In the 19th century, officers of the British Raj began to collect large quantities of ancient Indian statuary, often hauling away dozens of camel loads from a single site. Some of the most intriguing carvings came from a territory called Gandhara, in far northwestern India between the Indus and Kabul rivers. Gandharan statues and relief carvings, while clearly “oriental” in style, seemed oddly unlike other works of Indian art and yet oddly familiar. They included some of the earliest known depictions of the Buddha, or the historical prince Siddhartha (c. 563–483 B.C.E.) 026after he achieved enlightenment. The sculptures were often carved in realistic detail, such as one very wan-looking statue of the Buddha engaged in a fast—contrasting with the stylized idiom of most Indian sculpture. Many of the statues, moreover, were carved with heavy gowns draped over their bodies; such drapery was not known in earlier Indian art.
Stranger yet, those gowns resembled Roman togas, and other images came directly out of Greco-Roman mythology. There were satyrs, harpies and tritons; there were representations of Hermes and Adonis. A lovely statue of Atlas had once been used to support architectural elements, symbolizing the titan’s holding up the world. A number of Gandharan friezes even contained depictions of Corinthian capitals. No wonder these exotic Buddhist carvings seemed so familiar to Western eyes.
The British officers had stumbled upon an extraordinary fusion of artistic elements. In remote Gandhara, Eastern and Western styles confronted and changed one another. This phenomenon, which began with the arrival of Alexander the Great in 327 B.C.E. (see Frank Holt, “Alexander in the East”), was sustained by Hellenized Bactrians and Greek settlers and then reinvigorated as Gandharans and other Indians increasingly made contact with the Roman Empire, especially during the reigns of Trajan (98–117 C.E.) and Hadrian (117–138 C.E.). The result was an art that combined classical proportions, Indian imagery and Buddhist spirituality—producing some of the greatest sculpture the world has ever seen.1
Gandhara is first mentioned as a geographical entity in the Rig Veda, a collection of Indian sacred hymns composed in the second millennium B.C.E. Inscriptions from the Persian Achaemenid period indicate that Gandhara was incorporated into Darius I’s empire around 515 B.C.E. The area remained under Persian domination until the campaigns of Alexander in 327 and 326 B.C.E.
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Although Gandhara retained Hellenistic cultural elements, actual rule by Greeks was brief. In 305 B.C.E. Gandhara reverted to native Indian control under Chandragupta Maurya, whose empire lasted a little more than a century. With the breakdown of the Mauryan empire around 190 B.C.E., Gandhara was invaded by Hellenistic Greeks from Bactria and by groups from central Asia.
One of these central Asian groups, the Kusanas, built a great empire that flourished from about the first to the third centuries C.E.2 The Kusanas controlled a vast area that included present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and part of northern India. Their reign was a period of peace and cultural ferment—a kind of pax Kusana—though they seem to have brought with them few enduring cultural traditions of their own. Rather, the Kusanas converted to Buddhism and encouraged the development of local artistic styles.
What is most unusual about this period, however, is that not one but two great schools of art flourished: one in the northwestern part of the empire (Gandhara), and the other in the southeastern part of the empire.
The capital of the southeastern part of the Kusana empire was Mathura, about 50 miles south of Delhi. There, three religions mixed peacefully; along with Buddhists, including the ruling Kusanas themselves, were ancient Hindu and Jain communities. Mathuran art is an eclectic mélange of these traditions; it tends to be earthy and sensual, embracing the many fecund elements of Indian art. It is also rich in symbolism—as seen, for example, in bronze sculptures of the Wheel of the Law (symbolizing cycles of death and rebirth) and intricate sandstone sculptures of mandala images (or schematic representations of the cosmos), as well as in carvings depicting ancient Indian gods.
Gandharan art is different from Mathuran art. It is at once more decorative and more realistic. It is also entirely Buddhist.
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha, was a member of the princely Sakya clan 028of northeastern India. Thus he is also known as Sakyamuni, or sage of the Sakyas. For Buddhists, he is the fourth or seventh (depending on the tradition) of the eight manusi, or mortal, Buddhas. Since he was born into a Vedic culture, from which modern Hinduism derives, it is not surprising that fundamental Buddhist ideas are similar to Hindu ideas—such as the belief in maya (the illusory quality of the sensory world and of one’s own individuality), karma (the notion of fate as determined, ultimately, by a person’s own actions), reincarnation, and nirvana (release from the endless cycles of death and rebirth). The Buddha’s teachings crossed the Himalayas and arrived in Gandhara around the early first century B.C.E. By the mid-first century C.E., when the Kusanas had established power, Gandhara was thoroughly Buddhist.
Gandharan artists soon began constructing images of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva (the name for Siddhartha, or any figure destined to become a Buddha, before he achieves enlightenment). Prior to the Kusana period, the Buddha had only been represented aniconically by the use of symbols—such as a pair of feet on a pedestal, indicating the presence of the holy figure, or a tree hung with garlands, alluding to the Buddha’s enlightenment under the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya (modern Bihar, in northeastern India).
In creating likenesses of the Buddha, Kusana period artists from Mathura and Gandhara began a tradition that lasts to this day.3 Over the centuries, sculpted Buddhas—some on an immense scale (see John C. Huntington, “The Buddhas of Bamiyan”)—began to appear throughout east and southeast Asia.
These artists did not merely give birth to a tradition of Buddha carving. They also represented the Buddha with a whole series of gestures that have become the standard repertoire of Buddha images. 029They created an art form that could convey Buddhist teachings in stone over the millennia and around the world. The extensive depiction of Buddhist iconography in narrative reliefs was the greatest fruit of the union of East and West in Gandhara.
Just as Buddhist teachings drew on ancient Indian cults, so Gandharan sculptors borrowed from traditional Indian imagery in sculpting Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. For instance, the figures’ clothes and ornaments are Indian in origin. Most of the symbolic elements are also known from ancient Indian art—such as the Wheel of the Law and the stupa, a funerary tumulus that symbolizes the death and ultimate nirvana of the Buddha.
These various features, however, are combined with Greco-Roman traditions of verisimilitude and palpable detail—as seen in some of the statues’ exaggerated musculature, in the heavy drapery, in the use of classical motifs, and even in sometimes very Greco-Roman-looking faces (as on a set of stair risers from the town of Buner). The Gandharan artists’ fondness for carving relief scenes of Siddhartha’s life—as well as scenes from the lives of previous, non-historical Buddhas, as preserved in the so-called jakata tales—was partly inspired by Greco-Roman reliefs.
Gandhara’s sculptors worked in various media. There are bronze sculptures and intricate reliquary caskets in gold and copper alloy—all attesting to the advanced metalwork in the region, though not much has survived. Gandharan artists also made sculptures in stucco and terracotta; sadly, however, though large numbers of heads have survived, most of the bodies have disappeared. The majority of the extant sculptures are in stone, usually a green, gray or gray-blue schist.
Some of the stone sculptures are relief panels adorning the walls of stupas, chapels, monastic buildings and gateways. Most of the scenes show symbolic events in the historical Buddha’s life—such as his birth at Kapilavastu in northeastern India, his first sermon in the deer park at Sarnath, his enlightenment at Bodhgaya, and his death. But the Gandharans also carved hundreds of scenes of other aspects of the Buddha’s 030life and teachings. Among these are scenes of palace life, Siddhartha’s marriage, his departure from the palace on his favorite horse, the emaciated Buddha in meditation, the Buddha’s triumph over the temptation of Mara,a and the miracle at Sravasti.b
The way in which Siddhartha—or other Buddha figures—is depicted depends on whether he has reached nirvana. The term “Bodhisattva,” or the Buddha before enlightenment, is derived from bodhisatta (one whose essence is perfect knowledge) and bodhi (wisdom). The Bodhisattva is a Buddha-elect, one who is destined to achieve enlightenment. In Gandharan sculpture, as 031well as in later Buddhist art, the dress of the Bodhisattva is the typical Indian dhoti, a cloth tied around the waist and pulled between the legs. An ornate shawl is draped over the figure’s left shoulder and lower body. The Bodhisattva often wears a crown, earrings and necklaces to indicate his royal birth. Long chains strung with amulets wind across his chest. (Similar apotropaic amulets are worn in India today.)
Most depictions of Bodhisattvas are identified as Bodhisattva Sakyamuni, or the historical Siddhartha before he became a Buddha. However, certain attributes identify images of other Bodhisattvas. For instance, a water flask in the left hand identifies the image as a Maitreya, or future Buddha, but not necessarily Siddhartha. A small likeness of Buddha in the crown identifies the image as Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of mercy; a thunderbolt (vajra) in the left hand is the sign of Vajrapani, the Bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom; and a lotus blossom (padma) tells us that the image is Padmapani, the Boddhisattva of compassion. In Bodhisattva statues, as in those of the Buddha, the left arm hangs along the body, while the right arm is bent at the elbow with the hand forming a symbolic gesture—one of the distinctive hand positions known as mudras. In many statues, however, the right hand has broken off.
If the Bodhisattva is depicted with a regal bearing, the Buddha is shown in contemplative dignity. He wears monastic robes unadorned with jewelry. The luxurious shawl in the Bodhisattva carvings is replaced by a sleeveless shirt, reaching to just above the knees, and a simple monk’s robe. The enlightened Siddhartha no longer sports shoulder-length curls festooned with a crown or jeweled bands; instead, his hair is depicted as rows of short curls topped by a chignon. In Buddhist art, this chignon, which was later depicted as a protuberance on the head, suggests Buddha’s raised consciousness. It is a symbol of nirvana, denoting the extinction of desires and passions, the annihilation of individual existence and the reunion with the supreme, universal spirit.
Upon achieving enlightenment, a Buddha chooses either to be reborn again in order to help others achieve nirvana or to stop the cycle of incarnations and become one with the universe. A Buddha taking the latter path reaches parinirvana, or complete nirvana; in art this is represented by either a recumbent Buddha being mourned by his followers or a symbolic representation of the Buddha’s funeral tumulus, or stupa.
Images of the Buddha also contain a circular mark between the eyebrows, known as the urna. The urna was originally a whorl of hair and only later came to be depicted as a protuberance on the forehead. One of 32 marks identifying exalted beings, the urna032suggests nobility and wisdom.
Perhaps the Buddhas most familiar to us today are the seated figures with hands held in the highly stylized mudra positions. The mudras are yet another example of the extraordinary creativity of the Gandharans in drawing on Eastern and Western elements. If certain features of the Buddha images themselves were indebted to Greco-Roman carvings of scenes from the myths of Hercules or Atlas, the mudras are distinctively Indian.
In these images, the Buddha sits with his legs crossed and the soles of his feet turned upwards, and he holds his hands in one of four mudras. In abhaymudra—the gesture of fearlessness, reassurance and protection—the palm of the right hand faces outwards, with raised fingers. In dhyanamudra, or the pose of meditation, the hands rest on the lap, right over left, palms turned up and fingers extended. In bhumisparsamudra, or the earth-touching gesture, the Buddha sits with his right hand resting on his right leg, his palms turned inwards and his fingers extended to touch the earth. This gesture refers to the Buddha’s calling the earth to bear witness to his acts, particularly to his resisting the temptations of Mara, who sought to deflect him from his path.
The fourth and final gesture, dharmacakramudra, or the expounding of the law, alludes to the first sermon given by the Buddha in the deer park in Sarnath, where he reveals the path to enlightenment. This mudra can be represented in two ways. In some images, the Buddha sets the spokes of the Wheel of the Law—representing the steps toward enlightenment—in motion with his right hand. In others, he forms a circle with his right hand by pressing together the tips of his index finger and thumb and turning his palm outwards; the left hand is shown with the tips of the thumb and the index or middle finger touching the palm, and with the palm again facing outwards.
Anyone who has seen representations of the Buddha, whether ancient or modern, will recognize these various elements. That is the legacy of Gandhara. This extraordinary people synthesized aspects of Greco-Roman and ancient Indian art into a new, fresh and vigorous idiom—and in doing so, they moved the world.
In the 19th century, officers of the British Raj began to collect large quantities of ancient Indian statuary, often hauling away dozens of camel loads from a single site. Some of the most intriguing carvings came from a territory called Gandhara, in far northwestern India between the Indus and Kabul rivers. Gandharan statues and relief carvings, while clearly “oriental” in style, seemed oddly unlike other works of Indian art and yet oddly familiar. They included some of the earliest known depictions of the Buddha, or the historical prince Siddhartha (c. 563–483 B.C.E.) 026after he achieved enlightenment. The sculptures were […]
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While the Buddha meditates, Mara, a symbol of worldly attachments, tempts him with women, food and other luxuries to prevent him from attaining enlightenment. The Buddha is able to resist these allurements, and he summons the earth itself to witness his triumph over temptation.
2.
The Buddha performs several miracles at Sravasti, a town in northeastern India where he taught for most of his enlightened life. In the miracle usually referred to as the Miracle at Sravasti, the Buddha appears seated on a 1,000-petaled lotus blossom to prove to his detractors that he has found nirvana.
Endnotes
1.
The French scholar Alfred Foucher (1865–1952) maintained that the sources of classical cultural impact lay in Greek cities nearer at hand; those of Bactria, reinforced by fresh influences from Greece. He suggested that the conversion of the Bactrian ruler Menander (c. 150–100 B.C.E.) to Buddhism planted “the germ of the whole subsequent development of Greco-Buddhist [Gandharan] art.” Foucher’s contemporary, Sir John Marshall, dated the high period of Gandharan art to the first century C.E., when the Parthians—not the Bactrians—revived contact with the classical world. Still other scholars have discounted Greek influence in favor of Roman influence on Gandharan statuary.
2.
We cannot yet provide exact dates for the arrival of Buddhism in Gandhara, for the founding of the Kusana empire, or for the carving of the first Buddha statues. The earliest known likenesses of Buddha date to the first century C.E.
3.
In 1926, Ananda Coomaraswamy argued that the origins of the Buddha image are to be sought in the art of India proper (“The Indian Origin of the Buddha Image,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 46, pp. 165–170). Prototypes for both standing and seated images are already present in Mathura in the yaksa figures from the first three centuries B.C.E. and in the representations of Jina from the late first century B.C.E. Following Coomaraswamy, the Dutch scholar J.E. Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw made a strong case for the priority of the Buddha image in the art of Mathura.
