How Partition affected Lord Buddha

November 8, 2004

VANDANA SHUKLA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 08, 2004 02:45:17 AM ]

Partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 separated many

families. The division brought misery not only to mortals but also

gods and goddesses.

Visitors who throng Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10 in

Chandigarh will find a foot of Lord Buddha separated from its

companion at the time of Partition. Since Lahore Museum had the

largest collection of sculptures from Gandhara period, at the time

of Partition it was decided to divide the collection into two.

One part remained with Lahore Museum and the remainder came to

India. The collection was kept at several places temporarily and was

finally handed over to Chandigarh Art Museum, when the city came

into being in 1954.

The three-feet foot of Buddha (unusually big), probably occupied the

altar of some temple in the remote past. Though Buddhism does not

propagate image worship, the cult of worshipping footprints of

divinities in Hinduism was taken up by Buddhists.

The solitary foot of Buddha has a Swastika symbol in reverse and

several other auspicious symbols like the lotus, the Triratna and

the Chakra sculpted on it. These are all Maha Purusha Lakshana,

suited only to the divine. It is a different matter that divinity

too had to experience pangs of separation.

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