Seated Bodhisattva with Combined Halo and Mandorla, Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara), 5th–6th century. Stucco. H. 13.3 cm, W. 9.5 cm, D. 6 cm. Rogers Fund, 1913, 13.96.10. © 2000–2023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In Gandhara the appearance of a halo surrounding an entire figure occurs only in the latest phases of artistic production, in the fifth and sixth centuries. By this time in Afghanistan the halo/mandorla had become quite common and is the format that took hold at Central Asian Buddhist sites.