Gandhara History
Historical region in what is now northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, corresponding to the Vale of Peshawar and having extensions into the lower valleys of the Kabul and Swat rivers.
In ancient times Gandhara was a trade crossroads and cultural meeting place between India, Central Asia, and the Middle East. The region was subject to Achaemenian Persia in the 6th and 5th centuries BC and was conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. It was thereafter ruled by the Mauryan dynasty of India, under whom it became a center for the spread of Buddhism to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Gandhara was then successively ruled by Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Parthian, and Kushans. After its conquest by Mahmud of Ghazna in the 11th century AD, the region was held by various Muslim dynasties.
Taxila and Peshawar, ancient Gandhara's chief cities, were important cultural centers. From the 1st century BC to the 6th-7th century AD, Gandhara was the home of a distinctive art style that was a mixture of Indian Buddhist and Greco-Roman influences.
Gandhara Art
Style of Buddhist visual art that developed in what is now northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan between the 1st century BC and the 7th century AD. The style, of Greco-Roman origin, seems to have flourished largely during the Kushan dynasty and was contemporaneous with an important but dissimilar school of Kushan art at Mathura (Uttar Pradesh, India).
The Gandhara region had long been a crossroads of cultural influences. During the reign of the Indian emperor Ashoka around 3rd century B.C., the region became the scene of intensive Buddhist missionary activity; and, in the 1st century AD, rulers of the Kushan empire, which included Gandhara, maintained contacts with Rome. In its interpretation of Buddhist legends, the Gandhara school incorporated many motifs and techniques from classical Roman art, including vine scrolls, cherubs bearing garlands, tritons, and centaurs. The basic iconography, however, remained Indian.
The materials used for Gandhara sculpture were green phyllite and gray-blue mica schist, which, in general, belong to an earlier phase, and stucco, which was used increasingly after the 2nd century A.D. The sculptures were originally painted and gilded.
Gandhara's role in the evolution of the Buddha image has been a point of considerable disagreement among scholars. It now seems clear that the schools of Gandhara and Mathura each independently evolved its own characteristic depiction of the Buddha about the 1st century AD. The Gandhara school drew upon the anthropomorphic traditions of Roman religion and represented the Buddha with a youthful Apollo-like face, dressed in garments resembling those seen on Roman imperial statues. The schools of Gandhara and Mathura influenced each other, and the general trend was away from a naturalistic conception and toward a more idealized, abstract image. The Gandharan craftsmen made a lasting contribution to Buddhist art in their composition of the events of the Buddha's life into set scenes.
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