Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems Assignment

Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems - Assignment ExampleHuntington has her own view on this question. She believes that many of the images associated with Buddhas absencesuch as an empty throneare in fact intended to mean or sothing else. The empty throne, for example, was intended to represent the sacred nuclei of worship at religious sites and non the fact of Buddhas absence on that throne (Huntington, 402). Her new research suggests that inscriptions on these images indicate that many of the so-called images are more quotidian representations of sacred sites. Vidya Dehejia has a different view of these questions. He believes that scholars have overlooked the double-meanings of many words in the ancient scripts. He thinks that someone like Huntington has been too literal. He admits that some scholars have gone too far in their interpretations, but that some images do indeed depict the absence of Buddha. He suggests that the emblems of many images may stretch forth differen t meanings in varying contexts and that scholars should be sensitive to this (Dehejia, 64). The debate over the absence or presence of Buddha in early Buddhist art is a fascinating one. Both scholars present convincing arguments. Whether we will ever know the truth remains an open question.