Gandhara

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For the Philippine municipality, see Gandara, Samar.

Gandhāra (also Ghandara, Ghandahra, Chandahara, and Persian Gandara) is the name of an ancient country in eastern Afghanistan and north-west Pakistan. Gandhara was located mainly on southern side of Kabul River. In the east, it extended beyond Indus River and included within its boundaries parts of the valley of Kashmir (Political History of Ancient India, 1996, p 151). It is sometimes identified as the antecedent of present day Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Contents

Geography

Image:GandharaFemale.JPG The Gandharas were settled since the Vedic times on the south bank of Kabul River (river Kubha or Kabol) upto its mouth into Indus itself. Later the Gandhras crossed the Indus and expanded into parts of north-west Punjab. Gandhara was located on the grand northern high road (Uttarapatha) and was a centre of international commercial activities. It was an important channel of communication with ancient Iran and Central Asia.

Pre-Alexander Gandhara

Gandhara shows an influx of southern Central Asian culture in the Bronze Age with the Gandhara grave culture, likely corresponding to immigration of Indo-Aryan speakers and the nucleus of Vedic civilization. The name of the Gandharis is attested from the Rigveda. The Gandharis, along with the Mujavantas, Angas and the Magadhas, are also mentioned in the Atharavaveda, but apparently as a despised people. Gandharas are included in the Uttarapatha division of Puranic and Buddhistic traditions. Aitareya Brahmana refers to king Naganajit of Gandhara who was contemporary of raja Janaka of Videha.

Gandharas and their king figure prominently as strong allies of the Kurus against the Pandavas in Mahabharata war. The Gandharas were a furious people, well trained in the art of war. According to Puranic traditions, this Janapada was founded by Gandhara, son of Aruddha, a descendent of Yayati. The princes of this country are said to have come from the line of Druhyu who was a famous king of Rigvedic period. The river Indus watered the lands of Gandhara. Taxila and Pushklavati, the two cities of this Mahajanapada, are said to have been named after Taksa and Pushkara, the two sons of Bharata, a prince of Ayodhya.

Image:GandharaMotherGoddess.JPG According to Vayu Purana (II.36.107), the Gandharas were destroyed by Pramiti aka Kalika, at the end of Kalyuga. Panini has mentioned both Vedic form Gandhari as well as the later form Gandhara in his Ashtadhyayi.

The Gandhara kingdom sometimes also included Kashmira (Jataka No 406). Hecataeus of Miletus (549-468) refers to Kaspapyros (Kasyapura i.e Kashmira) as Gandaric city. According to Gandhara Jataka, at one time, Gandhara formed a part of the kingdom of Kashmir. Jataka also gives another name Chandahara for Gandhara. Buddhist texts like Anguttara Nikaya refer to sixteen great nations (solas Mahajanapadas) which flourished in Indian sub-continent during Buddha's time, only two which viz. the Gandhara and the Kamboja were located in the Uttarapatha or the north-western division. The primary cities of Gandhara country were Purushpura (now Peshawar) and Takshashila (prikrit Taxila). Taxila, the capital of Gandhara, was a renowned center of learning in ancient times, where scholars from all over the world came to seek higher education. Panini, the Indian genius of grammer and Kautiliya, the Indian Machiavelli are the world renowned products of Taxila University. King Pukkusati or Pushkarasarin of Gandhara in middle of sixth century BCE was the contemporary of king Bimbisara of Magadha.

Persian rule

Gandhara (and Kamboja) soon fell a prey to the Achaemenian Dynasty of Persia during the reign of Achaemenid Cyrus I (558-530 BCE) or in the first year of Darius I. The Gandhara and Kamboja constituted the twentieth and richest satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire.

Cyrus I is said to have destroyed the famous Kamboja city, Kapisi (modern Begram) in Paropamisadae. In the eighth decade of fourth century BCE, the companions of Alexander the Great did not record the names of Kamboja and Gandhara and rather located a dozen small political units in their territories. This rules out the possibility of rise of Gandhara (and Kamboja) as great kingdoms in the second and third quarters of fourth century BCE. In 326 BC, most of these political units of the former Gandhara and Kamboja Mahajanapadas were conquered by Alexander the Great.

According to some scholars, the people of Gandhara and Kamboja were of same ethnic group.

Post-Alexander Gandhara

Image:Buddha Gandhara.jpg The Kingdom of Gandhara reached great heights between 300 BCE and 250 CE; its success was derived from its strategic location between the Roman Empire and Han China. The Indo-Greeks, descendants of Alexander the Great intermarried with the ruler's families.

The next leaders of the kingdom were the Sakas or Indo-Scythians. They were followed in the 1st century CE by the Indo-Parthians.

During this period Thomas the Apostle visited India, encountered the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares, and introduced Christianity to parts of India. Next came the Kushans, whose standard currency improved the economy; in addition, Buddhism spread rapidly, eventually entering China. The Gandharan kingdom weakened with the demise of the Romans and the Han during the 3rd century, and finally disappeared with the Indo-Hephthalites and Muslim invasions.

Language

Gandhara's language, Gāndhārī, was a collection of related Prakrit or "Middle Indo-Aryan" dialects. Gāndhārī was written right-to-left in the Kharoṣṭhī script, which was ultimately adapted from the Aramaic alphabet. At the time of its adoption, Gandhāra was controlled by the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian empire, which used a similar script to write the related Iranian languages of the Empire. This alphabet also sets Gāndhārī apart as a unique set of dialects of the Middle Indo-Aryan period; Semitic scripts were not used to write Indian languages again until the arrival of Islam and subsequent adoption of the Persian-style Arabic alphabet for New Indo-Aryan languages like Urdu, Sindhi and Kashmiri. This unique writing system died out about the 4th century, though descendants of these distinct regional dialects are still spoken today.

Image:HaddaTypes.JPG Gandhāra is also thought to be the location of the mystical Lake Dhanakosha, birthplace of Padmasambhava, founder of Tibetan Buddhism. The bKa' brgyud (Kagyu) sect of Tibetan Buddhism identifies the lake with Andan Dheri stupa, located near the tiny village of Uchh near Chakdara in the lower Swat Valley. A spring was said to flow from the base of the stupa to form the lake. Archaeologists have found the stupa but no spring or lake can be identified.

The Gandharan Buddhist texts are both the earliest Buddhist texts ever discovered and the earliest Indian manuscripts ever discovered. Most are composed on birchbark and were found in labeled clay pots.

Gandharan proselytism

Image:Lokaksema.jpg Gandharan Buddhist missionaries were active, with other monks from Central Asia, from the 2nd century CE in the Chinese capital of Loyang, and particularly distinguished themselves by their translation work. They promoted both Hinayana and Mahayana scriptures.

  • Lokaksema, a Kushan and the first to translate Mahayana scriptures into Chinese (167-186).
  • Zhi Yao (c. 185), a Kushan monk, second generation of translators after Lokaksema.
  • Zhi Qian (220-252), a Kushan monk whose grandfather had settled in China during 168-190.
  • Zhi Yueh (c.230), a Kushan monk who worked at Nanjing.
  • Dharmaraksa (265-313), a Kushan whose family had lived for generations at Dunhuang.
  • Jnanagupta (561-592), a monk and tranlator from Gandhara.
  • Shikshananda (652-710), a monk and translator from Udyana, Gandhara.
  • Prajna (c. 810). A monk and translator from Kabul, who educated the Japanese Kukai in Sanskrit texts.

See also: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Gandharan art

Gandhāra is noted for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, a consequence of the Greco-Buddhist syncretism which fused Indian influences with Hellenistic influences during the centuries following Alexander the Great's conquest of Central Asia in 334 BCE. The Gandhāran style flourished beginning in the 1st century CE under the Kushan dynasty until the invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century.

See also: Greco-Buddhist art


Female spouted figure, terracotta, Charsadda, Gandhara, 3rd-1st century BCE.

Mother Goddess (fertility divinity), derived from the Indus Valley tradition, terracotta, Sar Dheri, Gandhara, 1st century BCE.

Prince Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni (1st-2nd century).

Standing Buddha (1st-2nd century).

Buddha head (2nd century).

The Buddha Dipankara (3rd-4th century).

Buddha in acanthus capital.

The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda.

The Bodhisattva Maitreya, 2nd century.

Heracles depiction of Vajrapani as the protector of the Buddha (3rd century).

Wine-drinking and music, Hadda (1st-2nd century).

Maya's white elephant dream (2nd-3rd century).

The birth of Siddharta, (2nd-3rd century).

The Great Departure from the Palace, (2nd-3rd century).

The end of ascetism, (2nd-3rd century).

The Buddha preaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath, (2nd-3rd century).

Scene of the life of the Buddha (2nd-3rd century).

The death of the Buddha, or parinirvana (2nd-3rd century).

Head of the Buddha, Hadda, (1st-2nd century).

A sculpture from Hadda, (3rd century).

The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century).

The Buddha and Vajrapani under the guise of Herakles.

Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, northern Pakistan.

Hellenistic scene, Gandhara, 1st century CE.

Timeline

References

  • Beal, Samuel. 1884. Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang. 2 vols. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. Reprint: Delhi. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. 1969.
  • Beal, Samuel. 1911. The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by the Shaman Hwui Li, with an Introduction containing an account of the Works of I-Tsing. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. 1911. Reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi. 1973.
  • Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Edition.[1]
  • Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [2]
  • Legge, James. Trans. and ed. 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fâ-hsien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Reprint: Dover Publications, New York. 1965.
  • Watters, Thomas. 1904-5. On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India (A.D. 629-645). Reprint: Mushiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi. 1973.

See Also

Mahajanapadas, Kambojas

External link

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