ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the nature of the garden in early historical India and its geographical, social and ideological links with Buddhism. It examines the use of garden imagery in representative Buddhist scriptures compiled in the early centuries ad, such as the Buddhacarita and early Mahayana sutras. The chapter then examines the use of garden motifs in early Buddhist stupas to highlight their distinctive features, particularly in the treatment of erotic figures. In the Buddhacarita, the Buddha goes to a pleasure grove not directly from the palace but by passing through the city to a spatially separate garden, perhaps for nobles. For Buddhism, the urban religion supporting non-violence, the use of garden imagery was an effective and preferable option for propagating their distinct and refined doctrines. Comparison with the textual descriptions of Buddhist celestial gardens, however, reveals a distinctive feature of the gardens represented at stupas, namely, the existence of ‘female’ or erotic elements.
