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Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c14: Chapter XI: 11. Gandhāra Art

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c14

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Chapter XI: 11. Gandhāra Art

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The geographical name Gandhara first occurs in the Rigveda in the form *gandhārīṇām* i.e. of the residents of Gandhara. The Atharvaveda repeats the form *Gandhārī* but the Aitareya and Śatapatha Brāhmaṇas mention it as Gāndhāra, an epithet of Nagnajit, a name mentioned in the list of Śilpa Schools. The name is repeated in the Chhāndogya Upanishad as Gandhāra marking the western point of a route leading up to eastern India. Pāṇini gives its form as Gāndhārī (IV. 1.169). The river Indus divided this wide Janapada into two portions, the eastern Pūrva-Gandhāra, with capital at Taxila in Rawalpindi district and the western Apara Gandhāra, with capital at Pushkalāvatī (Peucelaotes of the Greeks; modern Charsadda) a city on the junction of the Swat with the Kabul river which finally meets the Indus. Cunningham gives the boundaries of Gandhāra as having Laghman (ancient, Lampāka) and Jalalabad (Nagarahāra) to the west, the mountains of Swat and Buner to the north, the Indus to the east and the mountains of Kalabagh to the south. In some places the name Udyāna was applied to Gandhāra but actually the appellation Uḍḍīyāna mentioned in the Jātaka (IV. 352) was applied to the mountainous country between the Swat and the Panjkora rivers. Thus the three river valleys of the Swat, Kabul and the Indus formed the main Gandhāra region. The importance of this region was derived from the ancient route called Uttarapatha which connected Mathura, Śākala, Taxila, Pushkalāvatī, Nagarahāra, Kāpiśī and Bahlīka. There was an ancient route connecting Udbhāṇḍa (Ohinda on the Indus), Shahbajgarhi, Hoti Mardan, and Charsaddha. In the time of Kanishka a new route running from Peshawar direct east up to the Indus was diverted. But all the ancient sites continued to form part of the ancient Gandhāra region. From Pushkalāvatī on the ancient route and Peshawar on the modern the route continued via Jallalabad (anc., Nagarahāra) and the adjacent site of Hadda and thence to Kāpiśī and through the Bamiyan valley and Phondukistan to Hebak and through Bactria to Termez. This was the vast basin for the extension of Gandhāra art in which seven distinct areas may be recognised as follows: 1. Taxila, 2. Pushkalāvatī, 3. Nagarahāra, 4. Swat Valley or Uḍḍīyāna, 5. Kāpiśī, 6. Bamiyan, 7. Bactria. Takshaśilā, also known as Bhadraśilā, now in Rawlpindi district, was the eastern capital of Gandhāra and virtually the biggest centre of art and civilisation. In the Gandhāra school of art of stone sculptures made of schist we had two great sites, viz. Hadda and Taxila. At Taxila there were three main sites, viz. Bhir, Sircap and Sirsukh placed from south to north, and under three successive occupations, viz. ancient Taxila, Greko-Parthian and Kushāṇa times. Taxila was included in the Achaemenian empire of Cyrus, Darius and X erxes, in the 5th century B. C.; then under the Maedonian rule of Alexander and finally ceded by Seleukos to Chandragupta Maurya. After the Mauryas it came successively under the influence of the Greko-Bactrians, Śakas or Scythians, Pahlavas or Parthians and Kushāṇas between third century B. C. to second century A. D. The Bhir mound is placed by Sir John Marshall between 6-7th century B. C. to the time of Alexander. This site was pre-Greek in origin and has produced two hoards of punchmarked coins and a treasure containing two pieces of Alexander the great and one of Philip Aridaeus, showing the head of Alexander with a lion's mask on one side and on the reverse Zeus seated on his throne. Amongst the minor antiquities of the Bhir mound are earthenware vessels of many varieties; small reliefs, stamped medallions and toys of terracottas; stone saucers and dishes; toilet and other articles of bone, ivory and copper; gold and bronze ornaments; iron implements and domestic utensils; beads and gems; coins; and other miscellaneous articles.

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The second site at Taxila was Sircap beginning in the second century B. C. with the conquest of the Panjab by Greko-Bactrians and which continued under the Greek, Śaka, Pahlava and Kushāṇa king up to Vema Kadphises. The excavations have exposed at Jandiyal an Iranian temple and two Ionian columns. This Zoroastrian shrine seems to have been the work of Parthian rulers.

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After the close of the Sircap period the next site at Taxila was at Sirsukh constructed probably under the reign of Kanishka to a date approximately up to 200 A.D. The citadel at Sirsukh placed inside the valley is rectangular with walls formed of diaper masonry and semi-circular bastions which are hollow on the ground and top level with a flat terrace on the inside holes in the walls for shooting. The remains inside Sirsukh belong to a large palace but nearby at Badalpur a Stūpa of Kushāṇa times and at Lalchak another late Stūpa of semi-ashlar masonry with coins of the white Huṇa were found.

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In the neighbourhood of Sirsukh are two memorable Stūpas, viz. of sacred Head (Śirodāna Stūpa of which the story is told in the Divyāvadāna) and a Stūpa of Kuṇāla with the legend that it was constructed by Aśoka to commemorate the place where his son Kuṇāla had given his eyes and which now survives as a three-terraced Stūpa showing a lofty rectangular base (63'9'' × 105') approached by a flight of steps at its northern end and relieved by ‘a series of stunted Corinthian pilasters resting on an elaborate “torus and scotia” moulding and formerly surmounted by a dentil cornice and copings, with brackets of the “notched” variety intervening between the capitals and the cornice.’

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In the viccinity of Taxila are the monuments at Mohrā Morādu, Pippala and Jaulian the best preserved and the most striking in the North West. At Mohra Moradu is a monastery with several Stūpas ornamented with reliefs in stucco. Numerous coins of Huvishka and Vāsudeva were discovered in the foundation of the monastery. Another monastery with Stūpas exactly semilar to those of Mohrā Morādu was found at Jauliān belonging to the Kushāṇa period. The Stūpas at Jauliān are richly ornamented with stucco figures of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas with worshippers, grotesque Yakshas serving as atlantes in friezes, female figure with children and attendants.

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At Pippala two monasteries one of Kushāṇa date and another of fourth century A. D. and a Stūpa were found, the last monument is decorated with Ionian pilasters alternating with lotus rosettes.

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The most important of the monuments at Taxila is the Dharmarājikā Stūpa or Chīr Tope so-called from the cleft driven through it. The main structure is circular at the base with a raised terrace, which was ascended by four flights of steps on the four sides. The core of the Stūpa is of rough rubble masonry with radiating walls three to five feet in thickness which were added during Kushāṇa times. The outer facing of the Stūpa is made of big limestone blocks (aśmaśilā) with chiselled kañjūr stone let in between them for the mouldings and pilasters. The whole was at one time finished with a thick coating of lime plaster. The face of the Stūpa above the berm was covered with ornamental stone carving distinguished by the boldness of its mouldings and the design of the niches which are framed aternately with trefoil arches and portals with sloping jambs, and separated from one another by Corinthian pilasters. The niches once had figures of the Buddha or of the Bodhisattvas in relief. The original Dharmarājikā Stūpa was first erected in the reign of Aśoka, then enlarged as a Maheśākhya Stūpa in the time of the Śaka kings and finally finished of with kañjūr stones probably in the fifth century. The raised terrace around the foot of the Stūpa once served as a pradakṣiṇāpatha which was laid in three layers; the uppermost one composed of slabs af dark grey stone; the second one immediately below the first of glass tiles and below it a chūnam floor, below which was a pavement of river sand mixed with lime, which was adorned in a curious fashion with shell bangles embedded in the plaster and arranged in different geometrical designs, some of the bangles being whole, others cut in halves or in quarters.

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On the eastern side of the Stūpa immediately to the left of the steps is the lower part of a pillar, which probably once supported a lion capital like the pillars in Sircap. [Figure: 185].

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The Great Stūpa was the first of the Buddhist structures to be erected on the plateau of Taxila. It was surrounded by a number of smaller Stūpas dating from the Śaka period (1st century B. C.) which were originally circular in plan and constructed of rough rubble cores. When these fell into ruins around the Great Stūpa were erected a number of small chapels for Buddhist images which were set up facing the Great Stūpa in a distinctive style of masonry known as diaper. Over these shrines were constructed others in later masonry in which ashlar and diaper patterns were combined, i. e. semi-ashlar in which a single course of ashlar was usually inserted between the larger boulders of the diaper, and which was in vogue in the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries A. D. ‘Thus, we have three clear and distict type of masonry around the main Stūpa : first, the rubble and kañjūr work of the Śaka period, secondly, the neat diaper which came into fashion with the Parthians during the first century A. D.; and thirdly the semi-ashlar, semi-diaper type of the late second and subsequent centuries. These three consecutive types are equally well illustrated in other buildings at the Dharmarājikā Stūpa as well as in Sircap and other places’. (Marshall). Minor antiquities from these chapels are in stucco and terracotta, all of later times.

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The Great Stūpa of Taxila had also its monastery with a large courtyard having a row of cells on four sides together with a refectory and a kitchen. A number of such combined monuments with a circular Stūpa and a squar Vihāra continued to be built up to the time of Yuan Chwang. The whole valley is dotted with these ruined monuments.

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On the ancient route were situated Shahbajgarhi, Hoti-Mardan and finally Pushkalāvatī (mod. Charsadda). Kālidāsa has mentioned Takshaśilā and Pushkalāvatī as two capitals of Gandhāra the people of which region were known as the Gandharvas in the Gupta period. The site is more commonly known as Hashṭanagar where a well known pedestal of Hārītī image dated in the year 384 of an unknown era was found. The another site in viccinity is Balahisar where the Stūpa of the Gift of the Eyes or the Kuṇāla Stūpa has been identified by Foucher and some coins of Kanishka and as well as a statuette in schist were found. At Mir-ziarat some coins of Menander, Hermaios, Azes and a coin of Kanishka with Buddha on reverse were found. At Palṭūḍherī was found the Buddha of Hashṭanagar and many other bas-reliefs showing the Dīpaṅkara Jātaka, Abhinishkramaṇa and statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva. North of Charsadda was a belt of ancient monuments, e. g. at Skara-ḍheri was the Stūpa of Hārītī where an image dated in the year 319 was found. At Sahri-bahlol which was an ancient site in a line to the east of Hārītī Stūpa was found a Stūpa with decoration showing a series of seatel Buddhas in stucco between Indo-Corithian pillars and also atlantes and elephants. [Fig. 186]. Many freestanding sculptures and Buddhist statues including scenes from Buddha’s life, Birth, Enlightenment, First Sermon, Parinirvāṇa, Casting of Horoscope by Asita, Dīpaṅkara Jātaka, Conversion of Kāśyapa, Submission of Nalagiri, Kubera and Hārītī and statues of Bodhisattva were found in situ.

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[Figure: Figs. 187-90]. They belong to a period where the artistic traditions of the school were in full vigour including some which are decadent. The stone statues are older than the stuccos. Amongst them Foucher recognised the grand miracle of Śrāvastī, Conversion of Elāpatra Nāga, Dīpaṅkara and Vessantara Jātakas, Ṛiṣiśṛiṅga, and Buddha seated on a lotus-throne supported by two elephants.

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North of Sahri-bahlol is Takht-e-bahi of which the ancient name is unknown, where the Stūpas and Vihāras with colossal statues have been found which include numerous statues of Buddha and Bodhisattvas, life-scenes and Jātaka scenes and also bas-reliefs of Kubra and Hārītī. To the south of Charsadda below the Kabul river is Shah-ji-ki-dheri on the new route where the excavations have exposed a monument identified with the grand Stūpa of Kanishka. In its relic chamber was discovered the reliquary of Kanishka made of ‘gilt copper alloy cylinder and lid, of total height of 7¾ inches. On the lid are a seated nimbate Buddha and Indra and Brahmā, around the rim a series of hamsas with extended wings; and on the cylinder are seated Buddhas, a representation of Kanishka, and the sun and moon deities, with garland-bearing Erotes. The inscription mentions the names of Kanishka and Agiśala, the Greek craftsman by whom it was made.’ [Fig. 191].

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To the west of Peshawar on the main Uttarapatha route was the important site of Nagarhar (modern Jalalabad) where a gold reliquary was found inside a Stūpa at Bimran, which was contained in an inscribed steatite vase of the 1st cent. A. D. The most important site was Hadda where Stūpas with sculptures in schist and in stucco have been discovered and where on Gandhāra art strong Hellenistic influences have been observed. Here the Stūpas in brick or stone are very ancient followed by such of them as were later on encased by stucco work. Bartho has classified them as firstly cylindrical Stūpas with the lower cubical portion surmounted by a dome; secondly the Stūpa constituted solely by two or three cylindrical portions and finally two octagonal bodies are joined to a cylindrical portion. In the decoration of the Stūpa the lotus flower is a frequent motif as well as bas-relief and freizes. In the building of the Stūpas schist was used, as a matter of course on the basis of continued tradition as well as brick, both of which were ancient. Stūpas in schist reveted by bricks show campaniform and Corinthian capitals with a single terrace, and also Stūpas in schist with rough ashlar masonry faced with stucco work and having several terraces with a cylindrical form. The Stūpas solely in schist recall by their forms those of Sanchi, but they are gradually replaced by those which have a slender form and receding lines of several stages, which show a Hellenistic interpretation of Indian Stūpas. Bartho has observed several features of these Stūpas, viz. the elegance of lines in the receding superimposed work, sobriety of decorations, reminiscence of Persian order, predominance of the Greek order, mainly Corinthian, rapidity of execution, gradual introduction of the fantastic elements, bordering upon the grotesque in architectural decoration. There is difference of opinions about the chronology of this school, but it was flourishing from the second to the fifth century A. D. and the monuments seem to have been destroyed by the White Huns.

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The next site on the grand route was Kāpiśī (mod. Begram), north of Hindukush, commanding the passes of India and Bactria, which was known to Pāṇini about the 5th cent. B C. and also to Kauṭilya, the latter mentioning its famous wines. At this site a number of carved ivory plaques which formed parts of treasure-chests or toilet-cases of women, were found, which are inspired both by the art style of India on the one hand and Hellenistic world on the other. Of true Indian inspiration are scenes of Aśoka-dohada showing a woman touching the Aśoka tree with her left foot and having the same kind of spiral mass of head-dress as seen in similar figures at Mathura and Amaravati. Prasādhikā, wearing a heavy necklace (Karatala-sthita sthūla-hāra-yaṣṭi, Kādambarī, Vaidya edn. para 80), toilet-scene (Prasādhana), dancing scene, drinking scene, flying geese, Śalākā-vātāyana derived from Padma-vara-vedikā type, Pūrṇa-ghaṭa, Haṃsa-Krīḍā or woman coaxing the Haṃsa bird with a lotus. Again in 1939-40, during a second excavation, many more plaques were discovered, showing toraṇa gateways with three architraves similar in style to those on the Āyāgapaṭṭas of Mathura with toileting scenes of women holding mirror and waterpot, pillars surmounted by animal capitals and inverted jars, row of elephants in the spaces between architraves recalling the elephants on the façade of the Lomas Ṛishi cave and a good number of other scenes of dance, music and domestic pastimes marked by much greater Indianisation similar to the Śalabhañjikā women on Mathura railing pillars. [Figs. 192-3]. Special attention may be invited to four scenes depicted on the obverse and reverse of plaques No. 46 and 49 (of Hackin's Report) in which a woman is wringing water from her long braid, which a Haṃsa bird is drinking with its beak (Keśanistoyakāriṇī mudrā), exactly similar to that on Mathura railing pillar No. M. M. 1509. On several plaques we find drinking scenes showing an intoxicated woman helplessly falling on the ground in half-kneeling attitude supported by her female companions recalling the Bacchanalian group of Maholi. Women playing on flute, or standing under Aśoka tree (Aśoka dohada scene showing the woman kicking the Aśoka tree with her right foot), a guardian holding a long lance, Full Vase, Vyāla-toraṇa brackets showing women riding on winged leoglyphs, capitals showing addorsed lions with male and female riders, fish-tailed tritons (Mahoraga). It is impressive to find in these plaques not only subjects of Indian inspiration but also the same plastic sensuality as is familiar on the pillars of Mathura railing. It is very probable that this school of ivory carving for which such profuse evidence has been supplied by Begram, originally flourished at Mathura during the Kuṣāṇa period.

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Kāpiśī seems to have been the place where the east and the west mingled in a cultural session of great beauty, for we have found here a number of glass vases, painted and cut, representing the best art of the Roman world, goblets, one of them showing the combat between Achilles and Hector (Hackin II, fig. 261), big and small wine-jars (ibid. figs. 250-251), pots, bowls, jars, a conical goblet, with painted scenes of Ganymede being carried by the Eagle of Zeus and also Europa being lifted by a bull (ibid, figs. 264-265), phials, fish-shaped flasks, cups and saucer, all in very fine glass; a number of circular medallions in plaster showing beautiful Roman heads of male and female figures and Bacchanalian scenes (ibid, figs. 274, 378), bronze plaques, plates, discs, a mask of Silenus (ibid., fig. 329), mirrors, chests and statuettes; figures of porphyry, gold, iron and pottery, etc. In them we are face to face with the rich art creations of Roman workshops that were brought to Kāpiśī to serve the purpose mostly of wine-trade from where the flavoury drinks known as Kāpiśāyana-madhu were imported in to India even so early as the Mauryan times. For about five hundred years Kāpiśī maintained its reputations as an emporium of trade supplied with the best articles of art and beauty from India and from Rome. The artistic inspiration of Mathura on the Begram ivories is so patent that their Indian fabrication cannot be doubted, as Goloubew concluded.

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Two other sites in the cluster of Kāpiśī are Paitāwā where in 1925 a Buddha image was found, and Khair Khaneh, twelve miles north of Kabul, where in 1936, a Brāhmanical temple with the statue of Sūrya in white marble was exposed. Sūrya is squatting in lalitāsana between his acolytes Daṇḍa and Piṅgala, on a chariot drawn by two horses between whom sits the charioteer Aruṇa shown without legs and holding the reins. He is wearing the costume of the Sassanian kings of 4th cent. A.D. This was the grand epoch of the worship of the Sun god in the Oriental world to which numerous references are found in the Purāṇas and testified by the actual monument. Hackin observed that this was the first Brāhmanical temple in this area showing architectural and iconographical similarity between Khair-khaneh and Gupta art, specially of Bhūmrā.

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As we move westwards on the Grand Route of Uttarapatha we come to the next cluster of site in the Bamiyan Valley and Fondukistan. The colossal rock-cut Buddha statues, one of 35 meters and the other of 53 meters are cut in the rock with many grottoes in the background and vicinity, with numerous fresco-paintings showing strong Ajanta influences. The paintings also exhibit Central Asian and Sassanian influences. It has been suggested that originally the first art influences that Bamiyan got were Indian which were gradually superimposed by motifs, costumes and styles from Iran and Central Asia. Mani is said to have received his education of painting in Bamiyan.

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The Bamiyan Valley was the gateway to Gandhara and the magnificent statues and paintings executed here in the mountain were intended to inspire the visitors from Iran, Rome, Central Asia and China with faith and wonder about India in those ages.

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From Bamiyan the Grand Route took a turn to the north and terminated in Bāhlīka and Termez on the Oxus, which should be studied in a purview of Gandhāra art. On the way a little to the east is Haibak, where there is a monolithic Stūpa carved on the same principle as the monolithic Śaiva temple at Ellora. Possibly the initiative of such grand monolithic monuments came from here to India. Here was a Buddhist foundation complete with a Stūpa with a Saṃghārāma; the latter composed of chapels, a dormitory, and a dining hall or refectory for the community of Buddhist monks. One finds similar disposition in the caves at Daraunta near Jalalabad.

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The most important site was Bactria, situated midway between Afghanistan and Turkistan and lying to the south of Oxus. Its ancient name was Bāhlīka, or Bahlāyanī of Patañjali. It was an international site where four great routes, viz. from India, Iran, Scythia and China, met. The archaeological researches in Bactriana have shown it to be a veritable crucible of art and culture. Its principal sites are Bactria (modern, Mazar-i-Sharif), Kunduz, Khulm, Andkhui and Termez on the Oxus (ancient Tarmita of the Vinaya-sūtra-ṭīkā and Ta-mi of Yuan Chwang). Bactria was the country of Bāhlīka-Yavanas and art remains of Indian inspiration have been mostly negative so far. The undoubted Buddhist monument is the Nava-Vihāra monastery which dates from the time of Vāsudeva or one of his immediate successors. The site of Kunduz was the real cradle of Graeco-Buddhist art where a number of statues and a temple of Jandial type of Taxila was found which led Foucher to think that the area from Kunduz to Taxila was the home-land of the Gandhāra art in its two versions, one with emphasis on Hellenistic elements and the other on Indian elements.

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Kunduz on a tributary of the Oxus was the site of British and French archaeological excavations and also the scene of activity of Soviet archaeologists. There coins of the Bactrian Greeks and of Kushāṇas were found. Here art specimens of the earliest Hellenistic type have been discovered including Graeco-Buddhist statuettes bearing strong Hellenistic influence. The stucco examples at Kunduz recall those of Hadda and are strongly hellenised and Greek influences are much accentuated. Here a treasure was found in the Oxus river containing objects of gold and silver which show the influence of Iran and the art of the Steppes, in particular the animal art of the Scythians. Some animal designs as the fawn are similar to those of Bactria and Sogdiana and the lions and the tigers bearing the designs of the regions of the lower Oxus which enjoyed wide defusion. The reminiscences of Greek art found in these objects travelled from the Greek colonies in Asia Minor to the ends of Scythian tribes along the Black Sea and South Russia. It was a centre of wide distribution of art motifs of Greek origin towards China and Mongolia. It was from the 2nd cent. A. D. to 4-5th cent. when Indian influences permeated the art objects at Kunduz, especially medallions of lotus flowers with petals on the borders. A scene depicting the Śasa-jātaka has been identified here and another perhaps representing Śiva.

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Termez on the north bank of the Oxus was an important outpost of Graeco-Buddhist art where French and Russian delegations have come across much valuable material which adds a new page to the history of Gandhara art during the first two cent. of the Christian era. Here a Buddhist temple was found which has been assigned to the 1st cent. A. D., and is of the same type as the Stūpas in Gandhara. At secondary sites near Termez were found fragments of statuettes of Bodhisattvas, human figures of horse-riders wearing northern dress, a very fine piece of the base of a column, and fragments of pottery and vases of glazed earth.

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At Airtan eight big fragments of a grand frieze were found which had adorned the outer walls of a building, possibly a Buddhist temple. Half-figures of youths and girls, musicians and garland-bearers are depicted on the frieze between acanthus leaves. In spite of elements of Greek and Indian art, the frieze, as a whole, breathes with a style and technique of its own, which shows that there was a local school of art in Termez.

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In the vicinity of Termez an ancient Buddhist monastery, comprising a number of artistically decorated caves and various constructions of the pre-Christian and Christian times have come to light. At Termez itself, excavations revealed a colossal palace with richly ornamented stairways, decorative medallions, and fantastic stucco work in the side pavilions which is ‘a marvel of Oriental art’. Fuller notices of this material are yet awaited.

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The subject of this notable frieze was inspired by essentially an Indian conception, viz. the Kāma-latā, i.e. the creeper producing the beautiful sons and daughters of the God of Love. Indian versions of this motif were rendered on the door-jambs of the Gupta temples in the form of Mithuna bands but the motif was much older and derived from the wish-fulfilling trees (Kalpa-vriksha) of Uttarakuru whose boughs produced such Mithunas or young men and women (ante 142-6). It appears as if the colossus of Kushāṇa rule under Kanishka had planted its one foot at Mathura and the other in Khwaresm.

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In the Autonomous Karakalpakia Republic of Khwaresm, one of the most impressive monuments has been found at Toprak Kala showing a palace with a "Hall of Kings" containing many groups of sculptures, some of them very well preserved, representing, according to Tolstov, the kings of ancient Khwaresm surrounded by their women and court dignitaries. The statues are made of unbaked clay and are painted; the faces are very realistic and are, undoubtedly portraits. In two niches in the "hall of kings" (lit. *Devakula*) were found big (almost double the natural size) statues of men in sitting posture with three to five other statues of men, women and children standing around them. In the centre of the palace is the "alabaster hall", not far from two other festival halls, with walls covered with moulded and carved alabaster. Near this were found the "hall of victory" whose walls were adorned with sculptural representations of sitting kings and portrayals of 'Goddesses of Victory', and the "hall of Warriors" with images of the heroes of Khwaresm in coats of iron scale mail with reed shields. In addition to the sculptures of considerable artistic and historical value, there are pictures of monumental character, with ornamental and figurative decorations, veritable genre pictures, women gathering grapes and peaches into their aprons, musicians, tigers, horses, birds, etc. These wall paintings were made with mineral paints on clay plastering. This part of Khwaresm was under the rule of Kanishka in the 1st cent. A. D. and many fortresses were built here for Kushāṇa garrison which kept watch over the northern borders of the kingdom. In one of such buildings at the frontier fortress of Gyaur-Kala in a big square hall were found the remains of wall paintings. Each wall having a niche in the middle and ceiling supported by columns with excellently profiled stone-bases. This architectural feature at once recalls the similar stone pillar-bases (*kumbhaka*), a number of which were found in the Huvishka monastery at Mathura and are now preserved in the Museum there (M. M. P 21—P 53). Near this hall was found a sculpture giving firm links with Mathura art. It is a clay sculpture of man's head, somewhat bigger than natural size, being one of the best specimens of portrait sculpture from Khwaresm showing a young man wearing a peaked hat known as *Tigra-khauda*, which was popular amongst the Scythians and of which half a dozen specimens have been found at Mathura. This art belonged to the Tochari, an ancient people who first lived along the Oxus and subsequently moved in to Bactria, overthrowing the Macedonian rule there in the 2nd cent. B. C. They formed a kingdom on the basis of which Bactria came to be known as Tocharistan, i. e. the kingdom of the Tushāras or the Kushāṇas.

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This was a veritable *Devakula* similar to that at Māṭ near Mathura but on a much grander scale which fell into ruins in the fifth-sixth century A. D. under the impact of the White Huṇs and Altai Turks.

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These specimens were produced in a complex of diverse influences, viz. Indian, Central Asian, Chinese, Iranian and Mediterranean.

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Problems of chronology, iconography and æsthetic achivements of the Gandhāra School are naturally of very great significance in the history of Indian art. The dated images are only four, the era of which is very uncertain. But taking 129 B. C. as the first year of an older Śaka era as the basis of reckoning, the dates of 384 (statue of Hashtnagar), 318 (Buddha of Loiryan-Tangai), 399 (Hārītī from Skarah-dheri) and 89 in the new era (Buddha image from Mamani-dheri), all tend to show that the Gandhāra school flourished in the second cent. A. D. It were really the Kushāṇa emperors, Vema, Kanishka and others under whom the Gandhāra school reached its highest perfection like its contemporary school of Mathura. While the Mathura sculptors have given us several hundred inscriptions those working in Gandhara atliers did not realise there responsibility, although working under western influences they should have acquitted themselves in a better historical frame of mind. However, the general limits of chronology are firm, viz. 1st cent. A. D. to 3rd cent. A. D. for stone sculpture and the 4th and 5th cent. for work in stucco.

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This range is supported by the coins deposited in the foundations of the most of the monuments and also as they were in loose circulation in the regions enumerated above and lying to the south-east and the north-west of Hindukush. A firm point in the chronology of Gandhāra is now furnished by the trilingual Aśokan inscription found near Kandhar. The first period of creativity of the school came to an end about 250 A. D. when the Sassanians conquered the country. With the arrival of the Kidāra Kushāṇas from Bactria about 390 A. D. Gandhāra art entered on a new phase of creative activity in stucco medium. This coincided with the art of the Gupta period in India and is distinguished by a unique flowering of Indian motifs and style.

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At Sākala there were once in oocupation the Madraka-Yavanas or Indo-Greeks who had brought with them hellenised ways of life and culture and left behind legacy which was not effaced in subsequent times but gradually absorbed by the population which was mainly Indian.

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In fixing a chronology for Gandhāra art much depends on the date of Kanishka for which we have accepted c. 78 A. D. as marking the beginning of the Śaka Era of which Kanishka was the founder (?).

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An important question for this school is the origin of the Buddha image for which many western writers have argued. But it remains a mere hypothesis for which no firm proof has been adduced. We have shown in our study of Mathura school, that the Buddha image originated at Mathura as an out-come of the combination of the Chakravartī and Yogī ideals, that not a single element of Buddhist iconography like the Padmāsana, Dhyāna-mudrā, Nāsāgra-dṛiṣṭi, Siṃhāsana, Chāmaragrāhiṇī, divine figures showering flowers, Ūrṇā, Uṣṇīṣa, has any meaning in Greek and Iranian mythology. A western origin of the Buddha image in Gandhāra cannot therefore be admitted in any manner. The Yaksha-Bodhisattva formula of the Mathura School has no parallel in Gandhāra. Only a distinct type of Buddha image with whiskers, both seated and standing statues wearing sandals, appeared in Gandhāra but from the point of view of its spiritual expression it is so inferior that no school of art would claim any credit for it.

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Iconographically the art of Gandhara accepted the life-story of Buddha, images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Jātaka scenes, Hellenistic scenes and gods and goddesses, other Indian male and female deities, foreign architectural elements, Indian decorative motifs and miscellaneous figures and designs from Iran, Bactria and India. The life-scenes of Buddha mostly in bas-reliefs are exceptionally rich in Gandharan art, unexcelled by many other centres of Buddhist art in India or elsewhere. The range of subjects and the variety of their representation have been treated with great zest as shown in the following list of the life-scenes :—

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Dream of Māyādevī, Interpretation of Dream, conception of Māyā, Departure of Māyā from Kapilavastu, Birth of Buddha, Birth of Chhandaka and Kanthaka, First Seven Steps after Birth, First Bath, Return to Kapilavastu and Prediction of Asita, Siddhārtha as Bodhisattva, schooling of Bodhisattva, Siddhārtha’s competition in writing, wrestling and archery, bridal procession, Marriage of Bodhisattva with Yaśodharā, God’s exhortation to Siddhārta to renounce the world, life-scenes in the palace, Sleepiug women, Renunciation (Abhinishkramaṇa), Farewell of Kanthaka, Chhandaka receiving turban and jewel, visit of King Bimbisāra, Exchange of robes with the hunter, cult of the Turban, First Meditation, Penances, worship of Nāga Kālika, offering of a handful of grass, fasting Boddhisattva, march to the Sambodhi, assault of Māra and temptation by his daughters, Sambodhi or Enlightenment, two merchants offer food to the Buddha, offering of the four cups, gods requesting Buddha for preaching of his law, Indra and Brahmā entreat to Buddha to preach, the First Sermon, miracle of fire before Kāśyapa at Uruvilva, Buddha and the black serpent in the fire temple of Uruvilva, Buddha presenting the serpent to Kāśyapa, Visit to Kapilavastu and ordination of Rāhula, story of Nanda and Sundarī, criminal attempts of Devadatta, Anāthapiṇḍada presents the Jetavana park at Śravastī to Buddha, submission of elephant Nalagiri, Jyotishka saved from the fire, conversion of Yaksha Āṭavika, descent from the heaven of thirty-three gods, invitation of Śrigupta and Grahadatta, offering of a handful of dust (pāṃsu-pradāna), offering of honey by monkeys, anger of the white dog at the Buddha, conversion of Aṅgulimāla, submission of the Nāga King Apalāla, infant of the mortal woman, consolation of Ānanda, visit of Indra and Pañchaśikha Gandharva, Ambapālī presenting Buddha with a mango grove, Grand Miracle of Śrāvastī, Mahāparinirvāṇa (Great Decease), coffin of Buddha, the cremation, division and transportation of relics on elephant's back, cult of the relics, cult of triratna.

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Fig. 192 i

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Fig. 192 j

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Fig. 195 a

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Fig. 195 b

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Fig. 192 h

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Fig. 195 c

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Fig. 196

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Fig. 194

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Fig. 200

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Fig. 197

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Fig. 199

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Fig. 198

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Fig. 201

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It is evident from the surviving Gandhara sculpture that the school was extremely prolific and that the sculptors and the donors were really interested in depicting the life-stories of the master and achieving a high quality of artistic expression to the best of their ability. The scenes are crowded with a number of subsidiary figures bold in execution or full of sympathetic understanding as in the scene showing the kneeling horse Kanthaka taking leave of his master. The fasting Buddha reduced to a skeleton is not only anatomically true but also a moving picture of austere ascetism. The seated Buddha figure nimbate, with heavy drapery with thick folds covering both shoulders (Ubhayāṃsika) with hands in dhyāna-mudrā, extrovert eyes, short whiskers, is a distinctive type of Gandhara art. Allied to this are a number of standing Buddha figures wearing thick-folded Saṅghāṭī over the two usual garments. In the case of preaching Buddha the drapery covers only the left shoulder (akāṃsika), the right shoulder being left bare. The faces generally are happy and fully absorbed in the scenes in which the figures are depicted. The Buddha presenting the serpent to Kāśyapa is a fine example (from Sahari Bahlol, Peshawar Museum No. 1373) in very high relief. Amongst Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteśvara are depicted in Gandhara art but Gautama himself has a two-fold form in his Bodhisattva stage; firstly, when he was a prince in royal palace wearing ornaments and royal costumes, and secondly, after his renunciation until enlightenment wearing the monk's dress. Amongst standing Buddhas are some remarkable sculptures ranging in height from 4' to 8' (now preserved in Lahore and Peshawar Museums which are of a monumental quality. They are from Sahri Bahlol, Takt-i-Bahi and other places. A colossal statue of standing Buddha from Sahri Bahlol (ht. 8 ft 8 inch.) is in excellent state of preservation and of exceptional workmanship, ranking among the best of Buddha images in Gandhara. [Fig. 194]. It was originally covered with gold, and its radiance, great size and benign appearance, must have produced a deep impression on the minds of the worshippers. The depression in the forehead marked the Ūrṇā that was once set with a precious stone. The fingers of the hand show traces of webbing (Jālāṅguli). The curls of the hair are straight and parellel surmounted by a bump of wisdom and the very heavy folds. The larger halo indicates the period when the artists of Gandhara took their inspiration from the Mathura School in the Kushāṇa age producing such colossal images as the Sarnath and Maholi Bodhisattvas.

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With the life-story of Buddha and also the legendary Jātakas taken from the art of eastern India, the Gandhara sculptors show a wide acquaintance with Iranian and Graeco-Roman motifs. The Gandhara art was naturally a blend of Indian, Iranian and Graeco-Roman art elements. Among the Iranian motifs found may be mentioned the Fire Temple at Jandiyal, Goddess Nānī or Anāhitā with star-fangled crown, stepped merlon (i.e. battlement), winged lion, capitals with addorsed bull and lions with or without wings and fantastic animals with human heads. The Graeco-Roman motifs are more common, such as Corinthian, Ionic and Doric pillars, cupids, garland-festoons, atlantes, tritons, marine deities, Demeter-Hārītī holding cornucopia (Riddhi-śṛṅga), Amohini-Yakshas (corresponding to Indian Mālādhārī Devas), Athena-Roma, Harpocrates, the Centaur, Silenus, Satyr, Garuḍa and Ganymede. [Fig. 195]. The Gandhara artists have scored their best success in depicting the statues of Pañchika and Hārītī either single or in pairs. [Figs. 196-7]. Pañchika was the Gandharan counterpart of Kubera and was lord of the Yakshas, a benignant deity ensuring divine power and riches. He is richly ornamented and seated in European fashion like a emperor holding a long spear. Hārītī, in this school, is the presiding Goddess of Fertility and children, depicted with the more tender feelings on her face with children on her breast and shoulder. She became the type of the veritable mother goddess in Gandhara. Sometimes she is depicted as four-armed holding a long trident and water-pot in her left hand a true counterpart of the Indian Goddess Pārvatī. Hārītī was the Buddhist form of the Brāhmanical Goddess Jātahāriṇī as elaborated in the Revatikalpa. Her cult was also quite popular in Mathura art. Pañchika was the same as the Yaksha king Pañchālika, an incarnation of Vaiśravaṇa, whose worship was common between the Himalayas and Vindhyāchala. In Gandhara Buddhism the Pañchika-Hārītī pair fulfilled all the aspirations of the house-holders for prosperity and fertility. Their worship became a wide-spread cult not only throughout Gandhara but up to Central Asia. As a tutelary couple Pañchika was sometimes shown with a purse and Hārītī with the horn of plenty held in left hand.

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The Gandhāra artists also tried the Woman-and-Tree motif showing a female figure standing under a tree in Śālabhañjikā pose. [Fig. 198]. But both the figures are extremely weak and the experiment remained without any success. On the other hand freizes with garlands on the shoulders of nude Yaksha figures, Erotes of Classical mythology, are bold and freely carved. The Atlas figures are also successfully treated. The one from Sikri (Lahore Mus. No. 218) is the most impressive. [Fig. 199]. The winged ichthyo-centaur (kinnara machehha) and the female hippocamp or human bust joined to the lower portion of a horse are depicted to fill tringular spaces in an ingenious manner. Similarly the marine bull (go-machehha), winged dragon (aśva-machehha) and tritons (mahorāga) seem to be counterparts of similar Mathura motifs. When the artists were called upon to handle purely classical themes they were in their best form, e.g. in the statue of Athena or Roma (Lahore Museum) holding a spear and wearing a helmet on the head and chiton on the body depicted as a true divine patroness of the city showing vigour and benignity combined with strength and grace associated with the cult of city-goddesses. [Fig. 200]. A similar deity wearing a helmet and holding a spear inscribed as Roma is found on a coin of Huvishka. [Fig. 201].

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I would consider it as one of the best creation of Gandhāran art, its charming beauty, pose and drapery, all testifying to unique æsthetic perfection. A statuette with a scabbard secured to a loose belt on the left side shows the ancient Scythian goddess Nanāiā probably of 2nd cent. A. D. A large number of stone dishes, probably used for toilet or as cosmetic trays and generally made of blue schist or steatite or soap-stone have been found as a side branch of Gandhāra art depicting such scenes as Ap llo and Daphni (Ingholt, figs. 479), Dioscuri showing Castor and Pollax the two Aśvin deities of classical mythology (ibid., figs. 480), amorous couple (ibid., 483), woman riding on sea-monster (ibid., 484), couple with wine-cups and drinking scenes (ibid., 485-486), etc.

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The art of Gandhāra in stucco showing mainly male and female heads and Bodhisattva images is of striking beauty which has drawn praise from art historians as being admirable creation of true masters. They equal some of the most worthy products of Gupta art. This was a new school which was at its height during the 4-5th cent. It transmitted its legacy to the Gandhāra art in terracotta of which the influences spread to the creations of Buddha and other figures on the Stūpa of Mirpurkhas in Sind and of the beautiful terracotta heads from the ancient site of Shaḍashadvana (Mod. Harvan) in Kashmir (which are now preserved in the Karachi Museum and at the National Museum, New Delhi). Marshall opined that the premier school of Gandhāra in stone sculpture declined in the 4th cent. A.D. and a new school of clay modeller came into existence in the 5th and 6th cent. producing works of the highest merit.

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A special class of objects are the metallic trays in gold and silver found at all places in Gandhāra up to Central Asia and showing drinking and erotic scenes associated with the cult of Bacchus and drinking revelries of the Madraka-Yavanas in the spirit of utmost abundance. Stylistically they show Indian, Hellenistic and Sassanian features.

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There are other noteworthy metallic figures of true Hellenistic inspiration, e.g. Harpocrates, the genius of silence and the silver repousse and Mask of Dionysos.

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(1) The art of Gandhāra by virtue of its prolonged creativity, wide extension, prolific nature, originality of themes, eclectic approach and sympathetic understanding, is one of the great creations of World Art and should be rightly assessed as such in the history of the æsthetic endevour on the soil of Asia.

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(2) In its creations we find a mingling of Greek, Iranian and Indian art idioms in which Hellenistic traditions pre-dominated. (3) Its soul was Buddhism.

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(4) There are conscious efforts to borrow motifs and subjects from the art of Mathura aud central India, but in an inferior style; e. g., Śālabhañjikā, atlantes and pillars of Indian type are depicted in a debased form. (5) But Hellenistic motifs and subjects, on the other hand, are extremely well done having exceptional art value. (6) Selected Buddhist subjects have been rendered with high artistic effect, e. g. Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas, with beautiful ornamentation, Kubera and Hārītī. It should, however, be admitted that the Buddha figure is stiff, insipid and lacking vital inspiration in comparison to the great Mathura figures. We do not find in Gandhara any thing of the vigour and introvert expression of the Buddha and Bodhisattva figures of the Mathura school.

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