ABSTRACT
This chapter evolves social bases of patronage of the site of Kurkihar in the Gaya district of Bihar against the backdrop of contemporary developments in Indian Buddhism. In the poly-religious landscape of early medieval India, Magadha being no exception, it was but natural that a vast section of the population had fluid religious identity: one could continue worshipping the Buddha or other Buddhist deities and donating their images to some Buddhist establishment, without ever formally becoming ‘Buddhist’. The vibrant presence of Buddhism and its widespread social base is clearly discernible. This vibrancy is also reflected in confident attempts of the Sangha at Kurkihar to induce an integration of Brahmanical deities into Buddhism in a manner of subordinate union by accepting the donation of inscribed Brahmanical sculptures. Buddhism at Kurkihar was considerably dependent on male and female donors without expressed Buddhist identity. The chapter explores the socio-religious dimensions of dedicatory inscriptions on the sculptures of Kurkihar.
