GANDHARAN ART From the time of Ashoka onward, Buddhism was a powerful religion in an area that now includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India. The heartland of the Gandharan empire (first to fourth centuries at its height) centered on the tributaries of the Indus River and surrounding mountain ranges such as the Hindu Kush. The cosmopolitan character of Gandharan art reflects the breadth of the many trade routes known as the Silk Road, which extended from the Mediterranean to China. These ancient networks extended into northern India through the Hindu Kush and the Khyber Pass. The people along the Ganges River plain shared in this prosperous culture, especially in the area around Mathura. The Kushan kingdom, established by nomadic tribes from Central Asia, included both Gandharan and north-central Indian territories during the first three centuries CE. Despite the invasion of Gandhara by the Persians, which led to the decline of Buddhism there, late Gandharan art (fourth to sixth centuries) retained a multicultural character. Both architecture and sculpture on a large scale were developed in the Gandharan kingdom. Buddhist art was closely connected to the monastic character of early Buddhism. As essential destinations and sites of exchange along Silk Road trade routes, the monasteries of Gandhara also served as major sources for Buddhist texts, which pilgrims brought back to their native lands. Many great stupas were built, although few survive today. Gandhara, along with the Kushan site of Mathura in northern India, produced the earliest figural images of the Buddha, a major landmark in the history of South Asian art. In Gandhara, thanks to the various Silk Road trade routes connecting the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean with the Near East, Persia, Central Asia, India, and East Asia, a vast array of goods was exchanged across enormous distances. Classical and Persian styles were adapted to Buddhist art, producing rich, multicultural art forms. Greco-Roman sculptural features, styles of clothing, and contrapposto (S-curved) poses are evident in a number of works in the collection. At the same time, the Indian character of the figures is also expressed in other details of idealized physiognomy, religious iconography, and jewelry and costume. The “Western,” classical appearance of Gandharan art has had a particular appeal to international collectors for many decades, and endures today. Subject matter of Gandharan art includes Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, various bodhisattvas, and illustrations of the Buddha’s major life events and teachings. The head of Buddha (cat. 7) is a remarkably fine example of the blending of Mediterranean and Indic forms into a luminous whole. The work is not about human splendor or power, but about transcending earthly ties. It breathes calm, peace, and detachment from the world.
In the same way the bust of a bodhisattva (cat. 9) adapts details of Mediterranean art, such as the jewelry, which is based on classical models; fine comparative examples are found in the DMA collections. The sculptures of Padmapani (cat. 8) and Maitreya (cat. 11) express variations on the Gandharan mixture of the earthly and the transcendent. The body of Padmapani, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, has a dynamic contrapposto twist, which will be seen again in the Museum’s Thinking Bodhisattva. Maitreya is the Buddha of the future, who will ultimately fulfill the historical Buddha’s teachings and once again bring enlightenment to a degenerate world. He appears as a robust figure, seated on a lion throne to indicate his great spiritual power. Like the other bodhisattvas he wears numerous ornaments, which are a reminder of his princely origins, and his nature as a being who remains in the human world to help others. The benevolent grandeur of the seated figure suggests a being who is still in the state of a bodhisattva, but who waits for his future role as a buddha. A remarkable later vision of such a holy figure appears in the late Gandharan Thinking Bodhisattva, dating from the fourth to fifth centuries (cat. 15). As with the bust of a bodhisattva, the overall effect is strongly Indic, from the physically intense gesture of the hand placed on his forehead as he meditates, to the worldly grandeur of his appearance, all suggesting the significance and portent of the Buddha’s future life. How Gandharan artists adapted Greco-Roman narrative compositions to enrich various stories about the life of the Buddha may be seen in several relief sculptures (cats. 12–14). Such small reliefs often decorated the bases of larger sculptures or surrounded stone stupas, where worshippers might study them as they circumambulated the stupas. Reliefs show the Buddha accepting alms, in a classic monk’s begging pose, or departing his princely life. The stately realism of the scenes recalls Hellenistic narrative sculpture, as do the drapery and the details of the architecture, such as an acanthus capital, which may be compared with the DMA’s Kushan stone capital with lions from Mathura (cat. 17). Gandharan artists in particular adopted and transformed popular foreign motifs in order to express Indian Buddhist ideals. A.B.
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