aldrovandi hirata budism pax kushana gandharan iconography antiquity 2006

8/16/2019 Aldrovandi Hirata Budism Pax Kushana Gandharan Iconography Antiquity 2006

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Buddhism, Pax Kushana and

Greco-Roman motifs: pattern and

purpose

in

G andharan iconography

CibeleAIdrovandi*^ Elaine Hirata*

The authors show how the G andharan art of early

irst

millennium Afghanistan used reek and

Roman motifs to give an international context to Buddhist sculpture and reduce tension at hom

and with the neighbours.

Keywords: Cj-A.nd,h:iTA, Greco-Roman Parrerns, Buddhism, iconography, Kushan

Introduction

/ see the shadows w hich show that the sun must have distorted local colou

I saw the lackeys announce the king, but I do not see the sun, I do not see the king

Paul Gauguin, 1900

The present Afghan

and

Pakistan landscape

of

Ga nd hara , largely devastated

by

recurren

wars, would hardly be seen by mo dern readers as a quiet, peaceful and prospe rous regio

inhabited by pious Buddhist motiks and laity. Nevertheless, as we go back two millennia In

tim e, archaeological remains from the up per Ind us valley, nowadays nor th Pakistan and from

the eastern parts of Afghanistan, have show n it to be a crossroad of cultures. O ver man

centuries trade routes spread throughout the Ga ndh aran valleys, and m erch ant caravan

connected the Med iterranean lands w ith the farthest regions of East Asia and the India

sub co ntin ent (Allchin 1 995). Th is created a highly pop ulated and diverse

milieu,

a political

and economically significant locus prone to man y external influences.

Although chronologies still remain under dispute, this strategically located region that

had formerly been an Achaem enid satrapy was subjected to M auryan rule during th

fourth century BC, becoming the India n n orth-w est frontier. T he n followed the Greco

Bactrian dynasties, which remained about one hun dred years, and were defeated by th

Sakas (Scythians) and the Parthians around the beginning of the first century BC . D uri

the first century AD, the Kushans (Yueh-chi) from the Chinese north-west region arrived i

Bactria and then in Gand hara , and there reigned for man y centuries, con trolling its econ om ic

netw ork a nd political system. At the time R om e rivalled Pa rthian an d later Sasanian em pires

for supremacy over trading routes, while maintaining diplomatic contacts with the Kushan

and Han dynasties. Therefore, Gandharan Buddhist iconography emerged

in

very specif

'

M useum ofArchaeology and Ethnology, University of Sao

Paulo, Brazil.


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ibele Aldrovan di Elaine Hirata

historical circumstances, conditioned by current social and political pressures (Tissot 1985;

Zwalf 1996). The artistic repertoire of this ritual landscape should be capable of revealing a

discourse which served the political as well as religious strategies of their patrons.

It has already been suggested tha t political conflict can be reduc ed by religion and ritual,

which are observable in the archaeological record (Hodder 1979: 450-2). Religion may

provide a neutral context for cross-cultural exchange, a me chanism for ensu ring acceptance

and reducing conflict between the individual and society (Ra ppa port 197 1: 26 ). As later

mentioned by Morris (1987: 42), 'changes in the form of material symbols by which social

groups define themselves might be the results of pressures on the group, or the desire to emulate

another group. As pressures within the group grow, an increase in the scale of consumption in

terms of the given symbo lic order is

expected

as pressures from outside build

up,

material symbols

may be

changed

to

preserve

boundaries, in what

has been called by

Hodd er (1982: 191-4) a

style

war\

During the Mauryan empire, and since the days of Ashokan rule, Gandhara has been

connected with Buddhism. Contacts between Mauryas and Hellenistic monarchs on official

levels might have been entrusted to Buddhist monks (Schopen 1988-9: 156-7; Karttunen

1997;

266). After the fall of tbis dynasty, the region was dominated by Bactrian-Greeks

who opposed and defeated the Shunga rulers of Brahmanic origin. As noted by Tarn

(1951:

176),

altho ug h there was no t a .sto^^o/w rtr between Bu ddh ists a nd Br ahm anis ts, it is possible

that a good level of tension arose from religious and political grounds. How was Buddhism

able to prosper and disseminate its beliefs throughout Gandhara and other regions in the

following centuries? When the outcaste Kushans - or mlecha as Brahmins would name all

foreigners (Auboyer 19 61 : 50) - arrived in G and hara , it seems possible that their relation

might have been more easily settled with Buddhism, since it had no concern with caste

system as Brahmanism. Would it be possible then to speak of a

Pax Kushana

related to

the Buddhist religious system in Gandhara? Having secured power in the realm, Kushan

kings adopted Buddhism and realised the propaganda value of imagery, both political and

religious (Boardm an 1994: 144). Such a cultic propaganda was effected in a systema tic

fashion (Basham 198 1; 30): on the one han d, reinforcing the proselytising power of the

message they conveyed (Bueno 2002: 123), and on the other, assimilating individuals from

originally diverse populations in a single society. Visual representations, which were publicly

disseminated, helped extend Buddhist ideals throughout the imperial region and beyond,

possibly referring to the religious resistance pointed out by Eisner (1997: 195). We might

be able to consider that in Gandhara, spiritual and political authorities directed a common

iconographic discourse to a heterogeneous pop ulation. Kushan rulers fomented Ga ndhara n

art as a means of perpet uatin g and increasing their political frontiers until the tim e that they

were overcome by the Hcphthalite (Hsiung-nu) forces {c. AD 460) .

The Gandharan survey

Buddhist art from the Gandharan region consists of a vast number of cult images and


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Buddhism, V A - K .

Kiishana

and Greco-Roman motifi

cultic reliefs, and decorative reliets. In some cases they could be considered actual portraits

of daily life, reflecting society in the north -w est region of India (A uboycr 19 61 ; Tiss ot

1985).

Ever since Gandharan art was first studied, Greco-Roman influence has been put forward

as its major distinguishing element. More than a century ago, western scholars determined

a Greek origin tor the Buddha image (Foucher 1913) and along with it observed various

elements of the Greek styh.stic repertoire. Lohuizcn-de Lceuw( 949, 1979: 377) pointed out

that Foucher, the first to present this view, belonged to a generation that intensely admired the

Heilenised aspect of he art. The western patterns found in this art style appeased European

scholars, who were able to recognise Jamiliar features in the astonishing and at the same tim

fearful I?idian Art . Indian scholars, however, were sceptical about this interpretation of th

Buddha origin (Gooniaraswamy 1927) and later showed it to be to be misleading. Recent

decades have witnessed a buddhological, historical and archaeological revision, whose aim

was to unde rstan d the ways by which rhe study ofth is specific iconogra phy has been so largely

misinterpreted {Huntington 1985, 1990). Understanding specific aspects of social, political

and ideological systems that underlie G an dha ran society and its art is certainly a m ore

complex matter than initially supposed by

researchers. Although hybrid features were

verified, the resulting Gandharan icono-

graphic system has to be understood by its

own unique character: as an iconic gram-

mar of representations with cultural mean-

ing, and not through a framework based

in ethnocentric scntimentalism (Geertz

1983: 121-3, 150). If earlier hellenocen-

trie views claimed a strong influence of

(ireco-Roman art in the Gandharan school,

•^ and consid ered it an inferior bran ch of

Hellenistic art, recent studies have shown

that it is necessary to undertake rigorous

analysis, looking at societies though their

own agency, since interaction processes do

not occur in one direction alone, as pre-

viously considered, but consist of multiple

and complex networks of cross-cultural

exchange. The assimilation of foreign

elements in the Buddhist repertoire would

probably be the result of responses to evolv-

ing religious, political and social forces

Figure I Giitya wmdow depietmgthelitrth ofSiddhanha. ^- 'ven th is f ram ew ork of analysis we w

Great

Renunciation

and Great

Departure notice

the

l ike to exam ine the ex ten t t o w h ich G

acanthus

leaves .

Gandhara,

Pakistan. Kushanperiod

Grey Ro m an pa t t e rn s o f r ep res en ta t ion ,


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Cibele Aldrovandi Elaine Hirata

Figure 2. Relief showing the Maravijaya, Victory over Mum (notice the remmns of a Corinthian capital). Gandharan

region. Kushan

period

Schist. Ht.c.4 1/2 in. Peshawar Museum.

Peshawar

Photo (c) John C . Huntingtori. Courtesy o f The

Huntingtiin Archive of Buddhist and RehtU d

Aris.

Methodology

A number of problems face scholars dealing with (iandharan iconography. Mosc of the

museums collections consist of pieces with very little information, or even tione, regarding

their provenance and chronology. The surviving sites are often ruined and the sculptural

material was rarely found in its original position. The collections were also probably biased

by the choices made during excavations. This material was frequently removed from its

original context without any of the relevant archaeological data (Allchin 1995: 3-9; Zwalf

1996: 20,67). Among the exceptions are the Taxila (Marshall 1951) and Rutkara (Faccenna

1980) excav ations. Mo st of the research develo ped so far has been based o n stylistic aspects of

the iconography, which in some cases were used to establish relative chronologies. Although

some interesting inc ursions have been m ade in the Held of history of art (Sha piro 1994), we

shall not discuss them here, histead, we chose a different method, one that could provide

scholars with complementary information regarding the available framework of analysis,

that is, a quantitative approach. Although quantitative methods have become increasingly

important in archaeology in recent years, they have not been so common to art historians

as a tool for studying iconography. Archaeologists, on the other hand, are well aware of the

problem s faced in qua ntitative analysis, since it has become clear that techniqu es used durin g

quantification will inevitably have an effect on the results obtained and on the conclusions

drawn from them (Shennan 1988; Drennan 1996). Considering the amount of available

information regarding the Cireco-Roman patterns in Gandharan iconography, we developed

a me thod ology that, as we shall see, is based on a qua ntitative survey of muse um collections.


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Buddhism,Vzy. Kushana and Greco-Roman motifs

The material for study consisted initially of all the .sculptiire from the Gandharan region

that could be recovered from museum collections in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Europe

and the USA, a total of 1439 pieces. The first stage established categories to describe the

objects. During the design of the database, variables that were considered relevant for further

analysis were defined. After detailed description of all sculptures, reliefs and architectonic

elements, the analysis of iconographic patterns was narrowed to the Narrative Reliefs. This

choice required an extensive research conducted on the biography of the Buddha, and

all life events that were present in the database were studied and organised, allowing the

interpretation of a number of unidentified scenes. The narrative reliefs in the database

assemblage included 552 pieces and were all described in detail; each one of these pieces

contain ed one or m ore narrative scenes. T he total assemblage of narrative scenes consisted of

766 representations of events in the life of Buddha and other scenes, among which 483 have

been identified. After description and identification, tbe Narrative Reliefs assemblage was

organised in seven narrative cycles. 1 bis enabled us to verify the number of occurrences in

each cycle, an d stu dy the relative quan tities of each specific scene from Bud dha s bio graph y.

As stated by Boardm an (199 4; 1997 ), the co ntin uin g and stable character of Indian art

provided adequate ground for the borrowing of classical motifs, especially of Greco-Roman

elements w hich w ere assimilated and adapted by local traditions , losing along the way direct

contact with the original Hellenistic source. In a general explanation provided earlier by

Tarn (1951: 378), almost all borrowings from the Greeks were rather a matter of external

form., but very rarely of substance.

One of the difficulties in the organisation and description of the database assemblage was

the objective identification of foreign and, more specifically, Greco-Roman patterns in the

Gandharan iconographic repertoire. This has been a controversial matter since the beginning

of its study, and has not so far reached any acceptable solution among scholars. In this

research we have taken into account all possible Greco-Roman patterns studied by scholars,

regardless of their controversial origins, in order to observe how their frequencies behave

in relation to each other. The patterns that were chosen to be quantified were: 1.

Corinthian

Capital;

2 .

Eros-Amorino;

3 .

Acanthus leaves;

4 .

Vines;

5 .

Palmette;

6 .

Ichthyocentaur

7. Triton;

8.

Atlas; 9. Tutelary Couple;

10.

Cornucopy;

11 .

Costume;

12.

Mourning Scene

and 13. Others.

Among the controversially interpreted motifs, items 6 and 7 are most problematic (Tissot

1985: 65; Das Gup ta 1991 : 6; Boardman 1994: 136-7; Zwalf 1996: 56}.

Costume

is

another controversial element directly related to stylistic interpretations (Boardman 1994:

126-127, 317) . Mourning Scene patterns received little attention on former studies. These

representation s, depicted in the Buddha s Mahaparinirvana and related narrative reliefs,

show figures in m ou rnin g postures and a possible conn ection to a Greco-^Roman origin was

considered dur ing discussions held in tbe course of this study, as the iconog raphic display of

lament might have been related to the representation

o prothesis

presented mainly in Greek

vase paintings. They had become recurrent during Greek Geometric and later periods; it

seems possible that this motif might have appeared for the first time in Gandharan region,


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Cihele Aldrovandi

d

Elaine Hirata

Table 1. O ccurrences of Greco-R oman patterns in the

overall database and Narrative Reliefs assemblages

Greco-Roman patterns

Corinthian capital

Hros-Amorino

Achanrus leaves

Vines

Pal me tre

Ichthyoccntaur

Triton

Atlas

Tutelary couple-

Co rnucopy

Costume

Mourning scene

Others

Total

D B

309

113

80

30

12

12

5

37

7

6

1

18

18

648

NR

212

48

57

13

1

10

0

2

0

0

1

18

6

368

In the data bas e, a specif ic f ie ld was designe d to ind icate w hich G re co -R om an pat tern s

were present in each p iece, to tal led in Table 1 .

Results

The Greco-Roman patterns of representation observed both in the overall database and

Narrative Reliefs assemblages were then verified and their freqtiencies arranged in histograms

to visualise the da ta (Figure 3 ).

aking accoun t ofthese partial n um bers , we wete able to arrive

at the following results: among the total database assemblage of 1439 pieces there are 648

Greco-Roman elements. Since more than one element can occur in a piece, we have found

a total of 481 pieces which have at least one of these patterns. This means that 33.4 per cent

of the pieces in the database assemblage show at least one Greco-Roman element. An index

of 33.4 pet cent could be considered a significant quantity of Greco-Roman presence among

the total database assemblage. On the other hand, this percentage increases significantly for

the Narrative Reliefs dataset. Among 552 narrative reliefs, the Greco-Roman patterns occur

368 times. In this assemblage there are a total number of 270 reliefs containing at least one

ofthese elements. This means that 48.9 per cent of the assemblage present these elements.

When compared to the frequencies shown in the database assemblage (Figure 4), the

higher occurrences found in the Narrative Reliefs assemblage (Figure 5) could possibly

indicate a significant presence of Greco-R om an pattern s in this category of material culture .

It calls attention to the fact that it is probably in the narrative reliefs that the incorporation

of Greco-Roman patterns of representation is most clearly observed.

Observing each occurrence of the Gteco-Roman patterns, as seen in Figures 4 and 5,

we find three main typologies appearing most ftequently: Corinthian eapitals are among


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Budc/hism.Pax

Kushana

tm d Greco Roniiin motifs

QUANTIFICATION

350

3 0 0

O Corinthian Capital

• Eros Am orino

D Acanthus leaves

G G rapevine

• Palmette

Dlchthyocentaur

a Triton

D Atlas

•Tute lary Pai r

n Co rn u co p y

D Mourning Scene

D Costume

• Others

atabase

Narra tive reHefs

/-/(jifjv 3. Histogrtim of (irno-Roiiiiui pattam otcurrcnces in the clatahiue and Nivnitii e Reliep iinoiMages.

pattern. Among the less represented iconographic elements are:

Vine

pattern s 5 per cent and

4 per cent respectively; Palmette patterns 2 per cent and 0 per cent; khthyocentaurs occur as

2 per cent and 3 per cent and Tritons as per cent and 0 per cent; Atlas figures as 6 per cen

and 1 perc ent;

lutelary

Couple AppcuvAS

per cent of the sctilpttires; CV^m ^o/*]'comprise

also 1 per cent of the total assemblage; Costume is not represented; and Mourning Scenes

com prise 3 per cent and 5 per cen t of the assem blages.

is ussion

Th rou gh the developm ent of a quan titative appro ach, we have tried to evaluate some aspects

of C.ireco-Roman pattern frequencies in Gan dha ran sculp ture. Although it should have been

an essential aspect of this research to show variations of these pattern frequencies in time

and place and explain them contextually, this more refined study is limited by the data.

Even though some pieces in the assemblage have information concerning provenance, these

are quite rare and not always reliable, and the chronology is still more elusive. In this

study, we abstained from using relative chronologies, based on stylistic analysis, to avoid the

reinforcement of unreliable assumptions. On the other hand, if researchers working with

iconog raphic representations have mo re precise data concern ing these variables, it may yield


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ibele

Aldrovandi Elaine Hirata

Database Percentages

Cornucopy 1 % Mourning Scene Costume 0%

3%

Tutelary Pair 1 % ^ • Others 3%

Alias G


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sfnJ\ix Ktishana iiti^ Creco Rofriayi rnotifi

Narrative Reliefs Percentages

Comucopy 0 Mourning Scene costume 0

\ 5

Tutelary Pair 0 .., Others 2

Atlas 1

Triton 0

Ichthyocentaur

3

Palmette 0

Grapevine 4

Acanthus leaves

15

Eros-Amorino

13

Corinthian Capital

57

higiire 5. Percentages of Cireco Ronmn patterns in the Narraiive Reliefs assemhUge.

that is, once it became canonical, ics recurrence in the marerial record most probably

reflected a prior social acceptance and understanding. These recognisable and recurrent

foreign patterns possibly migh t also have caught the atten tion of prospective devotees - either

from the elite or lower classes - and eased visual links to the B udd hist fund am enta l discou rse.

It is possible that the well known Gandharan emphasis on narrative reliefs depicting the

life of Bu ddha (Boardm an 1994 : 1 29, 3 1 8), which as have been shown were depicted with

recurrent Greco-Roman decorative patterns, might actually have been directed specifically

to foreign potential devotees, while reconciling tensions within the Kushan state. Far from

early primitive Buddhism, this more elaborate religion provided a silent iconographieal

peace making.

Visual strategies created sufficient homeostasis to allow what might b

called a

Pax Kushana.

Buddhism would in this way reinforce the integration of society

using common recognisable patterns, and avoiding inner ethnical conflicts. By assimilating

widespread foreign patterns, Buddhism would develop an iconographic repertoire that

could be understood by other cultures, assuring that its ideals would reach further Asian

and Western regions.

Considering the absence of detailed data as a major problem for the development of

interpretations in this study, we have not attempted an exhaustive examination, but we tried

to delineate a suggestive one. We have shown how a quatititative analysis of iconographic


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Cibele Aldrovandi ELiirie Hirata

Acknowledgements

The authors would l ike

to

express their gra titud e

to

Professors JoKn C

and

Susan

[..

Hunt i ng t on ,

at the

Huntington Archive

of

Buddhist

and

Related Arts - Ohio State University,

USA;

to

Professors

A

Bueno

and

I,, Viegas for valuable insights and en cou rage me nt; an d also to the editor and referees whose pertin ent suggestions

are deeply appreciated. This research was supported

by

FAPESP

-

Funda^ao

de

Amparo

i

Pesquisa do Estado

de Sao Paulo.

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