In the earliest stone art of Buddhism there is an unavoidable empirical observation. In some cases, despite rich iconography showing scenes apparently from the Buddha’s life, the Buddha himself seems to be absent. The most dramatic example is the middle architrave of the eastern gateway of the four built around the Great Stupa at Sanchi in the late first century BC or early first century AD (Figure 2.1). In this depiction a horse departs from a palace, a parasol above, but with no rider, before depositing two human footprints, again beneath a parasol, and returning. Depicted four times in a composite of events which must be intended to evoke the Buddha’s abandonment of royal life for a spiritual quest, what is noticeably absent is an image of the Buddha in human form.1