Buddhism in Gandhara and Beyond: Cultural Interaction Between Ancient East and West

Phrygians - Tocharian - Baleful signs - Ebola - The Islamic Empire - The temple of Kellis - Buddhism in Gandhara - The Lost City of Salt - The Udruh Project spects of globalisation Mobility, exchange and the development of multi-cultural states Buddhism in Gandhara and beyond: Cultural interaction between ancient East and West. Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and deeply connected with East and South Asian culture. The man who was to become the Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama, the son of a warrior king, in the foothills of the Himalaya in ca. 563 BCE. Buddhism draws on the life and experiences of the Buddha, whose teachings Marike (known as dharma) present a model for life towards van Aerde enlightenment and freedom from earthly suffering. Some of the earliest Buddhist texts, in the form of the Jataka studied Archaeology and Classics at tales, date from 300-400 BCE, while the earliest known full the Radboud University Nijmegen and account of the life of the Buddha – the Buddha Charita – University College London (UCL), and completed her PhD (2015) as part of was written by the Indian poet-monk Ashvaghosha in the the VIDI project ‘Cultural innovation 2nd-1st century BCE. in a globalising society: Egypt in the Roman world’ supervised by Miguel John Versluys at Leiden University. Buddhism began as a religion of from modern-day East Afghanistan She investigated cultural interaction monks and monasteries, founded to Northwest Pakistan, saw a between Rome and Egypt, and takes by the Buddha’s original followers. remarkable rise in Buddhist learning a similar approach in her Postdoc But as the teachings of the dharma and philosophy, which reached on Hellenistic and Buddhist culture spread, the amount of Buddhist beyond the monasteries and began to in the archaeology of Gandhara. So monuments and places of worship influence both public and political life. far, she has been supported by the – usually in the form of stupa burial At that time, the Gandhara region was Catherine van Tussenbroek Fund mounds and Bodhi trees – increased part of the Maurya Empire. Emperor and collaborated with the Leiden across the area of modern-day North Ashoka the Great (who reigned Archaeology Faculty, the British India and Pakistan. So did Buddhist from 268-232 BCE) became the first Museum, and UCL’s Institute of scholarship. Especially the region political patron of Buddhism, which Archaeology in London. known as Gandhara, which spread significantly increased the religion’s Marike van Aerde 40 was ‘Greco-Buddhist’, whereas the from the Mediterranean, based Nimogram Udegram Panr Butkara spread of Buddhist material culture on style and general appearance Gumbatuna Andan Dheri Saidu Sharif beyond the region was deemed of only. Even when these objects Shnaisha Chatpat Barikat lesser quality (and therefore of lesser were originally excavated as part of Gumbat Loriyan Tangai interest) because it could no longer Buddhist architecture, such as stupa Jalalabad Palai Sanghao be regarded as Greek craftsmanship. monuments. However, modern-day Bimaran Nathu Kashmir Smats Zar Dheri Ahin Posh Tareli As a result, Greco-Buddhist art has analyses of material properties have Jamal Garhi Sikri long been (and often still is) seen as demonstrated that most of these Takht-i-Bahi Mekhasanda Mohammed Nari Chanaka Dheri Ranigat an isolated category that was unique ‘imports’ were in fact made locally in Sahri Bahlol Shaikan Dheri to Gandhara, because of the presence Gandhara, from local stone or bronze. Bala Hisar Afghanistan of the Indo-Greek kingdoms. But the The sites of Taxila, one of the central Ali Masjid Peshawar Gandhara actual archaeological data suggest cities of Buddhist scholarship under Jamrud Shah-ji-ki Dheri something quite different. Ashoka the Great, and the great stupa Bhamala monument at Butkara I provide a The distinct naturalistic style and variety of interesting examples. Taxila Islamabad certain material techniques of many Pakistan Rawalpindi of the Buddhist sculptures and reliefs from the Gandhara region, Manikyala can indeed be recognised as part of the wider material culture repertoire of the Hellenistic world from the The increasingly wide Map of Gandhara with its major sites. 2nd-1st century BCE. At the same time, many details (even in the form variety of Buddhist of distinct facial features), attributes and subject-matters of these objects match descriptions and traditions from culture across Asia seems Buddhist scholarship and scriptures very closely, and cannot be found originally rooted in the spread throughout the Maurya Buddha emerge from the archaeology sculptures and reliefs, in order anywhere else in the Hellenistic world. Empire and beyond. Nowadays, of this region specifically, and can to demonstrate that the arrival of Moreover, most examples of so-called Gandhara region. Buddhists are a minority in India and be dated roughly from the time of Hellenistic settlers in Gandhara, in the Greco-Buddhist art in Gandhara are Pakistan, but the religion became Ashoka’s reign onwards. Something form of the Indo-Greek kingdoms (2nd- integral parts of specific Buddhist predominant in both Far East Asia quite remarkable seems at work 1st century BCE), became a ‘superior architecture and monuments, More than anything, such new (via China, the Korean peninsula, here: these first statues of the filter’ for the existing local Buddhist as evident from most surviving analyses point towards a process of and Japan) and South Asia (via Sri Buddha, as a human figure, have culture, which became known as excavation reports of Gandharan interaction on quite a global scale; Lanka, Cambodia, and Thailand). This so far been widely recognised for Greco-Buddhist art. In the West, sites. The evidence clearly shows the opposite of ethnic categorisation spread has significantly influenced their ‘Greek’ or ‘Hellenistic’ style, Buddhism was seen as a ‘negative’ that these sculptures and reliefs were and cultural containers. The the material culture of these regions, ever since they were excavated in culture, while the superiority of not isolated objects in a Hellenistic/ archaeological sources show different as archaeological sources from the late 19th to early 20th century. Greek art was considered irrefutable Indo-Greek environment, even and often highly flexible layers of as early as the 2th-1st century BCE Virtually all archaeological campaigns at that time. This led to many though most 19th century Western material choices, technical skill, already show. But this increasingly in the region were undertaken by misinterpretations and wrong datings scholars did choose to interpret subject matter, and (local) contexts wide variety of Buddhist culture British and French colonial scholars of especially Buddhist archaeology them in that way, as a result of their that emerged in Gandhara during this across Asia – possibly the reason at that time – and their records from Gandhara, and the prevalence own predetermined perspectives of time. And this, in turn, points towards for its widespread ‘success’ – seems and interpretations still make up of so-called cultural containers, where both Greek and Buddhist culture. In an ongoing process of interaction originally rooted in the Gandhara the majority of the (predominantly ‘Greek’ and ‘Buddhist’ elements are addition, objects from Gandhara that and exchange that seems incited by region. Western) understanding of these regarded as signs of separate ethnic seemed to lack Buddhist attributes cultural contact and trade networks archaeological sources today. These categories. Briefly put, Buddhist or subject matter were deemed ‘fully throughout the ancient East and Some of the first known scholars focused deliberately on the material culture from Gandhara Greek’ (e.g., figures of Herakles or West; again, the opposite of cultural anthropomorphic depictions of the ‘Greek’ aspects of these Buddhist was considered superior because it Medusa) and labelled as imports isolation and categories according Marike van Aerde 42 43 Trade routes and faiths to so-called culture styles. By asking ‘What is and transmission – and certainly not one of Greek about Buddhist material culture from specific cultural ‘filtering’. More than anything, Gandhara?’ from the onset, we already put the archaeology of Gandhara suggests that categories in place before examining the actual Buddhist material culture was inherently layered, data. More relevant (and interesting) is the flexible, and interactive from its very start. question ‘How did the flexible interplay work Perhaps that original characteristic enabled, of Buddhist elements and Greek naturalistic or at least encouraged, its large-scale spread techniques that the archaeological data from and appropriation throughout the very diverse Gandhara show?’ Contrary to studying Greco- cultures of South and Far East Asia. In the West, Buddhist art from Gandhara as an isolated (and predominantly Greek) phenomenon, this Re-examining Gandharan sites and objects makes us think about the wider scope of cultural can give us new insights into specific case interaction, trade, and exchange networks studies from the archaeological data – but it Buddhism was throughout Eurasia. On a practical level, what also reminds us of the potential influence of routes, connections, and processes enabled our own perspectives as scholars. By trying to look beyond the notion of culture containers and ethnic categories, we will be able to seen as a ‘negative’ look beyond Gandhara, as well. In that way, Such new singular

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