Curious Chinese painting.

[Indrajala]

I found an interesting 9th century Chinese painting with two interesting features. Firstly, the Indian figures look sufficiently Indian (as opposed to really Chinese like they are often portrayed). The second is that Maudgalyāyana is quite fair compared to his companions. The Buddha of course is golden in colour.

Here Maudgalyāyana is on the left and Śāriputra is on the right with bodhisattvas on the far sides.



I imagine the artist read that Maudgalyāyana was fair skinned. Śāriputra also has really big eyes.

[Rakshasa]

The one on the left looks Mongoloid to me (Chinese?).

Sariputra was an Indo-Aryan Brahmin so I wont be surprised if the tradition is that he was fair complexioned. Back in those days, the Indo-Aryans had still not mixed with the people of Magadha....

[pueraeternus]

The second is that Maudgalyāyana is quite fair compared to his companions. The Buddha of course is golden in colour.

Interesting! Actually, in the Sri Lanka tradition, Maudgalyayana is depicted as dark blue-skinned (according to the Buddhavamsa):

[Indrajala]

The one on the left looks Mongoloid to me (Chinese?).

Sariputra was an Indo-Aryan Brahmin so I wont be surprised if the tradition is that he was fair complexioned. Back in those days, the Indo-Aryans had still not mixed with the people of Magadha....

Śāriputra is the second from the far right. Maudgalyāyana is the fair skinned one.

[plwk]

Śāriputra also has really big eyes.

Maybe he saw something shocking....

[Kaji]

Interestingly, the colour of Maudgalyāyana's sarira is dark brown (bottom), while Śāriputra's is light grey (top):

[Ukigumo]

I imagine the artist read that Maudgalyāyana was fair skinned. Śāriputra also has really big eyes.

He looks like an anime character...