The art of Gandhara

     The kingdom of Gandhara

The ancient kingdom of Gandhara was situated northwest of Northern India in an area that nowadays is part of Pakistan, centered around the Swat valley. Already in 4000 BC, this Central Asian region was strategically important, as it lay right in between the developing superpowers of India, Persia and China. The Gandhara territory formed the main crossroads of the richly connotated (but in fact ill-named) Silk Road, on which long caravans of camels carried goods to and from India, Persia and China.

     The genius of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic tradition

The history of the Gandharan kingdom starts in Macedonia - so to speak the western extremity of the Silk Road - with the birth of Alexander the Great in 356 BC. At the very young age of 18 he succeeded his father, who had died unexpectedly, to the Macedonian throne. From the very beginning, the ambitious young Alexander wanted to be the ruler of an empire at least as vast and glorious as Persia, with whom he had a big axe to grind for their earlier humiliating invasion of the Greek territory and the destruction of Athens.

In a short time, and merely 22 to 25 years old, Alexander submitted the northern Greek city-states, forming a solid base for his empire. Next to fall were the Persia, bringing him massive prestige at the age of 25, and Egypt, resulting in financial and agricultural wealth.

Alexander was 26, and blazing with selfconfidence he turned his gaze to the east: the strategically important crossroad of the Silk Road, and the northern part of India. It took him only three years to conquer these distant regions. At the age of 29 and after seven years of continuous battle and military campaign, he finally brought his army to a halt at the sacred Indus river in the north of India.

Alexander's greatest achievement was the creation of the largest empire in his days, larger than the former Persian empire, spreading over several continents (Europe, Africa and Asia), harbouring an enormous variety of cultures and peoples. Alexander came to realise that his new empire needed a strong inner coherence, which he tried to bring about by applying the ideas of Aristotle, his former personal tutor.

Aristotle believed in a Hellenisticly inspired world culture. The term Hellenistic is derived from the Greek word Hellas or 'Greece'. Hellenism thus refers to the infusion of various facets of the Greek culture into non-Greek peoples, resulting into an exotic mix of native and Greek elements.

To accomplish this goal, Alexander spread Greek culture all over his empire, and had more than 70 new Greek cities built (some 30 of which are called Alexandria), reorganised the political structures of the various regions according to the Greek models, and introduced Greek law, education, literature, philosophy, art and architecture.

The Greek sculptures (of for instance Apollo) that were on display in the Greek temples, would eventually serve as the inspiration for the Gandharans to develop their own plastic language.

In this way, the life and achievements of Alexander the Great explain the presence of Greek-inspired culture in India as early as 300 BC. After his sudden death, at the age of 33, the first great Indian empire emerged out of the political vacuum: the Mauryan empire (322 - 185 BC). Its most famous ruler, emperor Ashoka (273-232 BC), established Buddhism as the state religion.

     The spread of Buddhism

Not only trade products travelled along the Silk Road. Customs and ideas as well, with Buddhism as the most renowned example. Buddhist doctrine originated in Northern India with the awakening of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, in the sixth century BC. (See article Buddhism.) In the third century BC, Buddhist doctrine had reached the whole of Northern and Central India, as well the northern region which would later become the Gandhara kingdom, and soon spread along the Silk Road to China and Japan.

     The Hellenistic interpretation of the Buddha

The representation of a god in a human shape is rather a western custom, as can be seen with the Egyptians and the Greeks. The Indians, however, were far more inclined to consider the Buddha as a principle, not a man.

The Buddha principle implies the first principle or emptiness (the lack of substance in the phenomenal world and the self) and nirvana (the escape from the cycle of rebirth in this world of suffering) and was infinitely more important than the person of the historical Buddha himself. Hence it seemed rather unlogical or even impossible to depict the Buddha, unless merely as a symbol, like a wheel (the symbol of the doctrine) or a deer on top of a pillar.

When confronted with the new Greek fashion of antropomorhic Apollo sculptures that Alexander the Great introduced, a shocked reaction is the least that could have been expected with the Indian viewer. Indeed, it would not be far-fetched to presume some degree of outrage against these rather naive and even 'sacrilegious' acts of representing divine principles in a human shape.

This initial puzzlement and rejection would help to explain the somewhat 'late' occurence of the first Buddha sculptures, no less than 300 years after Alexander's passing through the area (ca 320 BC). It was exactly in the Gandharan kingdom that this innovation finally took hold, in the first century AD, making Gandara art the first one to make sculptures of the Buddha as a man.

(It is possible that 'humanised' Buddhist sculptures appeared simultaneously in the Indian Andrah period a little earlier then 180 AD by the well known Amaravati school of sculpture).

     Gandhara Art, the Graeco-Buddhist style

In terms of style, contemporary scholars commonly describe Gandhara art as 'Graeco-Buddhist', referring to a mixture of alien and native stylistic and conceptual elements.

The Graeco or Hellenistic input consists of
- the antropomorphication of the Buddha: representing the spiritual guideline in a human shape.
- the strong resemblance with the Greek style, in for instance the fluidity of garment and posture;
- the stern facial features with a divine radiance.

The Buddhist or Indian input refers to
- the content: Buddhist subjects and symbolism;
- the humanity of the appearance: there is definitely a human touch to Gandharan sculpture, even in divine subjects: a Buddha is always dressed in a simple, nearly transparant tunic under which a slightly corpulent body is concealed; this more-human-then-divine feature, that was unimaginable for idealised Greek gods, became possible with a compassionate Buddhist approach;
- the sensuous look that would become archetypical for all later Indian art.


     The importance of Gandhara art

Gandhara art is classical, in the sense of eternally beautiful. Although orginally a derivative from Greek art, it is a powerful, independent and refined artistic expression.
Apart from their Gandharan success, certain Hellenistic features had a considerable influence in the fourth to fifth century AD on the Buddhist sculptural tradition of the Gupta, (the most eminent Indian art style ever), that in the sixth to tenth century AD, passed some of its Hellenistic elements on to the Buddhist sculpture of India, Thailand, Cambodia, China and Japan.

This means that, without Alexander the Great, oriental Buddhist sculpture would have been totally different, if it had existed at all. This is what makes Gandhara art immensely important. It is the pivotal art between the west and the east, between antiquity and medieval times. No other art fuses western and eastern sculptural traditions in such a degree. As such, it is unique and - unfortunately - very rare.

     Gandhara art today

The torso's that remain of the Gandhara sculptures were never intended to be mere torsos. Originally they were full-bodied representations of the Buddha. Nonetheless, the fragmentary nature need not be thought of as a pity. Indeed, these works of art have by now become independent, even more focused expressions of the sensuality and grace of Gandhara art.

In their fragmentary character, the sculptures have become much more abstract than originally meant. The original, descriptive depiction of a torso has become an abstract play of waving lines and bodily curves. Isolated within the setting of a modern interior, these contemporary abstractions of Gandhara art never cease to exert their marvellous effect.

Bibliography
- Alexander of Macedonia, 356-323BC - A Historical Biography by Peter Green; University of California Press, 1991, ISBN 0-520-07165-4
- L'Art du Gandhara by Mario Bussagli; Le Livre de Poche 1984 and 1996, ISBN2-253-13055-9
-The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity by John Boardman; Thames and Hudson, 1994, ISBN 0-500-23696-8
- A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum by W. Zwalf, 2 vol, The British Museum Press, 1996, ISBN 0-7141-1433-2