The Buddhist Art of Gandhara- The Story of the Early School, Its Birth, Growth and Decline

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About the Book The main theme of this book is the history of Buddhist Art in Gandhara from a chronological and aesthetic, not from an iconographic, point of view.

The Gandhara School passed through its adolescence and maturity under the Kushans, who overthrew the Parthians in circa A.D. 64, and that it came to an abrupt end in the reign of Vasudeva I, when the Buddhist monasteries throughout the North-West were overrun and reduced to ruins.

In this book, the author tells us about the influences of Gandhara Art, its asso ciation to the early school of Central India, beginning of Gandhara Art in the Saka period, the renaissance of Hellen istic art under the Parthians and the period of maturity of Gandhara Art.

About the Author Sir John Hubert Marshall, CIE (19 March 1876, Chester, England - 17 August 1958, Guildford, England) was the Director-General of the Archaeo logical Survey of India from 1902 to 1928. He was responsible for the excava tion that led to the discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, two of the main cities that comprise the Indus Valley Civilization. Marshall was educated at Dulwich College as well as King's College, Cambridge.

Preface When Alfred Foucher wrote his masterly work on the Gracco-Buddhist art of Gandhära, he laboured under one disadvantage: he had little external evidence to assist him in reconstructing the School's history and, though he was remarkably shrewd in his surmises, they sometimes went wide of the mark Witness for instance his dating of the well-known statue of the Buddha in the Guides' Mess at Mardan (fig. 132 below), which he placed in the first century B.c.-two centuries before its actual date. Since Foucher's book was published, this dearth of chronological data has been in a large measure remedied by discoveries made in the course of my excavations at Taxila, which revealed many significant facts relating to the history of the School. Among the most important of these were the following: first, they established the fact that there were two distinct schools of art in Gandhara, the earlier of which was flourishing in the first and second centuries of our era, the later in the latter part of the fourth and fifth centuries; and they also showed that these two schools were sharply distinguished, not only by the widely different character of their art but by the different materials which their sculptors employed, namely, stone in the case of the earlier school, lime-stucco in that of the later. It is with the earlier only of these two schools that we are here concerned.

Secondly, my discoveries showed that in the late Saka period, to which the oldest examples of Buddhist carvings are referable, the old Hellenistic art in Gandhara had sunk to a lamentably low level, though better work appears to have been done by sculptors of the Early Indian School imported from down country. Thirdly, the new evidence from Taxila proves that a strong revival of Hellenistic art took place under the philhellene Parthians, who suc ceeded the Sakas in the North-West in the first century A.D., and that this Partho-Hellenistic art played an all-important part in the subsequent evolution of the Gandhara School.

Introduction For the information those who may not familiar with the word Gandhira me start explaining it was the ancient name the of country the west bank the Indus river which comprises the Peshawar Valley and the modern Swat, Buner and Bajaur. It was country with rich, well-watered valleys, clear-cut hills and pleasant climate: country where Greek might well dream being back his homeland. Situated the borderland between India and Western Asia, Gandhira belonged much and little the one to the other. In sixth and fifth centuries n.c. formed part the Achaemenid empire Persia. the fourth was occupied a brief period by the armies Alexander the Great. Thereafter was conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, but after century Indian rule the West again asserted itself, for another century (roughly, the second century n.c.) Greek dynasts took place Indian. Then came, early the first century B.c., the victorious Sakas Scythians, be followed, after yet another century, the Parthians and Kushans. And even then the tale of foreign con quest was not ended. For the third century our era Gandhära again reverted Persia, now under Sasänid sovereigns, and was again re conquered the Kidära Kushans the fourth. Finally, the death-blow its prosperity was given by the Ephthalites or White Huns, who swept over the country about A.D. 465, carrying fire and sword wherever they went and destroying the Buddhist monasteries.

With such history behind them is not surprising that the people of Gandhara were thoroughly cosmopolitan in their culture and their outlook. Of their physical appearance we get some idea from the old sculptures. Some the men, with strikingly tall and dignified figures, closely resembled many present-day Pathäns, and wore the same distinc tive kind baggy trousers and sleeved coat. Others were characteristic ally Greek; others just as characteristically Indian. And, no doubt, we knew more about them, we should recognize other racial elements por trayed the sculptors.

**Contents and Sample Pages**