The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c18.5

c18.5

And this brings us to the second outstanding difference between the two Schools, namely, the extent of the areas in which they flourished. Whereas the Earlier School was limited to the Peshāwar Valley and neighbouring tracts west of the Indus, where the indispensable schist and other fine-grained stones could be quarried, the Later School extended over a much wider area, from Taxila east of the Indus as far to the north-west as ancient Bactria and the banks of the Oxus. It was because of the wide extent of this School in Pakistan, India and Afghānistān, far beyond the boundaries of Gandhāra, that in my book Taxila I adopted for it the designation of ‘Indo-Afghan’. This I did after consulting with the Director of the French Mission in Afghānistān, M. J. Hackin, and I still incline to believe that in many ways that designation was preferable to ‘Later Gandhāra School’, which, in deference to some of my critics, I have substituted in the present publication. For, notwithstanding the admittedly close relationship between the two Schools, it is manifestly desirable to employ a term which will avoid any risk of confusing one School with the other and at the same time to give some idea of the different areas in which the two Schools flourished, and to indicate that the second School was in all probability developed on the soil of Afghānistān, not in Gandhāra.