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Gandharan Buddhism

A s ia n R e l ig io n s a n d S o c i e t y S e r ie s

Pilgrim s, Patrons, and Place: Localizing Sanctity in Asian R elig io n s

E d ite d by P h y llis G r a n o ff a n d K o ic h i Sh in o hara

Im ages in Asian R e lig io n s: Texts and Contexts

E d it e d by P h y llis G r a n o ff an d K o ic h i S h in o h ara

Jap an s M o d e rn Prophet: U chim ura K anzo, 18 6 1- 19 3 0

J o h n F. H o w es

Gandharan Buddhism : Archaeology, A rt, Texts

E d ite d by P ia Brancaccio an d K u r t B ehrendt

A B u d d h a D ^ HARMA K y o k a i F o u n d a t i o n B o o k

o n B u d d h is m a n d C o m p a r a t iv e R e l i g i o n

Edited by Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt

g a n d h A r a n b u d d h i s m A rchaeology, Art, Texts

U B C P r e s s -V an co u ver -Toronto

UBC Press 2006

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Gandharan Buddhism : archaeology, art, texts / edited by Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt.

(Asian religions and society series, ISSN 1705-476)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN -13: 978-0- 7748- 1080-7 ISBN -10: 0-7748- 1080-7

1. Buddhism - Gandha.ra (Pakistan and Afghanistan) - His tory. 2 . Gandhara (Pakistan and Afghanistan) - Antiquities. 3 . Relics Gandhara (Pakistan and Afghanistan). 4 . Art, Buddhist Gandhara (Pakistan and Afghanistan). 5. Art, Gandhara. 1. Brancaccio, Pia,1966- II. Behrendt, Kurt A., 1964- III. Tide. IV. Series.

BQ 286.G35 2006___________ 294.30934___________ C 2006-900161-8_____________

A publication project oftheYehan Numata Program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. '

C a n a d a

UBC Press gratefiily acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program of the Government of Canada through the Book P ublishing Indu stry D evelo pment Program (BPlDP). and of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.

UBC PressThe University of British Columbia 2029 West Mall Vancouver, B C V 6 T i Z zwww.ubcpress.ca Photo on/acing page by E'/len Raven.

To the memory of Maurizio Taddei

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Contents

Illustrations / IX

Acknow ledgm ents / X II

Introduction / i

P ia Brancaccio a n d K u r t B eh ren dt

1 Prologue: Som e D ebating Points on Gandharan B uddh ism and Kusna

H istory / 9

J o h n M . R o sen fie ld

P a r t i : A r c h a e o l o g y

2 R e ce n t A rchaeological R esearch in G and h ara:T he N e w Evid ence / 4 1

M a u riz io Taddei

3 Buddhist Presence in the U rban Settlements o f Sw at, Second C en tu ry

B C E to Fourth C en tu ry C E / 60

Pietfmncesco C alH en

4- R e lic Shrines o f G andhara:A R einterpretation o f the A rchaeological

E vid en ce / 83

Kurt B eh ren dt

P a r t i i : T e x t s

5 P ilgrim age R o u te Changes and the D ecline o f Gandhara / 1 0 7

Sh o sh in K u w a y a m a

6 N e w M anuscript Sources for the Study o f Gandharan Buddhism / 135

R ic h a rd S a lom on

P a r t I I I : A r t

7 Bodhisattvas in Gandharan Art: A n A spect o f M ahayana in Gandharan B uddhism / 15 1

Ju h y u n g R h i

v i i Contents

8 The N ature and Use o f the B od ily R e lic s o f the Buddha in Gandhara / 183

R o b ert L . B ro w n

9 Gateways to the Buddha: Figures under Arches in Early Gandharan A rt / 2 10

P ia Brancactio

10 A Gandharan R e lie fw it h Tw o Scenes from B udd h as Life / 225

A n n a M a ria Q u aglio tti

n Local Crafts in E arly Gandharan A rt / 243

D oris A'Ieth Srin ivasan

1 2 A nanda andVajrapSni:An Inexplicable Absence and a M ysterious Presenc e in Gandharan A rt / 270

Am ia FH igenzi

13 D esign D iversity in Kaniskas Buddha C oins / 286

E lle n M . R a v e n

C ontributors / 303

Index / 306

Illustrations

1 . 1 Buddhist ideal m onarch and seven emblems ofsovereignty, Jaggayyapeta / 13

1 .2 W orshippers o f the bodhi tree o fK aSyap a B uddha, B h arh u t / 15

1.3 Sakyam uni flanked by M aitreya, Indra, Brahm a, and unidentified

bodhisattva, Sah ri-B ahlo l / 18

1.4 Standing im age o fM a itreya bodhisattva,Ahicchattr / 19

1.5 Preaching Sakyam uni and display o f deities, M oh am m ed N a ri I ! 2 1

2 .1 Fragm ent with w arriors and elephant, Saidu S h a rif I / 44

3. 1 Seal, B ir-kot-gh w and ai / 633 .2 C eram ic pot, B ir-kot-gh w an d ai / 63

3.3 Terracotta fem ale figurine, B ir-kot-gh w an d ai / 643.4 Fragm ent o f terracotta figurine, B ir-kot-gh w an d ai / 65

3.5 V ie w o f the Buddhist sacred area in B ir-kot-gh w and ai / 66

3.6 Fragm ents o fp laster decoration, B ir-ko t-gh w an d ai / 67

3 .7 Bodhisattva stele, Bir-kot-ghwar;t

x illustrations

6.2 Sample o f a British Library Kharosthi fragm ent / 139

7. i R e l ie f show ing alternating Buddhas and bodhisattvas / 153

7.2 Detail o f Figure 7 .1 , show'ing three pairs o f Buddhas and bodhisattvas / 1537.3 Bodhisattva M aitreya, S ikri / 155

7.4 Bodhisattva Siddhartha, Shabaz-G arhi / 156

7.5 Bodhisattva, possibly AvalokiteSvara / 157

7.6 Bodhisattva Siddhartha in the First M editation, Sahri-BahIol / 158

7 .7 Bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara holding a lotus, L oriyan la n g a i / 159

7.8 Bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara in pensive pose / 160

7.9 Bodhisattva hold ing a b o o k / 16 1

7 .10 Crossed-ankle bodhisattva inside a shrine / 162

n Bodhisattva head / 164

12 Bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara, Sahri-Bahlol / 165

13 Buddha triad, Sahri-Bahlol / 166

14 Buddha triad inside a shrine, Sahri-Bahlol / 167

15 Buddha triad, L oriyan la n g a i / 169

16 Part o fB u d d h a triad / 170

17 Crossed-ankle bodhisattva flanked b y tw o pensive bodhisattvas / 172

18 Bodhisattva surrounded b y m ultiple emanations / 173

8 .1 D rona distributing the relics, R an ig at / 184

8 .2 R e liq u ary (the Indravarm an Casket) / 1858.3 R eliqu ary, Passani, M ghanistan / 186

8.4 R e liq u ary / 187

8.5 R e liq u ary / 1888.6 Partial contents o f reliquary in Fig. 8.4 / 189

8.7 M ore contents from reliquary in Fig. 8.4 / 190

8.8 G o ld flowers pierced for attachment to clothing / 194

8.9 D raw ing show ing placem ent o f gold decoration sew n on clothing, T ilya

Tepe / 19410 C osm etic box, T ilya Tepe / 195

n Cosm etic bo x ,T ilya Tepe / 19612 Cosm etic box, T ilya Tepe / 196

13 C osm etic b o x and spatula, T ilya Tepe / 197

14 C osm etic b o x ,T ilya Tepe / 197

15 Cosm etic box, T ilya Tepe / 198

16 T w o cosm etic boxes, T ilya Tepe / 19817 R eliquary, Bim aran / 199

18 Three reliquaries / 199

19 R eliquary; Kotpur, Afghanistan / 200

8.20 Shapes o f cosm etic boxes from T ilya Tepe for com parison w ith similar

shapes o f Gandharan reliquaries / 202

Illustrations x i

8 .21 D raw in g o f burials at T ilya Tepe / 204

9 .1 M ith u n a under caitya arch, Butkara I / 2 1 19.2 Figures under caitya arches, M aljanai / 2 12

9.3 Stupa shrine, B utkara I / 2 13

9.4 W orship o f the Turban, Bhrhut / 2 14

9.5 Figure in Classical dress under caitya arch, Butkara I / 2 179.6 Vertical re lie f depicting figures under caitya arches, Butkara I / 218

9.7 False gable, Butkara I / 2 19

9.8 A rcade w ith worshippers, D harm arjik, Taxila / 220

10 . I D raw in g o f a scene from B uddh as life, Bharat Kala Bhavan / 227

10 .2 Tw o scenes from B u d d h a s life, Butkara I / 229

10 .3 T w o figures, the female one w ith a m irror, Butkara I / 231

10 .4 D raw in g o f Suddhodanas visit in the A shoka w ood / 232

10 .5 C o p p er objects, Sirkap,Taxila / 237

1 1 . 1 T h e Buddha preaching toVajrapapi and a group o f w om en, Dharm arjik,

Taxila / 2471 1 .2 Buddha preaching to the gods in the Tryastximsa H eaven, S ikri / 248

1 1 .3 Entreating the Buddha, L oriyan Tangai / 249

1 1 .4 Interpretation o f M aya s D ream , Guides M ess / 253

1 1 .5 Parinirvna, G uides M ess / 2541 1 .6 T h e Great Leave-Taking, Butkara I / 255

1 1 . 7 Entreating the Buddha, Sw at / 256

II .8 Enthroned Bodhisattva, S ikri / 261

1 2 . 1 T h e Subm ission ofA palala / 274

12 .2 B u d d h a w ith fem ale worshippers andVajrapani / 276

12 .3 Vajrapani/Vajrasattva on a vcy'ra-shaped throne / 278

12 .4 B uddh a on an inhabited vqjw-shaped throne / 279

12 .5 R e a r v ie w o f fig . 12 .4 ! 280

12 .6 B uddh a pare. / 28 1

12 .7 B u d d h a im age fro m Benares / 282

13 . 1 G o ld dinara o fK a n isk a I / 28613 .2 Buddhas standing facing front / 290

13 .3 Buddha standing facing front, raising his right hand in abhayam udrii,

coin / 291

13 .4 T h e offering o f flowers to the Buddha / 29213 .5 W alking Buddha, co in / 293

13 .6 W alking Buddha / 294 '

13 .7 Buddha standing facing three-quarters to left, coin / 294

13 .8 O eso standing facin g front, head turned to the left, coin ! 295

13 .9 B u d d h a standing to front and facing front, co in / 296

13 .10 Im age identified as that o fS a k a satrap / 297

Acknowledgments

T h e chapters in this volum e represent a unique effort to define the nature o f B uddhism in Gandhara from a m ultidisciplinary perspective. Phyllis Granoff,

K o ich i Shinohara, and N e il Kreitm an w ere the architects o f this endeavor, and w e cannot thank them en o u g h .T h e y had the clarity o f vision to recog

nize that on ly a cross-disciplinary approach could advance our understanding

o f Gandharan B udd h ism . T h e ir great enthusiasm and dedication are at the

core o f this project, w hen they brought together so m any em inent scholars at

a conference at M cM aster U niversity and the U niversity ofToronto in M ay

1999. T his publication also w ould not have been possible w ithout the en

lightened support o f the Yehan N um ata Foundation, the Buddha Dharm a

K yokai Foundation o f Canada, the Social Sciences and H um anities R esearch

C o u n cil o f Canada, and the O ffice o f the Provost and D epartm ent o f R e l i

gious Studies at M cM aster University.

M an y other people w orked in various ways to m ake this interdisciplinary

gathering a landm ark in Gandharan studies. Forem ost are the contributors,

w hose insightfitl w o rk w e had the h onour to edit. W e w ould also like to

thank those w h o w orked to brin g this vo lum e to press: the reviewers o f the

m anuscript, Faith Rogeirs, Anna Eberhard Friedlander, and E m ily A nd rew

and her colleagues at U B C Press.A reasonable attempt has been made to secure pernssion to reproduce ail

materials used. I f there are errors or omissions, they are w holly unintentional, and the publisher w ould be grateful to learn o f them .

W e fondly rem em ber the pleasant atmosphere and the lively discussions at

the conference, and it is sad to realize that one o f the participants has left us

forever. It is to the m em ory o fM a u riz io Taddei that w e dedicate this volum e.

Gandharan Buddhism

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IntroductionP i a B r a n c a c c i o a n d K u r t B e h r e n d t

T h e field o f Gandharan studies has been remarkably active in the last decade,

w ith the discovery o f new inscriptions, text fragments, sites, and artworks

inviting scholarly reassessm ent.This vo lum e is published at a tim e w h en vari

ous n ew pieces o f the Gandharan puzzle are bein g put together, redefining

the w ay w e understand this region and its cultural com p lex ity I f w e are to

capture the m ultifaceted nature o f the Gandharan tradition and its prom inent

Buddhist heritage, it is essential to bridge disciplinary boundaries. T h e essays

collected in tins volum e focus on issues overlooked by past scholarship and

bring new evidence to the forefront to establish a productive dialogue for

future investigation.

To assess the contributions o f art, archaeology; and text to Gandharan B u d

dhism, it is essential to understand w h at the term G a n d h a ra has com e to d efine.The region nam ed Gandhara, as identified by ancient sources, encom

passed the basin surrounding the m odern city ofPeshaw ar inPakistan, bounded

to the north and west by foothills, to the east by the Indus R iver, and to the south by flatlands that becom e increasingly arid (see Figures 5 .1-5 .4 in this

vo lum e).1 In the nineteenth century, the w ord G a n dh a ra n was also used to

describe finds com ing from a series o f culturally related areas beyond the

Peshawar plains, such as the Sw at valley, the Bun er and Taxila regions, eastern

Afghanistan, and even parts o f Kashm ir. Interest in Gandhara was sparked in

theW est in the late nineteenth century as collections o f coins, reliquaries, and

sculptures were assembled by adventurers such as Charles Masson, w h o w orked outside the boundaries o f B ritish colonial control, and by British m ilitary

units w h o amassed objects during punitive raids into tribal areas. This

m aterial, kept in colonial museums such as the Indian M useum in Calcutta

and the B ritish M useum in Lon don, lost record o f its precise provenance and

was generically labeled as Gandharan, thus shifting the m eaning o f the word from a precise geographical designation to a broad cultural one.

2 Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt

In recent years, scholars have a ttemp ted to resolve the am biguity o f the

term G a n d h a ra in an effort to capture the synergy oflocal forces that contrib

uted to the form ation o f a com plex cultural netw ork. M o d ern geographic

dsignations are n o w c onsistently em ployed to overcom e generalization, and

w ith m uch the same intent R ic h a rd Salom on proposed the term G reater

G andhara to describe this vast cultural reg ion .3 T h e ancient accounts o f B u d

dhist C hinese pilgrim s and traveling m onks also c on tribute to form a more

precise picture o f the extension o f this area, its grow th, and its decline, as

Shoshin K uw ayam as critical readings have show n.4 In C hapter 5 o f this vol

um e he maps the shifting centres o f Buddhist activity in Greater Gandhara

betw een the fourth and eighth centuries C E .

T h e discovery and understanding o f Gandhara in the nineteenth century

have shaped an enduring trajectory o f study. T h e recovery o f ar tworks in

dialogue with the Classical tradition found at Buddhist sites resulted in a

nearly exclusive focus on the excavation o fB u d d h ist com plexes.These sacred

areas w ere so num erous and so rich that the s culpture recovered filled co lo

nial mus eums and fed the notion that Gandhara w as synonym ous w ith B u d

dhism. In the early tw entieth century, a grow ing interest in the study o f this

religion continued to support the perception ofG and h ara as a Buddhis t land,

w ithout questioning its co ntext or the cultural dialectic that allowed it to

flo urish.

Buddhism and ArchaeologySom e o f the first excavations o f Gandharan Buddhist sites were undertaken

in the 1830s b y a handful o f m ilitary officers w ith the goal o f collecting

coins.5 A lready by the late nineteenth century, Buddhist sites such asTakht-i- bahi w ere excavated for their sculpture, and sum m ary archaeological reports

started to appear.6 A lexander Cunningham , and later Jo h n M arshall at the

beginn ing o f the twentieth century, changed the nature and scope o f B u d

dhist archaeology in G an d h ara/A lth ou gh their w ork led to a massive collec

tion o f sculptural rem ains, th eir prim ary interest was to understand better the

Buddhist tradition in the region and beyond.

In the later part o f the twentieth century, Pakistani, Italian, and Japanese

teams carried out num erous excavations.8 M aurizio Taddei, in Chapter 2 in

this volume, critically surveys the relevant data brought to li ght by this ar

chaeological work, unpacking w ith his usual sharp insight the relevant bodies

o f evidence and higlilighting n e w avenues o f investigation. A lrea dy since his

regre ttable death in 2000, im portant discoveries have been m ade. A Japanese

team excavated the site o f Z a r D h eri in H azara, b ringin g to light a m onastic

cell containing stored sculp turep Pakistani archaeologists recovered fragments

o f w all paintings in a m onastery at Jin n aW ali D heri, near Jauliaii ; 10 and Pakis-

Introduction 3

tani teams continue to carry on extensive surveys that add to the current map

o f Buddhist sites.'1

H ow ever, m uch o f the archaeological evidence requires further study. A

recent b o o k by Kurt Behrendt surveys the Buddhist sacred areas o f ancient

Gandhara in an effort to reassess th eir function and developm ent.^ H is con

tribution in C hapter 4 offers a glim pse into the devotional practices o f the

region by identifying a body o f previously unrecognized shrines that, he

contends, displayed Buddhist relics. Also focusing on relics, R o b e rt B ro w n in

Chapter 8 traces an analogy betw een royal burials and stpa deposits. H e

suggests that the donated treasures, the inscriptions, and the reliquaries, m uch

like bodily rem ains, w ork as potent manifestations o f the Buddha.

T h e excavation o f urban centres in recent times has also helped to redefine

the extent and relevance o f B uddh ism in the region. In C hapter 3 ,P ierfran -

cesco C allieri deals w ith the paradox o f a Gandharan landscape dom inated by

Buddhist centres w hile urban contexts are pervaded by small images o f local

deities, seem ingly non-Buddhist. H e takes this evidence to suggest that a

m issionary effort m ay have been the underlying force beh ind the extensive

patronage o f Buddhist sites during Kusana times. Jo h n R osen fie ld , M auriz io

Taddei, D o ris M eth Srinivasan, and others have dealt elsewhere w ith the

presence o f non-B uddhist religious traditions in the Gandharan region, and

have shown h ow Buddhist im agery incorporated some ofthese diverse ideas.

A in a M aria Q uagliotti continues this investigation by provid ing in Chapter

10 an exam ple o f a specific brahm anic ritual depicted in Gandharan narrative

sculpture.A lready in the nineteenth century, on the basis o f In do-G reek and Kusana

num ismatic finds, scholars recognized that diverse deities originating in South

Asia, the N ear East, and the Classical w o rld w ere significant to the Greater

Gandharan com m unity. H ow ever, the vast archaeological remains indicate

that under the Kusnas, Buddhism was the dom inant re lig io n in the area. Jo h n R o sen fie ld has shed light on h ow the Kusana w orld conceptualized

different cultural forces and integrated them w ithin the Buddhist tradition o f

d ie time. In C hapter I, he reassesses the field o f Kushanology, taking into

account the m any changes this area o f study has undergone since the publication o f his seminal b o o k The. D yn a stic A r ts o f the K u sh a n s.

T h e chronological parameters o f the Kusana rule relevant to the study o f

Gandharan Buddhism have been the ob ject o f m uch debate in past scholarship. R e ce n t discoveries and scholarly breakthroughs have fm ally provided

answers to unsolved questions. T h e reading o f a n ew Kusana inscription from

R abatak in M ghanistan has clarified die dynastic lineage and identified a new

ruler. '4 A com pelling new argum ent for the date o f K aniskas era has been

offered by H arry Falk, w h o uses, in addition to the available epigraphic and

4 Pia Brancaccio and Kurt. Behrendt

num ismatic sources, an early astrological text. 15 These advances solidly anchor

Gandharan chronology and allow us to relate the Buddhist tradition o f the

region to those o f its neighbors.

Buddhism and A rtT h e vast quantity o f Buddhist sculpture collected in the late nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries, although severed from its archaeological context,

provides valuable inform ation about the religious com m unity. Buddhist art

reflects the receptivity o fG an d h ara to diverse m otifs that traveled w ith goods

along the trade routes linking South Asia, China, and the West. This is the

theme o f the chapter by D oris M eth Srinivasan, w h o through sculptural rep

resentations o f textiles, ornam ents, and furniture attempts to clarify the rela

tionships am ong local taste, craft production, and international trade.A lthough w e k n o w som ething about the cultural environm ent in w hich

the art was produced, w e are left with little evidence regarding sculptural

production and its patronage. In a handful o f instances, images bear inscrip

tions m entioning the names o f lay and m onastic donors and occasionally the

religious m otive for the o ffering.'6 Sch open and Salom on have recently re

exam ined the m eaning and function o f som e o f these donative inscriptions,

w h ich are surprisingly rare in Gandhara com pared to other regions o f South

Asia. 17 '

M ore helpful is the rich visual docum entation preserved in the narrative

sculpture, where scenes from the B u d d h a s life are staged in the Gandharan

w orld. R e lie fs show ing the worship o f stiipas, the veneration o f images and

relics, and the com m unity honoring the figure o f the B uddh a all define the Gandharan ethos. In Chapter 9 Pia Brancaccio exam ines a category o f stiipa

reliefs that record the m ultiethnic m atrix o f the Buddhist devotees in the

region, and demonstrates h o w the local com m unity was keen to show con

nections w ith the hom eland o f the Buddha in northern India.

D o m en ico Faccenna has observed this link w ith northern India in a recent

article and in his new b o o k on the Saidu Sh arif I stiipa frieze. 18 A m o n g the

com plex and varied issues related to the frieze, he notes the im portance o f

regional workshops in Swat. 65 This line o f investigation marks a n ew direc

tion in the field o f study, as the identification o f w orkshop production likely holds the key to establishing a relative chronological order for the vast body

o f Gandharan sculpture.N um ism atic evidence also w orks w ith the Buddhist sculptural tradition, as

show n by E llen R a v e n in C hapter 13 o f this volum e. She maps the Buddha

types appearing on coins and com pares them w ith a range o f sculptural pro

totypes, concluding that the Kusna die carvers recorded in the coinage some

o f the iconographie variability o f Gandharan sculpture. Similarly, in a recent

Introduction 5

article R o b ert B ro w n relates the sculptural evidence to a token found at the

site o f T ilya Tepe in M ghanistan, m aking a strong argum ent for the early

appearance o f a Buddha im age.20

Traditionally the study o f Gandharan art has revolved around iconographie

issues. M an y questions are still op en con cern in g the identification o f scenes

and characters w ith in the narratives, as w ell as the classification o f num erous

fi-eestanding Buddhas and bodhisattvas. In Chapter 12 , A nna Filigenzi exam

ines the enigmatic figure o f Vajrapni, w h o often appears w ith the Buddha in

the reliefs, and suggests that this character is a G andharan transposition o f

Ananda, the faithful attendant o f the Buddha described in the Pli texts.

Ju h yu n g R h i deals in C h apter 7 w ith the iconographie variability am ong bodhisattva images, presents a typological analysis o f bodhisattva iconogra

phy, and offers possible identifications, using a range o f textual sources. T h e

vexin g issue o f bodhisattva classification has also been addressed, using epi-

graphic evidence, in a recent article b y R ic h a rd Salom on and G rego ry

Schopenrl'

C rucia l to a better understanding o f the nature o f Gandharan Buddhism is

the possible M ahayana affiliation o f a large body o f Gandharan sculpture that

R h i advocates in his contribution. In Chapter i ,Jo h n R osenfie ld addresses

this long-debated issue in an effort to explain images such as the M oham m ed

N ari stele that have com plex iconography (see fig. 1.5 ). T h e im portant tex

tual evidence that has been appearing in recent years w ill, w e hope, help us to decode the visual language o f Gandharan Buddhism .

Buddhism and TextO u r understanding o f ancient B uddh ism in different regions ofA sia is largely

based on textual sources; however, in Gandhara the situation is quite different.A lthough this region is remarkably rich in Buddhist sculpture and archi

tecture, it has yielded very few texts and inscriptions; thus our perception o f

Gandharan B uddhism is based m ostly on archaeological evidence. Since the

nineteenth century, textual sources from C hina, T ibet, and Southeast Asia

have been used by Gandharan scholars w ith varying success.Arnong the m ost- used sources are the Chinese accounts b y Faxian and X uanzang, w h o w rote

o f their jo u rn e y to Greater Gandhara and India and are credited w ith bring

ing back authentic texts to their hom eland.

T h e use o f Chinese sources as keys to' un lock the Gandharan tradition has

proved esp ecially fruitful, as m any sections o f that Buddhist canon w ere trans

lated in ancient times by monks com ing from Greater Gandhara. Shoshin

K uw ayam as Chapter 5 in this vo lum e provides us w ith valuable inform ation

about the biographies o f m any o f these m onk-translators, discussing their

w orks, travels, and role as vehicles fo r transmission. N um erous Buddhist


birchbark m anuscript fragments from Greater Gandhara have surfaced re

cently, changing our understanding o f the religious tradition in the region.

W ritten in Kharosthi and B rahm i script and com posed over a period o f m ore

than 800 years, m any o f these incom plete documents appear to be early ver

sions o f kn ow n texts from other areas, and reflect particular m om ents o f a

developing Gandharan faith. In Chapter 6, R ich ard Salom on focuses on groups

o f manuscripts w ritten in the Gndhri language and Kharosthi script, likely

from the first century C E and thus am ong the earliest original B uddhist texts

known. H e underlines h ow this b o d y o f prim ary m aterial can shed light on

local belie f structures, and h ow it reflects a dim ension not apparent in the

artistic evidence. T h e birchbark fragments have drawn the attention o f m any

other scholars, and m ajor publications docum enting this m aterial have ap

peared recen tly33 In the years to come, these im portant works w i l undoubt

edly redefine the field o f Gandharan studies and open new avenues o f

investigation.

ConclusionTexts and archaeological and art-historical evidence are tesserae o fa com plex

cultural mosaic: only by jo in in g together a significant num ber o f pieces can

the picture be seen as a whole. Th is vo lum es cohage o f works shows that by

stepping beyond disciplinary boundaries it is possible to push the field o f

Gandharan Buddhist studies forward. It is our hope that future multidisciplinary

endeavors w ill continue to expand our horizons.

N o t e s ,, ,

1 Behrendt, Buddhist Architecture o f (Gandhara, 12; Zwalf, Catalogue o f Gandhara Sculpture, vol. 1 ,12 - 13 .

2 Errington, "Western Discovery o f the Art of Gandhara/3 Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrollsfrorn Gandhara, 3.4 Kuwayama, Chapter 5 in this volume.5 Errington, Western Discovery of the Art of Gandhara/' 32; C. Masson, Memoir on the

Buildings Called Topes.6 Wilcher, Report on the Exploration of the Bu ddhist Ruins atTakht-i-Bai.7 Cunningham, Jamal Garhi, Manikyala (two papers), Shahdheri orTaxila, Taxila, or

Takshasila ; Marshall, Taxila, 3 vols.8 See Behrendt, Buddhist Architecture o f (Gandhara, 19-21.9 Siudmak, Newsletter from Tokyo.

10 Iqbal, Taxila: Gandhara.I I Ihsan Ali, personal communication.12 Behrendt, Buddhist Architecture o f (Gandhara, I -I I.13 Many scholars have written on this topic, notably Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts ofthe Kushaiis;

Taddei, Non-Buddhist Deities in Gandharan Art ; Srinivasan, Many Heads, Arms and Eyes.14 Sims-Williams and Cribb, New Bactrian Inscription of Kaniska the Great ; Fussmann,

L'Inscription de Rabatak.

Introduction 7

15 Falk, TheYuga of Sphujiddhvaja.16 Vogel, Inscribed Gandhara Sculptures.17 Salomon and Schopen, On an Alleged Reference to Anitabha.18 Faccenna, Saidu Sharif 1, 2.19 Faccenna, Early Evidence of Figurative Art, 287. See also Filigenzi, Narrative Art in

Gandha ra.20 Brown, Walking Tilya Tepe Buddha.21 Salomon and Schopen, On an Alleged Reference to Amitabha.22 Braarvig, Buddhist Manuscripts, Buddhist Manuscripts II; von Hinuber, Das dltere Mittelindische

im Uberblick; Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara, A Giindhiiri Version of theRhinoceros Sfllra, The Senior Manuscripts.

B ib l io g r a p h y

Behren dt, K. The Buddhist Architecture o f Gandhara. Leiden : Brill, 2004.Braa rv ig j. Buddhist Manuscripts. Manus cripts in the Schayen Collection I. Oslo: Hermes,

2000. . Buddhist Manuscripts II. Manuscripts in the Schayen Collection 3. Oslo: Hermes, 2002.Brown,R. The Walking TilyaTepe Buddha :A Lost Prototype. Bulletin q f the Asia Institute,

14 (2000): 77-87.Cunningham, A. Jamal Garhi. Archaeological Survey of India 5 ^872-73): 46-53. . Manikyala. Archaeological Survey o f India 2 (1863-64): 152-72. . Manikyala. Archaeological Survey of India 5 (1872-73): 75-79. . Shahdheri or Taxila. In Archaeological Survey o f India: Report for the Year 1872-1873,

edited by A. Cunningham, 66-75. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1875.

. Taxila, or Takshasila. In Archaeological Survey q f India: Four Reports Made During the Years 1862-63-64-65, edited by A. Cunningham, m -35. Simla, India: Government Central Press, 1871.

Errington, E. The Western Discovery o f theArt of Gandhara and the Fin ds ofjamalgarhi. PhD diss., London University 1987.

Faccenna, D. "Early Evidence o f Figurative Art: Artistic Centre and Stylistic Groups. Ancient Civilizationsfrom Scythia to Siberia (2003): 276-286.

. Saidu Sharif I (Swaf, Pakistan). 2. The Buddhist Sacred Area: The Stupa Terrace. 2 vols. Reports and Memoirs 23.2. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1995-

Palk, H. The Yuga o f Sphujiddhvaja and the Era o f the Kusanas. Silk Road A rt and Archaeology 7: 121-36.

Filigenzi,A. NarrativeArt in Gandhara. Ancient Civilizationsfrom Scythia to Siberia (2003): 350-80.

Fussman, G .LInscription de Rabatak et L'Origine de lere Saka. JournalAsiatique 286,2 (1998): 571-651.

Hinuber, O. von. Das altre. Mittelindische im Uberblick. Vienna: Der Osterreichischen Akademie derWissenschaften, 2001.

Iqbal.A. Taxila: Gandhara Period Painting Discovered. D A I ^ \ , April 6, 2004, http://www. dawn.com/2004/04/06/local3 I. h tm.

Marshall,J. Taxila. 3 vois. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951.Masson, C . Memoir on the Buildings Called Topes. In Ariana Antique; a Descriptive A c

count ofthe Antiquities and Coins o f Afghanistan, edited by H. Wilson. 1841. Reprint, New Delhi: Or iental Publishe rs, 1971.

Rosenfield, J. The Dynastic Arts qf the Kushans. Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1967.


Salomon, R Ancient Buddhist Scrollsfrom Candhara:'The British Library Kharosthi Fragments. London/Seatde: British Library/University ofWashington Press, 1999.

. A Cutihari Version o f the Rhinoceros Sutra: British Library Kharosthi Fragment 5B I. S eatde: University ofWashington Press, 2000.

. The Senior Manuscripts:A Second CoUection of Gandharan Buddhist Scrolls.journal of the American. Oriental Society 123, 1 (2003): 73-92.

Salomon, R ., and G. Schopem. "On an Alleged Reference to Amitabha in a Kharoth Inscription on a Gandharan Relief. journal ofT he International Association of Buddhist Studies 25, 1-2 (2002): 3-31.

Sims-Williams, N., andJ. Cribb. A New Bactrian Inscription of'Kaniska the Great. Silk Road A rt and Archaeology 4 (1995-96): 75-142.

Siudmak,J. Newsletter from Tokyo. 55, 4 (2003): 98-100.Srinivasan, D.M. Many Heads, Arms and Eyes. Leiden: Brill, 1997.Taddei, M. Non-Buddhist Deities in Gandharan Art - Some New Evidence. In Investi

gating IndiaiiArt, edited by M.Yaldiz and W. Lobo. Berlin: Museum fr Indische Kunst, 1987.

Vogel,J. Ph. Inscribed Gandhara Sculptures. Archaeological Sm vey o f India An nual Report (1903-04). Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1906.

Wilcher, E Report on the Exploration of the Buddhist Ruins at Takht-i-Bai,January to April 1871, Punjab Govermnent Gazette, Supplement 6th August 1874, 528-32." In "The Western Discovery of the Art of Gandhara and the Finds of Jamalgarhi, E. Errington, 434-37. PhD diss., London University; 1987.

Zwalf, W; A Catalogue o f the Candhra Sculpture in the British Museum. 2 vols. London: British Museum Press, 1996.

Prologue: Some Debating Points on Gandharan Buddhism and Kusana HistoryJ o h n M . R o s e n f i e l d

W ith utmost fanfare an international conference on the archaeology and

culture o f the Kusana period was convened in 1968 in D ushanbe, capital o f

the then-Soviet R e p u b lic o f Tajikistan. In a telegram sent to the opening

session, Soviet Prem ier A lexe i K osygin proclaim ed the conference to be the

birth o f the n ew science o f Kushanology. 1 B eliev in g perhaps that passage

through the birth canal was not excitin g enough, the organizers also an

nounced sensational Soviet solutions to the crucial issue o f dating the main

Kusana era (more on this below).

M r. K o syg in s enthusiasm, admirable as it was, overlooked the fact that

efforts to reconstruct the lost history o f the Ktisana em pire had been under

w ay since H .H .W ilso n s A r ia n a A n t iq u a o f 1841.> In fact, the subject has long

attracted scholars in m any lands, for it explores one o f the m ost creative eras

o f Eurasian history as well as one o f Eurasias most crucial geographic regions, as the recent w ar in Afghanistan has again demonstrated. A t the apo

gee o f its pow er in the second cen tury o f the C o m m o n E ra , the Kusana

em pire (w hich was know n to the Iranians as the Kushanshahr) extended

from Gangetic India through the Punjab into Afghanis tan, across the H indu

K ush and Pam ir m ountains, past the D arya (O xus R iv er), and deep into

present-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was also possibly linked w ith the

m ountain kingdom o f K a sh n ir and the city-state o f H iotan in the western

T arim Basin. A t no time, how ever, did that em pire resem ble a m odern na

tion-state controlling a w ell-defined dom ain. T h o u g h it m aintained certain

strongholds o f its authority, its boundaries were indefinite and its sovereignty

often rested on shifting alliances w ith regional lords. Indeed, the resemblance

to recent m ilitary and political groupings in the same region is rem arkable.

T hrough this vast realm passed trade routes jo in in g C h ina, Central Asia,

Iran, India, and the eastern M editerranean littoral. From India came the H indu and Buddhist faiths, the latter spreading to C hina, K orea, and Japan. From the

10 John M . Rosenfield

H ellenized M iddle East ca m e such religious concepts as divine kingship and

the syncretic fusion o f diverse deities and cult practices, w h ich had profound

im pact on Iran and India. W ithin the Kusana empire lived astronomers, m ath

ematicians, theologians, playw rights, poets, gram m arians, logicians, and phy

sicians w h o left indelible marks upon Asian civilization. Images carved in the sculpture workshops o f this ancient realm are am ong the m ost eloquent and

influential in the history o f Buddhist art.

Am azingly, the recorded h istory o f the Kushanshahr consists o f little m ore

than in cidental com m ents in Chinese, Indian, and W est Asian texts. R e c o n

structing its history, like that o f the Mayas or the H ittites, has been a rem ark

able undertaking o f m odern em pirical sciences, drawing on such diverse

disciplines as field archaeology, num ism atics, linguistics, epigraphy, Sinology,

art history, and religious studies.'! T o coordinate data from so m any fields,

interdisciplinary conferences have often been organized; the first maj or one

was held in 19 13 in L on d o n ;4 others have foilow edil and m ore w ill com e.

W ritin g Kusana history is like reconstructing a giant mosaic. Scholars have

pieced together parts o f the outer frame and a few internal configurations,

but w h ole areas are still e mpty, and m any fragnents are abraded and am bigu

ous in m eaning. M u ch progress has been m ade, but the inherent difficulties in

this field are truly daunting. Evidence from one discipline often seems to

contradict or conflict w ith that from another, and, as seen below, lively de

bates abound. Just as nature abhors a vacuum , however, the hum an m ind

rebels against such uncertainty and doubt, and scholars have often tried to

force evidence into orderly configurations that fit their ow n preconceptions.

T h e occasional discovery o f new evidence sometimes speeds up the process

o f reconstruction, but substantial gains in Kusana studies have often been the

result o f small, increm ental steps.T h e essays in this volum e focus m ainly on the Gandharan Buddhist tradi

tion as docum ented in art, archaeology, and epigraphy. Evid ence comes m ainly from the region around the m arket tow n o f Peshawar in the present-day

N orthw est Frontier Province o f Pakistan. This was once the ch ie f city o f the

ancient state o f Gandhara and, for a w h ile , a centre o f KusalJ.a pow er.0 H u n

dreds o f sculptures were discovered at ru ined B uddhist sanctuaries near

Peshawar; m ost had been carved in hybrid styles that com bined Indian, H ellenistic, R o m a n , and Parthian elem ents. W estern archaeologists dubbed the

styles Gandharan, and w h en sim ilar objects were discovered over the vast

expanse o f territory to tlie northwest once ruled by the Kusanas, they ca led

that larger sphere Gandhara (or Greater Gandhara) as well. W e must never,

however, overlook the fact that the Kusana state also extended far into the

G angetic basin, m aintaining its m ain seat o f pow er at M athura, along the Yam una (or Jum na) R iv er , southeast o f D elh i. T h o u g h the northern. and

Debating Points on Gandharan Buddhism and Kusana History 1 1

southern parts o f the em pire differed greatly in climate, ethnicity, and lan

g a g e , they w ere closely United b y political and religious institutions.7

A uthors o f the essays herein have adhered to the principles o f sound em

pirical research; they make no claims o f revolutionary discoveries, offer no

revelation:; about the date o f the m ain Kusana era, engage in no discussions o f

the recently discovered R ab atak inscription. W orking in their ow n specialties

they patiently exam ine bits o f evidence, seeking to jo in th em together in an experim ental fashion, and proposing new hypotheses. Im portant areas o f the

giant m osaic are clarifi ed here, but unresolved problem s remain, and this Prologue attempts to point out certain areas o f debate and uncertainty.

Gandharan Buddhism in ContextFrom rem ote antiquity, G andhraw as a m ajor centre o f orthodox Indo-A ryan

(i.e., Vedic) learning and social organization. It was also a frontier region

astride m ajor international trade routes, and was often subject to foreign in

vasion. Buddhism had spread into the region by the third century B C E ,a s

evidenced by the results o f excavations at Taxila and in Swat. s T h e Kusana

occupation, w h ich m ay have begun around 50 C E , seems to have encouraged

the grow th o f that faith. B y the late fifth century, however, KusaQa pow er had

been destroyed and its ability to support the faith dim inished, but dating the

decline o f B uddhism in the region is quite problem atic. In Chapter 5, for

exam ple, S. Kuwayam a proposes that the faith was thriving as late as the sixth

century. Nonetheless, under the im pact o f successive waves o f invasions from

Central Asia and both the rise o f Islam and the resurgence o f Brahm anism ,

the faith gradually weakened. B y approxim ately 1200 C E it had virtually

vanished from areas once ruled by the Kusana:; as it had everyw here south

o f the Himalayas.

In both Gandhara and Gangetic India, Buddhist com m unities seem to have

w elcom ed form er Central Asians such as the Sakas, Parthian:;, and Kusanas, and they in turn seem to have found in that religion a positive link w ith the

local populace.7 In fact, m en and w om en in Central Asian dress are often depicted as devotees in Buddhist sculpture found throughout the region. '

O f a l the invading tribes, the Kusanas w ere the m ost powerful, and evidence o f their patronage is abundant. 11 H igh -b o rn m en and w om en in Kusana dress

w ere depicted as donors in m onasteries at Paitava and Shotorak, located in

the hills surrounding Kapisa., the Kusana capital forty kilom eters north o f

Kabul. C h in ese pilgrim s described a stpa and m onastery in Peshawar said to have been built by the m ighty Kusana sovereign Kaniska I; they proclaim ed

it the grandest m onum ent in a l India, and archaeologists have uncovered its

foundations and a relic box inscribed w ith that ru lers name. 13 T h e nam e o f

his successor, H uviska, was attached to a large m onastic com plex at M athura. 14

12 John lvi. Rosenfield

Less concrete evidence appears in Buddhist literary traditions claim ing that

Kaniska convened in Kashm ir the third great council o f the Buddhist faith,

that he befriended the p layw right Asvaghosa, and that he was a zealous pa

tron o f the faith, a second As oka in

As there is no confirm ation o f the legendary accounts, it is worth speculat

ing w hether Kaniska was in fact a devout Buddhist or w h eth er the Buddhist

com m unity appropriated his name and reputation for its ow n purposes. D e

spite substantial evidence that the faith enjoyed Kusana royal patronage, no

reference whatsoever is made to Buddhism in the m ost substantial indica

tions o fK u san a royal ideology, the inscriptions found at the Surkh Kotal and

R abatak dynastic shrines, and the inscribed sculptures excavated at the shrine

at M at, near M athura. A rchaeological evidence indicates that Kusrn s over-

e ig ity was rooted in a cult o f kingship akin to those prevailing in Iran and

West Asia, one in w hich the ruler was im bued w ith divine powers conferred

b y gods w ho protected the reahii.Virtually none o f the m aterial found at the

Kusana dynastic shrines has been reco g iized as B udd h ist in character. 17

D u rin g the period under discussion here, Indian Buddhist art developed its

o w n i conography o fk in gsh ip at m onastic sites in the K rishna R iv e r region o f

present-day A ndhra Pradesh - Am arvatJaggayyapeta, and Nagarj unakonda,

for exam ple. From all o f those sites have com e re lie f carvings that depict a

Universal M onarch (cakm vartin) (fig. i . i ) and seven emblems o f traditional

Indian m onarchy: a w heel that signifies dom inion, a great gem that emits light, a dauntless horse, a grand state elephant, an exquisite consort, a brave

general, and a wise m inister w h o m ay also be the crow n p rin ce .lS In Buddhist

doctrine, these appurtenances o f secular authority accrue to a k ing w h o es

tablishes the Buddhist dharma as m e law o f his realm ; and the benefits o f his

ru le are sym bolized b y the rain o f coins seen faking from the clouds in fig.

i . i . These carvings, however, were intended as statements o f ideals, not as

propaganda for individual rulers. In fact, local sovereigns in the A ndhra re

gion ruled according to Brahm anical principles; support for the Buddhist

com m unity came fiom their w ives and ministers and from the laity. UJ

T h e ideal o f the perfect m onarch reinforced by the m em ory o f A soka

M aurya was a pow erful ideological force in the evolution o f kingship

throughout Buddhist Asia. I f any o f the Kusana rulers had w ished to identify

h im self as a cakravartin , the symbols o f that concept w ere available, at least in theory; none, how ever have been found anywhere in Kusana dom inions.

Furtherm ore, Buddhist m otifs are exceedingly rare on Kusana coins, another

m ajor instrument o f royal ideology. Images o f Sakyam uni and M aitreya are

found o n ly on issues o f Kaniska I, and they are significantly outnum bered

and overshadowed in the polyglot pantheon o f other deities G reek, R o

man, Iranian, Central Asian, and In d ian .'0

Debating Points on Gandharan Buddhism and KusStia History 13

FIGURE 1 .1 . Buddhist ideal monarch (cakravartin) and seven emblems ofsovereignty. Jaggayyapeta. White limestone. Madras Museum (after Burgess).

I f B udd h ism was an im portant ingredient in the religious life o f the

Kushanshahr, it was by no m eans the only one. In fact, the m ost prom inent

o f all deities in a l Kusana coinage is a m ale figure usually identified as Siva.

H e often has three faces, carries a staff topped b y a trident, is accom panied by

a bull, and is identified b y inscription as O eso.11 B y contrast, archeological sites in the Kushanshahr have y ie ld ed little evidence o f m onum ents and

sculptures devoted to Siva prior to the fifth century C E , another exam ple o f

the incongruities appearing in different types o f evidence. T h e paucity o f

14 John M. Rosenfield

archaeological m aterial does not necessarily indicate a lack o f popular w o r

ship o f Siva, however. In fact, Indian religious concepts long antedated the

time w hen they w ere em bodied in perm anent, m onum ental form s o fa rt and

arch itectu re !' Present-day India is replete with tem ple buildings and images,

but for th e p e rio d in w h ich the m ost original and exalted o fIn d ia s religious

texts w ere com posed - the V'edas, B rn h m a m s, U panishads - and the tim e o fth e

career o f hirkyamuni him self, Indians carved no statue, built no tem ple, cre

ated no great palace w h ich has survived to the present. Indeed, most evidence

indicates that the m aking o fsu ch things was either unim portant o rw as anath

ema to the spiritual values w h ich dom inated Indian culture. This in itself is

one o f the most extraordinary facts in the entire history o f art, and the rea

sons for it have never been thoroughly explored. ' 3

D evelopm ents in early Indian art and theology foilow ed separate tim e

tables. Buddhists and Jains, w h o had rejected m any o f the precepts o f orth o

dox Brahm anism , w'ere the first to create sanctuaries and religious im agery in

perm anent m aterials. In fact,Jain sanctuaries flourished in M athura even be

fore the arrival o f the Kusanas, and Ja in im age worship there seems to have

predated that o f the Buddhists. 2+ Ja in votive images do not, how ever, appear

on K usina coins or in Gandharan sculpture. A m ong Indias m ajor religious

com m unities, the H indus w ere the last to develop large-scale architecture

and sculpture, as at D eogarh, A ihole, and B a d m dating to the sixth and

seventh centuries C E .O n e o f the most pow erful m otive forces in Kusna-period spiritual life was

the indigenous Indian practice known as bliakti ( attachm ent ), em otionally

charged devotion to personal deities. N o t only had bh akti touched all popular

religious persuasions, it significantly furthered the grow th o f im age worship.

In E a rly Buddhist m onum ents such as Bhrhut, Snc, and Amaravati, w orshippers were shown prostrating themselves before symbols o f the Buddha

and even em bracing or kissing them (fig. 1.2 ). N ow h ere was the b h a k ti m ove

m ent m ore concentrated than in M athura, w here it fostered the grow th o f

the enorm ously popular cult o f the local hero Krsna as an vatar ofVishl).u.

A few K u sana-period sculptures depicting the Krsna legen d have survived

at M ath u ra .15 A few Vaishl).ava m otifs appear on In d o -G re e k and S aka

Kusl).a coinage, but none have been found on Kusna coins or in Gandhran

sculpture.A noth er distinctive feature o f spiritual life in the Kushanshahr was the

appearance o f a form o f religious syncretism then current in the M iddle East

and M editerranean litto ra l!" Perhaps the most dramatic evidence o f this in

theW est m ay still be seen at the m ountaintop temple and m ortuary shrine at N em ru d D agi in southeastern Turkey. 17 Built by a certain Antiochus (ca. 69-34

Debating Points on Gandhiiran Buddhism and KusStla History 15

F ig u r e 1.2. Worshippers o f the bodhi tree o f Kasyapa Buddha. Detail of railing pillar, Bharhut. Prakrit inscriptions in Brahmi: (top) chekulana saghamitasa thabho danam (Pillar gift ofSanghamitra from Chikulana); (bottom) bhagavato kasapasa bodhi (bodhi tree o f the holy Kasyapa). R ed Kaimur sandstone, dia. o f roundel 54.7 cm. Indian Museum, Calcutta (authors photograph).

i6 John M . Rosenfield

B C E ) , king o f the small Hellenistic state o f C om m agene, the sanctuary fea

tures giant statues and re lie f carvings o f the k in g h im self and the hybrid

G reek and Iranian gods w h o protected him and his state. In fact, some o f

these deities, both G reek and Iranian, also appear on the coins o f Kaniska I

and H uviska, and they are incicated here with an asterisk. Forem ost in the

N ern ru d D a g i pantheon is the statue o f the supreme deity inscribed w ith the

syncretic G reek-Iranian nam e o f Zeus-O rorm ases (*Arhuramazda) ; next is

the solar god g iven four nam es:A pollo-*M ithra-*H elios-H erm es. H e is fo l

low ed by the martial god A rta g ie s (the Avestan god o f victories *Vereth- ragna), w hose inscribed nam e is linked to that o f two Greek elements, the

hero *Heracles and the w ar god A res;and finally a state goddess (theTyche o f Conm iagene) . A lso included are re lie f carvings o f the k in g s deified ancestors,

Iranian on the paternal side go in g back to Darius the Great, and G re e k on

the m aternal side, beginn ing w ith A lexander the Great.

T o be sure, religious syncretism is a universal and com plex spiritual phe

nom enon . T h e syncretism current in the Kusana period, however, was a spe

cific and self-conscious type, one that originated in the m ingling o f different

populations fo llow ing the spread o f H ellenism b y A lexander the Great and

his successors. As m entioned above, some o f the m ajor W estern deities em

braced in this process turn up on the coins o f Kaniska I and H uviska; and in

the coins o f the latter the process o f syncretic fusion is clearly at w ork am ong

Indian w ar gods: Mahasena (great general), Skanda (attacker), Visakha, and

K um ara (princely y o u th ) !8 In H uviska s tim e these w ere separate and inde

pendent deities, but at a later date their identities w ere m erged into that o f a

single w ar god, Karttikeya, a son o f Siva, and their names were applied to him

as c o g n o m e n !9 In the R abatak inscription the names ofM ahasena,V isakha,

and perhaps Kum ara w ere w ritten above those o f the Iranian martial gods

Sroshard, Narasa, and M ih r.30

T aking a different form , m uch the same process m ay be observed in Gandharan depictions o f folk gods, especially the yaksas and yaksis, w h o are

w orshipped to the present day throughout the Indian cultural sphere.Those

deities were prom inently depicted in the Early Buddhist sanctuaries that sought

to appeal to the general populace, as seen in the m any exam ples, clearly iden-

' tified w ith inscriptions, on the Bharhut railing pillars o f the second century

B C E .A lth o u g h yaksiis and yaksis appear prom inently in the art o f M athura o f

the Kusna period, they are far less com m on in G andhara.A few are depicted

in architectural decorations, but they are m ore often paired as fem ale and

m ale tutelary gods in statues clearly intended as objects o f worship. 1 T h is

could be taken as evidence that in Gandhara the devotions that previously

were offered to num erous yaksiis and yaksis were com bined and focused on

this pair. There is very little data about the actual content o f these cults.The

Debating Points 011 Gandharan Buddhism and KusStta History 17

fem ale is tentatively identified as Hariti, the ancient smaflpox goddess (ya k si)

w h o, in B uddh ist legends, w'as converted by Sakyam uni into a giver and

protector o f children; the male, according to C hinese pilgrim s, was Pancika, a

god who conferred wealth and was often conflated w ith Kubera, forem ost

am ong the y a k s sd 2 Sculptures o f these deities, individually or as a pair, are

found throughout the northern h a lf o f the Kusana em pire, and they m ay well have been equated with tw o gods o f prosperity and fertility prom inent on

Kusana coinage, th e Iranian or Bactrian Pharro and A rdoxso.33

Buddhist Doctrines and Im ageryT h e sym bolic content o f Kusana B udd h ist sculpture is a m atter o f m uch

debate, and the obstacles to correct interpretation are form idable. Gandharan

or M athuran im ages, unlike their Chinese counterparts, bear few inscriptions

to clarify the beliefs and intentions o f their patrons. T h e destruction o f sanc

tuaries and the scattering ofim ages have m ade it ddifcult to place the surviv

ing sculptures into m eaningful contexts. T h e religion itself was b y no means

a unified creed, as new and dissident doctrines com e into being. T h e dating

o f both religious texts and artistic m onum ents is uncertain, m aking it difficult

to measure the intervals betw een developm ents in religious ideology and the

devising o f artistic m otifs to sym bolize those developments in visual terms.

M od ern counterfeit statues' have also inadvertently been introduced into the

debates. H ere is not the place to deal w ith that issue other than to signal

utm ost caution w h en dealing w ith objects w 'ithout trustworthy provenance.

Finally, use o f the all-too-fam iliar terms Hinayana, M ahayana, and Vajrayana

have com plicated efforts to interpret Kusana Buddhist sculpture. To be sure, the basic religious concepts o fth o se three systems coexisted during the early

centuries o f the C o m m on Era, but sharp, self-conscious distinctions in ideol

ogy were not adopted until a m uch later date. M ost problem atic is the use o f

the term H in a y iin a , w h ich is replaced in this chapter by E a r ly B u d dh ism .

Maitreya an d C o m p a n y

O ne o f the most striking features o fK u san a Buddhist art is the abundance o f

im ages identified as representations o f the bodhisattva M aitreya found in

Gandhara; in m uch sm aller num bers,they are also found around M athura. 34 A vast bo d y o f scholarship has been devoted to the cult o f this bodhisattva, to

his role as a transitional figure betw een Early Buddhism and M ahayana, and

to his possible links w ith the messianic beliefs o f Iran and West Asia. 35 E ven before th e arrival o f the Kusanas in India, this deity seems to have

been firm ly established in B udd h ist w'orship. A bo ut the beginn ing o f the C om m on Era, M aitreya appears on one o f the four m onum ental gateways o f

S an d stupa 1. H e is show n at the ends o f ranks o f six Buddhas o f the past, each

i8 John M . Roserzfield

represented aniconically by a stupa o r tree.0 These emblem s reflected Early

Buddhist thought in w h ich Tathagatas such as Kasyapa or Kanakm uni are

described as having appeared one after the other before S akyam uni; M aitreya

is to com e in the future. T h ou gh the S an d carvings w ere clearly rooted in

Early Buddhism , they dim inished the im portance o f the historical Sakya-

m uni by reflecting the notion o f a trans-historical Buddha principle and thus

anticipating M ahayana concepts. ......... :

F ig u r e 1.3. Sakyamuni flanked by Maitreya, Indra, Brahma, and unidentified bodhisattva. On plinth: (left) the conversion o f Angulimlika; (right) Vajrapani subdues the Apalala. Sahri-Bahlol. Phyllite, 59 x 47.6 cm. Peshawar Museum (authors photograph).

Debating Points oti Gandharau Buddhism and Kusna History 19

Figurative images o f M aitreya w ere carved in the Kushanshahr about a

century later and shown in three basic formats: (1) paired with an unidentified

bodhisattva on large steles flanking Sakyamiuni, who is seated holding his hands

in a teaching gesture (fig. 1 .3 ) ;37 (2) an independent object o fw orsh ip , dressed

like an Indian prince, heavily bejeweled, and holding a w ater bottle (fig. i .4);3S

F ig u r e 1.4. Standing im age o f Maitreya bodhisattva. Ahicchattra. Buff Sikri sandstone, h. 71 cm. National Museum of India, New Delhi (authors photograph).


(3) seated and bejew elled in the Tusita H eaven preaching to devotees.39

Unfortunately, however, on ly two helpful inscriptions have been found on

the scores o f surviving M aitreya im ages. T h e m ost inform ative is on the base

o fth e statue show n in fig. 1 .4 , a w ell-preserved M athura-school statue unam

biguously identified as Maitreya.4T h e other, the pedestal o fa missing M aitreya

im age found at M athura, was inscribed in the reign o f H uviska. It confirm s

the deity s presence in a sanctuary o f the Dharm aguptakas, a sect closely

affiliated w ith the conservative Sarvastivadins, the preem inent ecclesiastical

organization in the Kushanshahr.41' T h e sheer quantity o f other M aitreya im

ages uncovered in KusaiJ.a domains, though uninscribed, is evidence that his

cult was a m ajor factor in popular Buddhism . H e appears prim arily as a

bodhisattva, the param ount M ahayana ideal, but the sym bolic content o f his

im agery is fully congruent w ith accounts in Early Buddhist texts.42

Great uncertainty affects our understanding o f the other m ajor G andharm

bodhisattva im age type, w h ich appears both as an independent object o f de

votion and as paired w ith M aitreya flanking Sakyam uin (fig. 1.3). Generally

called the turbaned bodhisattva, he is adorned with the same necklaces, am u

lets, and armlets as M aitreya, but w ears a distinctive princely turban w ith a

jew e led crest ornam ent.43 Som e scholars have speculated that this figure is

Sakyam uni h im self in the guise o f a bodhisattva; others say that he is A valo-

kitesvara (o f this, see m ore below ), but incontrovertible evidence o fh is iden

tity has yet to be found.44 B u t i f the precise sym bolic m eaning and religious

context o f these steles remains unclear, their underlying connotation is self-

evident: the tw o bodh isattva and Sakyamuni are com bined as objects o f devotion; the prim acy o f the historical Buddha is again diminished.

Ju d g in g from the num ber o f statues found, bodhisattva cults seem to have

been m uch stronger in Greater Gandhara that in other parts o f the subconti

nent, lending added credence to those w ho claim that the region developed

its o w n distinctive form s ofB uddhist belie fand practice.To be sure, bodhisattva

figures and triad-like com positions are found in M athura, but in much smaller num bers. In one such type, the figures flanking Sakyam uni m erely bear fly

whisks and seem to be nonspecific attendants. In other exam ples, one o f the

attendants holds a thunderbolt and m ay w ell be the fam iliar guardian figure

V.ljrapiJ.i, w hile his counterpart holds lotus blossoms or a flow er garlan d !5 In

none o f the M athuran triads do the flan k in g figures project the strong iconic

m eaning suggested by those from Gandhara.

M ah a yiin a Im ages? ' "

Even more difficult to interpret is a group o f stone steles that show S akya-

muni seated in a vast assemblage o f deities. C arved in deep honeycom bed

relief, m any slabs o f this kind have been found in Gandhara; none, however,

Debating Points on Gandharan Buddhism and Kusmw History 2 1

F ig u r e r.5. Preaching Sakyamuini and display o f deities. Mohammed Nari. Phyllite, 126 x 94 cm. Lahore Museum (author's photograph).

have com e from the M athura region. The best preserved o f these works was

discovered at M oham m ed N ari, a little-docum ented archaeological site m

the Gandharan heartland betw een Charsadda and Takht-i-bahi (fig. I.5 )d f' T h ou gh this im age type is one o f the m ost h ighly developed and eloquent

sculptural expressions o f Buddhist theology, key questions regarding its date

and iconographie content rem ain unsolved.

22 John Ml. Rosenfield

A few scholars have placed the M oham m ed N ari stele as early as the first

century C E ;+7 others suggest the late second or early third century,48 w hile

som e put it in the fourth49 or even in the fifth. 50 T h e erudite A lfred Foucher

p roposed that it represents the legendary M iracle ofM ultip lication at S ravasti,

in w hich Sakyam uni created an array o f Buddhas w ho filled the sky, thus

confounding Brahm an sages w ith his supernatural powers. 31 That interpreta

tion, however, has been challenged,52 and Jo h n H untington, for one, pro

posed that the carving portrays A m itayus o r A m itabha preaching in the

Sukhavati paradise,54 a fam iliar them e in E ast Asian Buddhist art. H untington

supp orted his hypothesis by ci ting th* ghiphic descriptions o f that paradise in

the A m ita y u s and Larger S u k h S v a t v y iih a sutra, w hich w ere first translated into

C hinese in the second century C E by a Y iieh -ch ih m onk named Lokaraksa.

T h is w ould suggest that the texts w ere probably current at the time and place

o fth e carving o fth e steles. I n fac t, H untington claim ed that virtually every

detail o fth e stele corresponds to text references in the Sukhavati-literature - laym en undergoing rebirth in paradise, for exam ple, o r birds shown perched

on roofs. A greein g w ith H untington, C . H aesner w ent even further and iden

tified such principal M ahayana bodhisattvas as Avalokites vara, M ahastham a-

prapta, and M anjusri am ong the m yriad figures show n in the stele. She concluded: T h e people o f Gandhara .. . translated the m agnificent ideas de

scribed in the Larg er S u k h a va ti vy iih a siitra into three-dim ensional form s. 5+As

additional evidence in support o f his hypothesis, H untington cited the discovery near M athura o f the pedestal o f a standing im age inscribed w ith the

nam e o f Am itabha and dated in the r e ig i o f H uviska unquestioned p ro o f

that the deity was in worship at an early date (the second century C E accord

ing to most estimates).55 R .C . Sharm a, then Curator o f the M athura M useum ,

accepted H untington's view s about M ahayana sym bolism and cited an old

essay by VS. Agrawala that listed a half-dozen Kusal).a-period M ahayana im

ages from M athura.56 In this same vein, scholars have given Avalokitesvaras

nam e to a handful o f statues w hose turban crests bear the m ost dependable iconographic em blem o f that bodhisattva', a small im age o f a seated m editat

ing Buddha, presum ably A m itabh a!'7 The same type o f turban crest appears

on a M athura statuette o f a bodhisattva seated h alf cross -le gged in m edita

tion, now in the M etropolitan M useum o fA rt , N e w York. 58 Identifying that

c arving as AvalokiteS vara, scholars have assumed that other statues posed in the same Pensive P rin ce p ositio n also represent the bodhisattva, even those

w h ich lack the seated figure in the headdress.59

H aving pro p o s ed that Buddhist sculptures o f the Kusna realm depict w ell-

defined M ahayana concepts, certain students have extended their reach to

include Vajrayana, or Esoteric Buddhist, themes as w ell. For exam ple, V S .

Debating Points on Gandharan Buddhism and KusStp History 2 3

A graw ala used the terms m m s i ( hum an ) to designate Buddhas o fth e past

(e.g., Sakyam uni and Dipamkara) and d h ya n a (or jh a n a , w isdom ) for non-

his torical ones such a s Am itabha.'0 T h at usage had been popularized by the

19 14 iconographie handbook o fA lic e Getty, T h e G o d s o f N orth ern B u d d h ism ,

and has often been uncritically applied to Buddhist im ages o fa fi periods and

countries.The concept o fthejiiiina Tathiigatas, however, becam e prom inent in

Buddhist sym bolism only in the eighth and ninth centuries, as m ay be seen in

maticlalas o f the so-called vajradhiitu (D iam ond M atrix). Agrawala used the

terms m aw

A lth o u gh there is evidence o fliv e ly doctrinal disputes betw een the old and

new schools o fth o u g h t,'17 there is none for radical sectarian conflict, and it

is possible that m onks professing M ahayana beliefs resided in conservative

m onasteries.

A close study o fK u sa m -p e r io d sculptires and inscriptions suggests that an

observation made long ago by Edw ard C o n ze is stiU valid: we do not know

what the M ahayana was like at its inception, and still less how it originated

and developed, or h ow it was related to earlier form s o fB u d d h ism . 68 In the

current state o fkn ow led ge, it seems prudent to assume that during the Kusana

p eriod the great m ajority o fB u d d h ist sculptures from the em pire still belong

to E arly B uddhist traditions but reflect, in varying degrees, elem ents o f

M ahayana thought. A few, like the M oham m ed N a ri stele, unquestionably

em body generic M ahayana ideals. T h e small num ber o f sculptures or motifs

that m ay resemble developed East Asian im agery o f later times should be

deem ed tentative or experim ental in nature.It is thought that the G reaterV ehicle did not em erge in India as a separate

and independent doctrinal organization until the fifth century C E , although

the texts on w h ich it was based - am ong them , the Lotus stra, the Perfection

o fW isd o m texts, the V im alakirti and Suvarnaprabhsa stras - w ere in exist

ence centuries earlier, and on ly in the late fifth did M ahayana begin to de

velop a systematic artistic vocabulary to express its doctrines. T h e credibility

o f this v iew is gready enhanced by evidence from Chinese Buddhist art.

D eveloped M ahayana symbols - the T housand-B uddha m otif, for exam ple,

or the Paired Buddhas Sakyam uni and Prabhtaratna from chapter eleven o f

the Lotus sutra, or inscribed images o f A m itayus - begin to appear in a tenta

tive fashion in C hinese art in the m id-fifth century, even though the main

M ahayana stras had been translated into Chinese m uch earlier.69 O nly in the

m id-sixth century did unam biguous paradise im agery appear at sites such as

H siang tang-shan, the W angfo-ssu in C h eng-tu, and Tun-huang. O n this

issue, the observations o fS . M izuno and T. N agahiro are still valid:

In the second half o f the fifth century ... there was as yet in China no systematized iconography in the proper sense o f the term. Certain distinc

tions were, o f course, expressed between Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, devas and

men by the various ornaments and postures o f each image, and although these all had a certain meaning, no rigid canon ... had by drat time been

formed to govern the iconography ofBuddhist statues through rules for

mulated on a religious basis ... Unfortunately no literature o f the period

exists by means o f which these conclusions can be verified, and this ab

sence ofreference material in itself testifies to the immaturity ofthe icono-

graphical knowledge at that time.'


Debating Points an Gcmdharau Buddhism and Kusmia History 25

In India the systematization o f Buddhist iconography o f w h ich M izuno

and N agahiro spoke was not attained until the precise form ulations o f the

Vajrayana sadhana texts, w h ich can be roughly dated to the seventh century at

the earliest. For Indian Buddhist art o f the first four centuries o f the C o m

mon Era, the iconographie dividing line between Early Buddhis t and Mahayana

content remains indistinct. The onset o fla te r developm ents can be detected,

but it is m isleading and anachronistic to see them as fully m atured at that

time.

Chronology ofW orks o fA r tIt is possible to cite only approximate chronological bencim iarks for the evo

lution o f religious sculpture in upper India. W ithin these broad guidelines,

however, the dating o f individual w orks'is often uncertain. As shown above,

for exam ple, estimates o f the date o f the M oham m ed N ari re lie f carving vary

by as m uch as four centuries, so utmost caution must be observed w hen using w orks o f art to date developm ents in religious doctrine. It is equally hazard

ous, however, to reverse the process and ascribe exact dates to works o f art

based on the texts that they appear to reflect. Furtherm ore, data derived from

the histories o f art and religion are stifl very nebulously correlated w ith that

from political and social history. Subject to these caveats, here follow s a rough outline o f the evolution o f sculpture in M athura and Greater Gandhara.

E a r ly Stage

In the second and first c enturies B C E , sculpture workshops at M athura -

such as those at Bharhut, Saiic, B od h gaya, and the W estern Ghats - shared in

the developm ent o f nascent Buddhist im agery. Surprisingly, however, this was

not the case in Gandhara. N o significant works o f art datable prior to the first

century C E have been found there, even though excavations atTaxila and in

the Sw at Valley provide abundant evidence o f Buddhist religious activity as

early as the third century B C E . In the first century C E , workshops in M athura

and Gandhara began producing the first anthropom orphic images o f high

deities. Strong stylistic influences came from Central Asia, Iran, and the east

ern M e diterranean, and equafly great changes took place in the political sphere. Sakas established themselves in M athura, Gandhara, and M alw a; then the Parthians entered the Punjab, and about m id-century, the Kusanas em erged

as param ount rulers in Gandhara and began their trium phal m arch to the

south and east.

M a tu re Stage

In the second century C E , with the extension o f the p a x K u s n ica to much o f

upper India, the m ain sculpture workshops o f the em pire achieved distinctive


regional styles. Those in Gandhara perfected a lively, narrative m ode, often

w ith a pronounced R o m an flavor,71 w hile those in M athura tended toward a

static, emblematic id iom .T he num ber and the high artistic quality o f Mathuran

dated sculptures suggest that generous support was given to religious institu

tions during the reigns o f Kaniska I and H uviska. B y about 230 C E , a rela

tively uncontroversial date, the Sasanian kings o flran had conquered Gandhara.

T h e Kusna dynasty, thenceforth dubbed Kushano-Sasanian, continued to

rule but was nom inally subordinate to the Iranians, and its authority gradu

ally decreased. Th rough out the last h a lf o f the third century and m ost o fth e

fourth, the Buddhist sculpture workshops in the northern and southern parts

o f the empire rem ained active, and although eloquent w orks were occasion

ally produced, m any others w ere form ulaic and uninspired.

L a te Stage

Artistic developm ents in the late fourth and fifth centuries are the most dif

ficult o f all to chart, as scholars have been much m ore attracted to the earlier

phases. Joh n M a rsh a l claimed that production in Gandhara totally ceased

after the Sasanian conquest, resum ed in a so-called Later School in the sec

ond h alf o fth e fourth century, and flourished until the invasions o fth e W h ite

(Hephthalite) H uns at the beginning o f the sixth.72 O thers maintain that

there w ere no such breaks and that the Huns did not cause the damage

attributed to them by traditional Indian histories. In any case, it is difficult to

ascribe secure dates to the flow ering of sculpture in stucco at sites around

Jalalabad in Afghanistan at the w estern end o f the K h yb er Pass.73 Byzantine

coins found there, and the strong similarities to G up tan art in som e o f the

images, suggest that Buddhist artists continued to w ork as late as the sixth

cen tiry , long after the last traces o f Kusana rule had been extinguished.

T he Kaniska E raHundreds o f inscriptions have been found in regions controhed b y the Kusal).as.

M ore than 2 17 o f them bear dates and, occasionally, ru lers nam es/4 W ritten in several languages and in tw o w ritin g systems (Brahm i and Kharosthi), the

texts unfortunately are dated in six or seven calendrical systems, the most

prom inent o f w hich is the era inaugurated by Kaniska I.75 Indeed, the Rabatak inscription cites the founding o f the Kaniska era as a m om entous historic

event.7"Attem pts to ascribe dates in the C o m m o n E ra and to reconcile the differ

ent chronological systems are simply m ind-num bing, and none o f the com

p lex chains o fh ypoth etical arguments has so far been universally accepted.A further com plication was added w h en J . van Loh uizen-de L eeu w observed

Debating Points an Gcmdharau Buddhism and Kusna History 27

that certain statues from M athura bear similar dates and similar Kusna royal

names but are m arkedly different in style,77 She interpreted this to mean that

the images had been made in to two separate eras approxim ately one century

apart, the first being that o fK an isk a I and the second beginning with Kaniska

II and continuing for five decades or so. Supporting this proposal with evi

dence from num ismatics, she provided a basis for the relative chronology o f

M athura sculptures for nearly tw o hundred years. H er views, however, have

often been rejected by scholars w ho are not prepared to accept evidence

arising from the stylistic analysis o fw o rk s o fa rt . 78Seeing the crucial role that Kaniska played in the political and cultural

history o f the Kushanshahr, scholars have tried repeatedly to determ ine his

exact dates. M any historians, the most determ ined being the forn id ab le B .N .

M ukreirjee o f Calcutta University, firnaly maintain that the Kaniska era b e

gan in 78 C E and that this date is the orig in o f the Saka era still re co g iized in

India.75 O thers have proposed a variety ofd ates ranging from 110 - 12 0 , to 128,

to 14 4 , and the learned numismatist R o b e r t G o b i placed it at 2 32 .80 Soviet R ussian scholarship, introduced to the w orld at large at the 1968 Dushanbe

conference, put it as late as 278, long after the Sasanian conquest and on ly a

half-century before the rise o f the G uptas.The outside estimates o f this criti

cal date in Kusana lis to ry differ by as m uch as two centuries, but the m ajority

place it w ith in a m uch narrow er range o f about fifty years, begin n in g w ith

78 C E .S ix or seven sovereigns m ay have constituted the m ain dynastic line o f the

so-called Great Kusanas. 81 R o u g h ly the same num ber o f m onarchs governed

the M ughal dynasty, w h ich also arose in Central Asia and occupied m uch the

same territory m ore than a m ikennium later. M ughal docum ents describe in

m inute detail the history o f the state and the vastly different talents and tem peraments o f its grandees. Great patrons o f the arts, M ughal emperors built

lavish palaces, gardens, tombs, and m osques.T h ey sum m oned holy m en and

gifted painters, poets, and musicians to their courts, and com m issioned fine

textiles and jad e vessels. L ik e the Kusnas, they m aintained close political and

cultural contacts w ith Iran w hile fighting it for control o f the border regions,

and they engaged in lucrative trade with China and the West.

Students o f Kusana political h istory have been tem pted to com pose detailed scenarios like those o f the M ughals, describing battles, shifting alliances

w ith local rulers, and bloody succession disputes am ong schem ing princes and ambitious generals. Kaniska I has been likened to A kbar in his appetite

for conquest and his breadth o f interests, but a history o f the Kusnas on the

m odel o f the M ughals is not yet possible. E ven a dependable list o f all Kusana

rulers has yet to be com piled, and the m ost basic chronology o f the dynasty


remains the subject o f intense debate. R e c e n t evidence is shedding light on

the date o fK an iska I, and the m any fragments ofhistorical and artistic evidence

are being brought into m uch sharper focus.82

N o tes

Though 1 have been away from Kus5m studies for some years, Professors Koichi Shinohara and Phyllis Granoff, believing that distance may have sharpened my vision, asked me to compose this Prologue. In doing so I have made special use ofthe work of Grard Fussman, Robert Gob], David MacDowall, Bratindra Nath MukheIjee, Baij Nath Puri, Richard Salomon, Ramesh Chandra Sharma, Gregory Schopcn, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Boris Staviski, and Wladimir Zwalf, tor which I wish to express my admiration and debt. I wish aLso to thank Deborah Klimbu rg-Salter for sending post-haste the volume of essays from the VieIlia conference of 1996, Pramod Chandra for his thoughtful advice, and Naomi Noble Richard, Kurt Behrendt, and Pia Brancaccio for helping to clarify my turgid prose. Finally I am, as always, most deeply beholden to the unfailingly helpful staff'and generous resources of the Harvard University library system.

1 The term Kusmia is generally used to refer to a confederation of nomadic tribes, called Yiieh-chih in Chinese annals, who wandered with their herds northwest ofKansu Province in the late third century BCE. Driven westward by tribes called Hsiung-iiu, they occupied Ta-sia, or Bactria, about 135 BCE, displacing the Greek princelings whose ancestors had come to the region with Alexander of Macedonia. The Yiieh-chih divided that country into five sub-states ; of these, one, called Kuei-shang (or Ku?ana), became supreme, fought with the Parthians, and expanded its domain southward to Gandhara (ca. 50 CE). its ruler is assumed to have been Kujula Kadphises, on whose coins the name Kusmia first appears. The coins of his son or grandson,Vima Kadphises, were the first to employ imperial epithets (e.g., basileos basileoii in Greek, or Maharja rajadiraja in Prakrit). With Vima Kadphises begins the sequence of the so-called Great Kusana kings, o f whom Kaniska I is the most renowned. For Chinese sources ofKusna history, see Ziircher, The Yiieh-chih and Kaniska in Chinese Sources."

2 Wilson, Ariana A lingua, 347-81.3 Exemplary surveys ofKusana studies are to be found in Puri, India under the Kusttas, and,

more recently, in Zwalf, Catalogue of Gandhara ScuIpture. For more specialized introductions, see the following: archaeological activity prior to World War II, Deydier, Coutribu- tion a l 'tude de lart du Candhra; well-organized bibliographic guides, Puri, Kustia Bibliography,, and Guene, Bibliographie analytique; cultural history, Fussman,Upaya-kauSalya"; epigraphic and linguistic matters, Salomon, Indian Ep graph y; Kusat).a pre-dynastic history,

. Staviski, La Bactria ne soils les Kttsns; KusSm dynastic history, Mukheijee, Rise and Fall of the Kusana Empire and Great KushanaTestamcut; Kusana coinage, Gobi, System und Chronologie der Miinzpragung der Kusanreiches; Kusanas in the Mathura region, Srinivasan, Mathur, Sharma, BuddhistArt of'Mathiird and BuddhistArt; dynastic symbolism, Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts o f the Kushaus.

4 This was a major effort by more than a dozen specialists to focus mainly on the date ofthe Kaniska era.Their essays appear in Jouri rn l ofthe Royal Asiatic Society 1913 and 1914.

5 Among them: University o f London 1960 on the date of Kaniska, see Basham, Papers on the Date, of Kaniska; Dushanbe 1968, see Staviski, Sovetskaia archkeologiia Srednd A z i i kushanskaia problema and Gafurov et. al., Kilshan Studies in U. S .S .R .; Kabul 1970, International Meeting on the Coordination of Kusn Studies and Archaeological Research in Central Asia (Afghanistan 23); Colloque franco-sovietique, L archaeologie de la Bactrianc

Debating Paints 011 Gandharan Buddhism and Kuscia History 29

ancienne; Vienna 1996, on the pre-Islamic history of the Indo-Iranian borderlands, see Alram and Klimburg-Salter, Coins, Art, and Chronology; Kansas City 2000, conference held at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, on the art and archaeology of the pre-Kuna period in Gandhara.

6 The term Gandhara was widely used .in antiquity to denote a small state that extended into the lower valleys of the Kabul and Swat rivers and, perhaps, to Taxila in the eastern Punjab. Its populace was largely Indian in custom; its language, now called Gndhri, was Prakrit (a mixture of indigenous tongues and Sanskrit). Its capital was originally Puskarvat, near present-day Charsadda.When the Kusanas conquered Gandhara they moved its capital to nearby Purusapura (present-day Peshawar), which - along with Balkh, Kapisa, and Mathura - became one ofits main bastions.

7 Fussman, Upaya-kausalya.8 Ibid.9 In present-day histories oflndia, former Central Asiatic nomadic peoples such as the Sakas,

Parthians, and Kus5iJ.;ls are genericaHy referred to as Indo-Scythians. In this context, the term Scythian does not have its more familiar meaning of nomadic tribes in the Crimea region in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, as described by Greek historians.

to Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts q f the Kushans, 215-49.I I A major Kusna seat was Balkh, capital ofancient Bactria. Located along the Amu D aya

near Mazar-e-Sharif, it has not been thoroughly excavated owing to the great depth of alluvium.

12 Meunie, Shotorak.13 Dobbins, The Stupa and Vihara o/K an iska I ; Kuwayama, The Main Stupa ofShiih-jt-ki-rjhen .14 Sharma, Buddhist Art, 47, 58-59.15 Puri, Kus ana Bibliography, 83-97; Mukheljee, Rise and Fall o f the Kusna Empire, 4IO-II.16 For Surki Kotal, see Henning, Bactrian Inscription," and Schlumberger, Su rkh Khotal en

Bactriane. For Rabatak, see Fussman, L'inscription de Rabatak, Sims-Williams and Cribb, New Bactrian Inscription, Sims-Williams, Further Notes on the Bactrian Inscription/ and Mukherjee, Development of the Iconography ofKarttikeya. For Mat, see Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts of the Kushans, and Fussman, The Mat dewifeiils. Internal administration of the empire, as best it can be reconstructed, seems to have followed Iranian models, with the widespread use of subordinate rulers called fesatrapxlS (satraps).

17 Verardi, Kusia Emperors as Cakravartins.Verardi held that the dynastic shrines at Surkh Kotal and