Buddha Giving the First Sermon (Dharmachakrapravartanamudra)

This sculpture presents the historical Buddha Shakyamuni delivering his first sermon at the Deer Park in Sarnath, India, where he articulated his realization of the Four Noble Truths to the five ascetics who would become his first disciples. This episode, considered one of the Eight Great Events of the Buddha’s life, is iconographically indicated by his didactic hand gesture of dharmachakramudra, whereby the Buddha sets the chakra (wheel) of dharma (law) in motion. The two deer flanking a chakra on the sculpture’s plinth allude to this teaching. The paleography of the inscription preserved in the Buddha’s halo helps date the sculpture to the late tenth or early eleventh century.