Sultanganj Buddha

Sultanganj Buddha

by Chris Gardner

What is the Sultanganj Buddha?

Archaeologist estimate it was created between 500 and 700 AD. It is around 2 and a half meters tall which is about 7 feet tall and over 500 kilograms. It was created with pure unrefined copper using a technique called Cire Perdue. The Sultanganj Buddha is currently the largest complete Indian metal sculpture ever found

Cire Predue or Lost wax technique

 

First a mold is made to house the model which is made from clay. The inside of the mold is then brushed with wax and tiny holes are put in the mold. As the hot bronze is poured in the remaining wax melted out of the holes. Eventually the cast is opened and the bronze is taken out where it receives its finishing touches. 

What the Sultanganj Buddha Represents

Buddha or Siddhartha Gautama was alive during the 6th to 4th century B.C. Though several days meditation all of the answers he was seeking became clear and he became a truly enlightened. For 80 years traveled around teaching the ways of meditation and what it was to be fully awake. His left hand is held downward revealing the palm to indicate favor.His right hand is rained in a position known as Abhayamudra which represents protection. currently the Buddha is shrouded in mistery historically speaking and we only know so much.

What does a 500 AD statue have to do with the 1860s?

This is E. B. Harris, The Railway engineer who discovered the Buddha in 1862. the statue in the middle is the Sultanganj Buddha. The relic on the left is now in the British Museum. on relic on the right is at an Asian Art museum in San Francisco.

What Is The East Indian Railway

Created by Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, The first experimental line shown here was from Calcutta and Rajmahal. It was later extended to Delhi. This first rail was made up of 100,000 tons of rail

 The estimated cost of this project was £1,000,000. The full cost of the whole railway system was £4,000,000. The money was largely raised in London through the East Indian Railway Company.

The first railway was finished in 1862

Discovery of the Sultanganj Buddha

                                                                       During the construction of the Sultanganj station which was built next to underground Buddhist monastery. E. B. Harris discovered the Buddha stuck in the ground ten feet under the surface. Once he found the Buddha it was taken to a metal manufacturer in order to melt it down for Rails. Luckily the metal Manufacture was owned by Samuel Thornton who paid 200 pounds to have it shipped to Birmingham England. During transport it was allegedly almost stolen by the curators of the British Museum.

Birmingham

The reason Samuel went through the trouble to get the statue was because Birmingham was in the center of iron and steel craft. He wanted it to celebrate the inspiration of the Birmingham Craftsmen. He then handed it over to the Birmingham Museum & Art gallery where it has remained since. It is now a icon of the region where many people of Buddhist and other faiths visit it every single day

  The Birmingham Museum describes it as part of Birmingham’s history. The Buddha is currenty part of a world religions exhibit.

The Modern battle for ownership

Is it the Birmingham Buddha or the Sultanganj Buddha? The Head of the Archaeological Survey of India say there is a need for a “diplomatic and Legal campaign” to retrieve the Buddha from Birmingham and have considered asking the United Nations for help by using the heritage department known as Unesco. Rita Mclean, head of the Birmingham Museum has been open to the idea of returning artifacts but the metal Buddha statue is prized and gigantic. They also believe the acquiring of the Buddha was a legitimate archaeological find and not stolen.

The Moonstone- the value of an object

The most obvious comparison to the Moonstone is that both were taken from a sacred place and displayed as a prized possession. but there is a second similarity that lies in the debate of ownership between Birmingham and India. Everyone is entranced by the moonstones beauty that like the Sultanganj Buddha. Some view the Moonstone as nothing more than a Market value stone to be sold while other see it for a non-market value that is harder to describe. Both relics were also taken from where they were from in-order to "save it" because it seems that England is the only one who can save the true worth of an object.

Citations

“A History of the World - Object : The Sultanganj Buddha.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/8-3XPL7dTim7Xpv39u8oXw

“On Display Here, Wanted by India.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 31 May 2010, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/on-display-here-wanted-by-india-1988002.html#gallery.

“Sultanganj Buddha, Birmingham.” Diamond Way Buddhism UK Blog, 30 May 2010, blog.dwbuk.org/buddhist-iconography/the-sultanganj-buddha-birmingham/

“The Sultanganj Buddha in Detail.” Sultanganj Buddha, www.sultanganj.info/sultanganj-buddha.html.

“Buddha.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 23 Jan. 2015, www.biography.com/people/buddha-9230587.

Birth of Railways in Eastern India, www.irfca.org/~mrinal/history_er.html.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Lost-Wax Process.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 13 Oct. 2015, www.britannica.com/technology/lost-wax-process.

·       The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins (Broadview, ISBN: 9781551112435)