自貴霜朝後期起，特別是笈多(gupta)朝時代，不僅發展佛傳美術，同時也追求超越佛傳美術的佛陀永遠相，展開種種的圖像化探求。所謂「宇宙主釋迦佛」，就是這類永遠相的釋迦佛圖像。芨多系美術的〈初次說法〉以及〈舍衛城神變〉，採取釋迦轉法輪印、兩脅侍菩薩(彌勒和觀音)、玉座、宇宙軸、千佛的圖像特徵，並且加以具現。再者，後期的犍陀羅美術出現了筆者斂名的「大光明神變」；而且比對大乘經典開頭頻頻記述釋迦瞑想、放大光明、化現諸佛、菩薩的情景之後，令人發現大光明神變與此記述有關。如此表現也影響和闐的拉瓦克(Lawak)佛像、以及龜茲(Kucha)克孜爾(Kizil)壁畫、敦煌第四二八窟等。

Beginning in the late Kushan empire, and especially during the Gupta dynasty, many new directions in Buddha, imagery were explored. This was done not only through art based on the Buddha’s biography, but also through attempts to transcend those forms of biographical art with an eternal image of the Buddha. Śākyamuni as the universal Buddha is an example of this type of eternal portrayal. In Gupta art, the first Exposition of the Dharma and Śrāvastī miracle employ Śākyamuni’s wheel-turning mūdra, and are characterized by the flanking of Śākyamuni by two Bodhisattvas (Maitreya and Avalokiteśvara), a jade seat, an axis mundi, and an image of one thousand Buddhas. Further, in Gandhāran art of a later period, there appears what the author has entitiled the “miracle of great light.” Additionally, the descriptions frequently encountered in the openings of Mahāyāna sūtras-in which the Buddha enters samādhi, emits light, and many Buddhas and bodhisattvas appear-are related to the miracle of great light imagery. This type of expression has influenced Buddhist images from Lawak (Hetian), frescoes from Kucha and Kizil, as well as Dunhuang cave 428.