The first part of this book, authored by G. Fussman, establishes a link between two bodhisattva-statues in the Pritzker collection and two great changes which happened in Buddhist devotion during the two first centuries of the C.E., viz. the creation of an anthropomorphic image of the Buddha and the beginnings of the mahāyāna movement, with, as a consequence, the creation of images of new bodhisattva-s. Special attention is given to the attempts at the creation of images of Avalokiteśvara which preceded the creation and adoption of the later standard imagery. A chronology is needed for any study of change. No wonder if many pages in the first part of the book are devoted to dating the first Gandhāran images of the Buddha and to a new examination of the chronology of Mathuran Buddhist art, which concludes by discarding the “omitted hundreds” theory. The second part of the book is a reprint of two papers by A. M. Quagliotti, where she demonstrated that not every “pensive boddhisattva” should be identified with Avalokiteśvara. In addition, G. Fussman analyses a stone stele recently discovered in Mes-e Aynak (Afghanistan), whose iconography supports A. M. Quagliotti’s conclusions.

Gérard FUSSMAN, Professor (r.) at the College de France