Gandhara : the kingdom of Gāndhāra straddled the river Indus. To the west of the river lay its constituency of Pushkalāvatī or Purūshapūra, abode of the Purusha. On the east of Indus was the realm of its capital Takshashilā (currently under the Bhir Mound near Saraikala, 20 miles NW of Rawalpindi). Mehrgarh, located in this region & part of the Indus Valley civilization, was, at one time, the oldest township in the world (8000 BC) excavated by archaeologists. Takshashilā was founded, according to Rāmāyana, by Rāma’s brother Bharata, & named after his son, Taksha, its first ruler. Tradition affirms, that the Mahābhārata was first recited in this city. During the Mahābhārata period, Gāndhāra was culturally & politically closely linked to India; & exchanges between the royal families of Gāndhāra & Hastināpūra were well established & intense. The natives of Gāndhāra, the Gāndharvas, are described in the Vedas as cosmic beings. They are spoken of in the Saṁhitās & later literature, such as Nāṭya Shāstra, as a jāti (race) that raised the art of music to the greatest height & refer to it as gāndharva. This made Gāndhāra a great confluence of the musical traditions of the East & the Mediterranean. ― Bharat Gupt: “The very art, thus, came to be known by the name of the region & was so called by it even in the heartland of India. This name, gāndharva, continued to be used for music for centuries to come. In the Vāyu Purana one of the nine divisions of Bhāratavarsha is called Gāndharva.” Besides early references in the Vedas, Ramayana & Mahābhārata, Gāndhāra was the locus of ancient Indian-Persian interaction of trade & culture. Gāndhāra territory was part of the regions invaded in the 6th cent. B.C. by Cyrus (c.558-530), the founder of the Achaemenian empire of Persia & began to appear prominently among the subject nations in the early inscriptions of Darius I (522-486 BC) the most illustrious among the successors of Cyrus.” The earliest epigraphic record of Indi-Persian relations is believed to be the Behistun inscription executed by the orders of the Persian Emperor Darius I which mentions the people of Gāndhāra as his subjects. Darius’s inscriptions at Hamādān, Persepolis, & Naqshi-i-Rūstum also mention this same fact. [C.H.I.–I, pp. 334-36; Sen, Old Persian Inscriptions] Greek historians who accompanied Alexander described Takshashilā as wealthy, prosperous, & well governed &, as conquerors had to rename it Taxila. Apart from early Sanskrit literature Purūshapūra is mentioned in the writings of the Greek classical historians Strabo & Arrian, & Ptolemy. Chandragupta Maurya’s grandson Ashoka’s introduction of Buddhism into Gāndhāra developed it into a major Buddhist intellectual hub for centuries with Bamiyan (whose giant Buddhist statues were destroyed by the Taliban) becoming one of its important Buddhist cities. For three generations Takshashilā was a provincial capital of the Maurya Empire. Buddhist literature, especially the Jātakas, mentions it as a great centre of learning. Even a thousand years after Buddha, Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Fa-hsien described it as a thriving centre of Buddhism. It was a major Buddhist intellectual hub for centuries. Thousands of statues & stūpas once dominated its landscape. By the time Hiuen-Tsang visited from China, Takshashilā had been destroyed by the Kushāns; & in the 1st century, Kushān emperor Kanishka I made Purūshapūra his capital. The empire of Kanishka I & his successors were acknowledged as one of the four great Eurasian powers of their time, the others being China, Rome, & Parthia). The Kushāns further spread Buddhism to Central Asia & China, & developed Mahāyāna Buddhism & the Gāndhāra & Mathura Schools of art. The Kushāns became affluent through trade, particularly with exports to Rome. Their coins & art are witness to the tolerance & syncretism in religion & art that prevailed in the region. The Gāndhāra School incorporated many motifs from classical Roman art, but the basic iconography remained Indian. Gāndhāra & Sindh were considered parts of India since ancient times, as historian André Wink explains: “From ancient times both Makran & Sindh had been regarded as belonging to India [which] definitely did extend beyond the present provinces of Sindh & Makran, the whole of Baluchistan, part of Punjab, & the North-West Frontier Province.” The worship of Shiva as the Lord of Himalayas, the cosmic pivot, in Gāndhāra & its neighbouring countries, represented a prominent background to classical Shaivism. Wink writes: “…Quandhāra... was the religious centre of the kingdom where the cult of the Shaivite god Zun was performed on a hilltop…” ─ “…the god Zun or Zhun ’s… shrine lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain, & still existing in the later ninth century… famous as a pilgrimage centre devoted to Zun. In China, this god’s temple became known as the temple of Su-na… worship of Zun might be related to that of the old shrine of the sun-god Āditya at Multan. In any case, the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian.” – “[A] connection of Gāndhāra with Shiva & Dūrga is now well-established. The pre-eminent character of Zun or Sun was that of a mountain god; a connection with mountains also predominates in the composite religious configuration of Shiva....” ― “Gāndhāra fell under Arab rule in the 7th century. Purūshapūra was captured by the Muslims in 988 AD. In the 10th century Gāndhāra came under the rule of the Ghaznavids. It was destroyed by Genghis Khan, then by the Turkic conqueror Timur, & then by their direct descendent Babur who built 40 giant steps up a hill, cut out of the solid limestone, leading to inscriptions recording details of his holy conquests. His grandson Akbar disinfected Purūshapūra by renaming it Peshawar. Scholars & the media seem afraid to assert that the soil of Afghanistan is historically sacred to Buddhists & Hindus, in the same manner as Jerusalem is to Jews & the Kaaba is to Muslims. Today’s infamous Bamiyan caves were once home to thousands of Buddhist monks & Hindu Rishis, who did their meditation & attained enlightenment there.” [Based mainly on “How ‘Gāndhāra’ became ‘Quandhāra’ by Rajiv Malhotra, Infinity Foundation From: website rajibmalhotra.com. Mr Malhotra quotes: Bharat Gupt, “Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian – A Study of Poetics & Nātyashāstra”, D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd., New Delhi, India, 19941, pp. 21-23; André Wink, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World; Volume I – Early Medieval India & the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries, OUP, New Delhi 1999, p.144-46; John Marshall, Taxila, 3 vol. (1951, 1975); Radha Kumud Mookerjii, Ancient Indian Education. 4th ed. (1969); Malhotra adds: “For a general study of Taxila as an ancient city, see Stuart Piggott, Some Cities of Ancient India (1945); B.N. Puri, Cities of Ancient India (1966); Ahmad Hasan Dani, The Historic City of Taxila (1986); & Saifur Rahman Dar, Taxila and the Western World (1984); Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1993, Vol. 11, pp. 585-586; Vol. 9, p. 321; Vol. 6, pp. 710-711; Vol. 21, p.41, Students’ Britannica India, Vol. 2, pp. 137-138. Vol. 5, p. 121-123”; also S. Bhattacharya; R.C. Majumdar et al, Advanced History of India: 54, 61, 62, 93-94, 95-96]
... about whom he wrote at some length in 1971. 8 Their remains at Swat (West Pakistan) were first reported by C.S. Antonini in 1963 and afterwards in the Gandhara plain by A.H. Dani in 1967. As all the sites were cemeteries, Dani coined the label "Gandhara Grave Culture". The Swat material starts in "the 7. Prehistoric India (A Pelican Book, Harmondsworth 1960), p. 198. 8. The... over and above that of the cow, which can create the presumption of Aryanism for the Gandhara Grave Culture. But the horse should hardly come as the sign of an Aryan invasion from outside India unless one could prove the utter absence of this animal in the Indian subcontinent before the period into which the Gandhara 9. Ib i d., p. 127. Page 464 Grave Culture fits. As the... first quarter of the second millennium B.C.", while the Gandharan dates from "the late second millennium", and both continue down to the sixth or fifth century B.C. Fairservis comments: "The Gandhara Grave Culture is a good candidate for a representative of the 'Aryans.' Horses, horse furniture, contacts with Inner Asia [Tepe Hissar TIB], suggestion of high capability in metallurgy, etc., plus ...
... region of Gandhara and then forsaken in a deserted place, will grope breathlessly towards the north or towards the south, because he has been led away with bandaged eyes and has been left in an uninhabited place. 2. 'But thereafter somebody had removed the bandage from him and said to him: 'there lie the Gandhara regions beyond; go thither from here.' He reaches home in the Gandhara region, inquiring ...
... Walter Fairservis, Jr.'s case for the Gandhara Grave Culture: archaeological and literary 7-8 Everything hinges on the presence of the horse: did the Harappā Culture (2500-1500 B.C.) know the domesticated horse? 8 The Horse bones of Harappān Surkotada 9 The kind of invasion, if at all, by the Gandhara Grave Culture 9-10 ...
... region of Gandhara and then forsaken in a deserted place, will grope breathlessly towards the north or towards the south, because he has been led away with bandaged eyes and has been left in an uninhabited place. "But thereafter somebody had removed the bandage from him and said to him: 'There lie the Gandhara regions beyond; go thither from here.' He reaches home in the Gandhara region ...
... Dani in 1967. As all the sites were cemeteries, Dani coined the label "Gandhara Grave Culture". The Swat material starts in "the first quarter of the second millennium B.C.", while the Gandhāran dates from "the late second millennium", and both continue down to the sixth or fifth century B.C. Fairservis comments: "The Gandhara Grave Culture is a good candidate for a representative of the 'Aryans ...
... kind we want exists in Sanskrit literature, and some scholars believe it to be a purely Greek formation on the analogy of the Greek name for the people of the north-western frontier country of Gandhara: Gandarai, Gandarioi, Gandaridai -the last variant even stealing into Diodorus to do duty for "Gangaridai". But the Classical writers unmistakably tell us that Alexander received the name from ... Gāngāi or Gāngāe, even Gangidai, Gangidae or Gangides, but never Gangaridai or any equivalent of it. In Classical writers, as we have noted - and they include Ptolemy - we hear of the people of Gandhara called Gandarai, Gandarioi, Gandarae or Gandaridai as well as Gandaridae. The two last forms are very similar to what we are discussing, but quite legitimate because the ar-sound occurs in Gandaritis ...
... AUROBINDO: It seems to be post-Ajanta decorative style. Lion stylised, peacock in front of the lion, Kartik humorous. EVENING PURANI: Gandhara art is supposed to be a mixture of Greek and Indian art. More of Greek influence than Indian. SRI AUROBINDO: What Gandhara representations I have seen seem to me to be spoiled by Central Asian influence and then bungled by Indian. It is more Central Asian ...
... been until modern times its vulnerability through the north-western passes. This weakness did not exist so long as ancient India extended northward far beyond the Indus and the powerful kingdoms of Gandhara and Vahlika presented a firm bulwark against foreign invasion. But they had now gone down before the organised Persian empire and from this time forward the trans-Indus countries, ceasing to be part ...
... influence. SRI AUROBINDO: What proof is there? It may be that they have shaken off the Greek influence and taken up a new line. Greek art had Egyptian influence, so why not Indian art? PURANI: Gandhara art may be Greek. SRI AUROBINDO: No, it is mixed. No scholar claims it to be pure Greek art. ...
... e & Krishna to impose an empire on them? It is a significant fact that the Southern and Western peoples went almost solid for Duryodhana in this quarrel—Madra, the Deccan, Avanti, Sindhu Sauvira, Gandhara, in one long line from southern Mysore to northern Candahar; the Aryan colonies in the yet half civilised regions of the Lower valley of the Ganges espoused the same cause. The Eastern nations, heirs ...
... an European writer will almost always fix for praise precisely on those Indian sculptures which are farthest away from the Indian tradition,—as for instance the somewhat vulgar productions of the Gandhara or bastard Graeco-Indian school or certain statues which come nearest to a faithful imitation of natural forms but are void of inspiration and profound suggestion. Recently, however, the efforts ...
... but hardly judicial and certainly not judicious statement that "the Deccan like the North was inspired by the Greek and Roman arts and the marbles of Amaravati can be compared to the sculptures of Gandhara". The plain fact is that whatever outside influences there may or may not have been in India as elsewhere, even the earliest work shows a characteristic Indian mentality and touch; and, as for Gandharan ...
... Erānvej, 12 Evaya Marut, 45 Eurafrican, 19 Fairservis, Jr., Walter, 7, 8, 10, 52, 53, 60, 69 Fleure, H.J., 58 Finnish scholar(s), 50, 51 Forts, iv Gandhara Grave Culture, 7-10 Gangetic valley, 5 Gangoly, A.C., 118 Gathas, Gāthic, 2, 32, 84, 90-91, 93 Gaul, 18 Geldner, 103 Geography, Strabo's, 86 ...
... and Bolan passes were the route taken by almost all the invaders to India. This weakness did not exist so long as ancient India extended northward far beyond the Indus, and the powerful kingdoms of Gandhara and Vahlika presented a firm bulwark against foreign invasion. But once they had gone down before the organised Persian Empire, the trans-Indus countries, ceasing to be part of India, ceased also ...
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