Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems Assignment

Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems - Assignment Example Huntington has her own view on this question. She believes that many of the images associated with Buddha's absence—such as an empty throne—are in fact intended to mean something else. The empty throne, for example, was intended to represent the â€Å"sacred nuclei of worship† at religious sites and not the fact of Buddha's 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 â€Å"may carry different 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.