Buddhist Studies

The course will be focused on the cross-fertilized character of Gandhāran art as seen in the appearance early on of new forms of art inspired by Persian and Greek models which were adapted and transformed to narrate stories of Indian origin. Conversely, at the time the Kuṣāṇ dynasty reached its apogee, cultural interactions with pre-existing Persian, Greek, Scythian, and Parthian artistic forms facilitated a progressive Indianization of the art of the entire region. The Gandhāra art, is a form of figurative sculpture born in the Gandhāran region between the second and the fifth centuries of the common era, reflecting regional cross-cultural elements arising from its direct relationship with Buddhism and to some extent with Hinduism, given that both flourished in India during the Kuṣāṇ Empire. In relation to other forms of figurative art depicting the Buddha, particularly in Amarāvatī, the capital of the Sātavāhanas, Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, the capital of the Ikṣvākus in Andhradeśa, and in Mathurā on the right bank of the Yamuna river, Buddhist art in Gandhāra is characterized by a unique style, the use of schist readily available in the region, a naturalism reminiscent of Greek Classical art, and an iconographic preference for episodes of the historical Buddha’s life.

Situated in what is today northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, Gandhāra was the name of one of the eastern satrapies of the Persian Empire. It comprised mainly the fertile valleys of the lower Kabul and Swat rivers and the lower part of the upper Indus river, and was centred around the ancient cities of Puṣkalavatī (modern Peshawar) and Takṣaśilā (modern Taxila). During the first five centuries, Gandhāra and its neighboring regions were mainly Buddhist as witnessed by hundreds of Buddhist complexes where thousands of Buddhist monks lived. It was only in the sixth century that these areas became Hindu.