Bimaran casket
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| Material | Gold encrusted with gems |
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| Size | 6.7 cm high, 6.6 cm diameter |
| Created | 1st century AD |
| Present location | British Museum, London |
| Registration | OA 1900.2-9.1 |
The Bimaran casket or Bimaran reliquary is a small gold reliquary for Buddhist relics that was found inside the stupa no.2 at Bimaran, near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.
When it was found by the archaeologist Charles Masson during his work in Afghanistan between 1833 and 1838, the casket contained coins of the Indo-Scythian king Azes II, though recent research by Senior indicates Azes II never existed and finds attributed to his reign probably should be reassigned to Azes I. The most recent research however (2015) attributes the coins to Indo-Scythian king Kharahostes or his son Mujatria, who minted posthumous issues in the name of Azes.
The Bimaran reliquary is sometimes dated, based on coinage analysis, to 0-15 CE (Fussman), more generally to 50-60 CE (British Museum), and sometimes much later (2nd century CE), based on artistic assumptions only. It is currently in the collections of the British Museum. The datation of this unique piece of art has a strong bearing on the chronology of Buddhist art and the creation of the Buddha image, as its advanced iconography implies that earlier forms had probably been existing for quite some time before.
The casket is a small container reminiscent of the Pyxis of the Classical world. It was found without its lid. There is a lotus decorating the bottom.
The casket features hellenistic representations of the Buddha (contrapposto pose, Greek himation, bundled hairstyle, wearing a moustache, realistic execution), surrounded by the Indian deities Brahma and Śakra, inside arched niches (called "homme arcade", or caitya) of Greco-Roman architecture. There are altogether eight figures in high-relief (two identical groups of Brahman-Buddha-Indra, and two devotees or Bodhisattvas in-between) and two rows of rubies from Badakhshan.
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