Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14.3

c14.3

Briefly, the developments which ensued enabled Buddhism, by this time the prevailing religion in these parts, to interpret its oriental preceptions by means of an occidental medium, for it brought into the service of the Buddhist faith, the formative and rational art of Greece. In other words, it placed in the hands of the Buddhists, who, hitherto, had been content with a symbolical and non-representational mode of expression, plastic creations of an anthropomorphic character, so that they introduced into their buildings, figures and statuary based upon the Hellenic model. In conjunction with this departure they also borrowed freely from the architecture of the same classical school. The distinctly composite style thus evolved, which displayed a fusion of Hellenistic elements with Buddhist ideals, has sometimes been defined as Graeco-Bactrian, and also Graeco-Buddhist, but the designation now usually adopted is the geographical one of Gandhara, as the region from which it emanated bore that name. The country of Gandhara, before and after the beginning of the present era, corresponded approximately to the modern districts of Peshawar and Rawalpindi together with the eastern portion of Afghanistan