GUITA BAHI BUDDHA Yury Khokhlov in an email of October 21, 2020

Fig. 31 The Guita Bahi Buddha is splendid! However, I don’t think it can be of the 6th century, when the aesthetics are different and well known, for instance, from Ajanta. Conventionally speaking it belongs to the style, which is normally dated by art historians to the 10-11th century, though I am not aware of any hard evidence for the existence of this style during that period. It is all stereotypes, which have never been verified. So between the two inscriptions, I would go for the second one. To me, it is perfectly conceivable that the Buddha might have been cast in the 13th century, perhaps after an earlier model (similar to the example in fig. 31)