut stupa, Madhya Pradesh
Śuṅga, ca. 150–100 BCE
Sandstone, 34.9 × 157.5 × 25.4 cm
Collection: National Museum, New Delhi

A+B. Pillar celebrating the the Buddha's Great Renunciation showing palace, departure and renunciation scenes (+ detail)
Phanigiri, Suryapet district, Telangana
Ikṣvāku, 3rd–4th century CE
Excavated adjacent to the sixteen-pillared hall, 2003
Limestone, 503/8 × 1615/16 × 65/16 in. (128 × 43 × 16 cm)
Collection: Department of Heritage, Telangana

Gateway architrave with makara, lion, and rider
Kesanapalli, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh Ikṣvāku, 3rd century CE
Limestone, 223/4 × 39 × 151/2 in. (57.8 × 99.1 × 39.4 cm)
Collection: Baudhasri Archaeological Museum, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh

Yakṣa Śaṅkhanidhi (conch shell cornucopia)
Nagarjunakonda, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh Ikṣvāku, 3rd–4th century CE
Limestone, 283/8 × 1415/16 in. (72 × 38 cm)
Collection: Archaeological Museum ASI, Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh

Gateway architrave with makara
Bharhut stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh Śuṅga, ca. 150–100 BCE
Sandstone, 36.8 × 62.9 × 30.5 cm
Collection: Indian Museum, Kolkata

Standing Buddha
Nelakondapalli, Khammam district, Telangana Ikṣvāku, 3rd century CE
Limestone, 103 × 40 × 18 cm
Collection: State Museum Hyderabad. Department of Heritage Telangana

Āyaka platform panel with stūpa
Dhulikattā stupa, Karimnagar district, Telangana Early Sātavāhana, 1st century BCE
Limestone, 100 × 120 × 18 cm
Collection: Karimnagar Archaeology Museum, Department of Heritage

Stūpa drum panel with protective serpent
Amaravati stupa, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
Sātavāhana, second half of 1st century– early 2nd century CE
Limestone, 145 × 77.5 × 10 cm
Excavated by Walter Elliot, Commissioner of Guntur, 1845; transferred to Madras, 1856; shipped to East India House, London, 1859; transferred to the India Museum, London; transferred to the British Museum, 1880
Collection: British Museum, London

Pillar capital
Patna, Bihar, northern India
Mauryan period ca. 3rd century BCE
Sandstone, 85.1 × 121.9 × 50.8 cm
Excavated at Patna (ancient Pāṭaliputra) May 1896 Collection: Bihar Museum, Patna (inv. Arch 187)

Gateway architrave with lion-makara, and birth of the Buddha scene
Phanigiri, Suryapet district, Telangana
Ikṣvāku, 3rd–4th century CE
Limestone, 59 × 134 × 21 cm
Collection: Department of Heritage, Telangana

Figurine of a deity or courtesan
Western Deccan, probably Bhokardan
1st century CE (before 79 CE)
Ivory, H. 25 cm.
Excavated at Pompeii by Amedeo Maiuri in October 1938 Collection: National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Mahāpuruṣa figure, a yakṣa honoring the Buddha Phanigiri, Nalgonda district, Telangana
Ikṣvāku, 3rd–4th century CE
Excavated in courtyard adjoining the apsidal shrines, Phanigiri, 2002–3
Limestone, 193 × 100 × 31 cm
Collection: Department of Heritage Telangana

Poseidon (after Lysippos)
Alexandrian Roman, 1st century CE
Copper alloy, 57/8 × 115/16 × 115/16 in. (15 × 5 × 5 cm) Excavated at Brahmapuri, Kolhapur, Satara district, Maharashtra, 1944–45
Collection: Town Hall Museum, Kolhapur, Maharashtra

Portrait of a donor (?)
Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh
Maurya, 3rd–2nd century BCE
Sandstone, 71/2 × 4 × 6 in. (19.1 × 10.2 × 15.2 cm) Collection: National Museum, New Delhi

Āyaka platform panel with the Buddha in meditation venerated by nāgarāja Mucalinda and his clan
Nagarjunakonda, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh Ikṣvāku, late 3rd–4th century CE
Limestone, 143/16 × 26 × 913/16 in. (36 × 66 × 25 cm)
Collection: Archaeological Museum ASI, Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh

Installation view of Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE– 400 CE, on view July 21–November 13, 2023 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Anna-Marie Kellen, courtesy of The Met