Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

Taxila was probably one of many cities in the Mauryan
Empire which received from Asoka a share of holy
relics, and that Dharmarajika was the original stupa
erected by him to house that share. The stupa at Taxila is
not only the biggest, but also the oldest, and if Asoka
built one at Taxila, it is most likely to be this one (figs.
17.4-17.5). However, there are only tangible indications
that there were any monuments of Asoka at all at Taxila,
and very few indications of monuments that can be
clearly defined and recognised as Mauryan. The majority
of the Buddhist monuments are not found within the city
walls but in quiet and retired spots some distance outside
them. The diameter of the Dharmarajika stupa is 150 ft,
and the present height of the ruin is 45 ft. No part of the
surviving stupa can clearly be dated to the Mauryan
period. However, that does not mean that the lower parts
or the foundation cannot be dated to this period, but it is
impossible to say if it is built in the first, second, or third
century BCE. What is sure is that it cannot be older than
Asoka, and it cannot be later than the middle half of the
first century BCE, because it was in this century a series
of small stupas were erected in a ring around the main
edifice, and this would not have been possible unless the
Dharmarajika had already been made (Marshall
1951a:235-236). The Great Stupa was rebuilt in the first
century CE, and a subsequent building phase took place
from the fourth to the fifth century CE (ibid:239).
Although Buddha himself never visited Taxila, the place
became a great centre of Buddhist learning and teaching,
and the Taxila and Gandhara regions became
predominantly Buddhist during and after the reign of
Asoka in the third century BCE (Dar 1984:12, 43). In the
latter part of the first century BC monuments and
inscriptions alike leave no doubt that the prevailing
religion at Taxila was Buddhism. Zoroastrianism or
other earlier faiths, however, may have prevailed, and
the Saka rulers were tolerant towards every religion
whether it was Buddhism, Jainism, or Brahmanism
(Marshall 1951a:58). But more than mere tolerance for
other religions may explain the co-existence of multiple
and overlapping traits; there was a shared horizon of
worldviews among the inhabitants of Taxila.
Particularly Buddhist statues reveal a combination of
various cultural and religious impulses, and Buddha
statues found at Taxila have a very “Greek” or Greco-
Roman look.
Some Buddhas are depicted wearing toga from Imperial
Rome. According to Foucher, the strong classical look of
the Gandharan Buddha images is a result of Hellenistic
imperialism (Foucher 1942), and Bachhofer states,
“Gandharan art would not have been possible without
the Hellenistic art of the Greek communities and courts
in Bactria and India” (Bachhofer 1941:224). In
Gandhara art the spectacle of classical forms endeavours
vainly to express in material terms the ideals of an
immaterial religion, and the art is both an offshoot of
Hellenistic sculptures in the East and Roman Imperial art
263
(Rowland 1942). “There are certain figures in the
architecture of the Asoka period, creatures, man-headed
bulls, and other half-human types, which may be due to
Greek influences, probably filtered through a Persian
medium; but the explanation of their adaptation may be
entirely religious or philosophical” (Tarn 1902:284).
They may symbolise the doctrine of transmigration and
rebirth since in each stage of animal existence the human
may be concealed and released through good works
(ibid). The date of the Buddhist art is debated, but at
Taxila there is almost no evidence of such art prior to the
Kushan regime in the latter half of the first century CE
(Soper 1951:301). Among other finds, from Building L
near the Dharmarajika Stupa there is found a Buddha
with a moustache after the model of an early Imperial
toga statue. This is a stone plaque with donors around a
preaching Buddha (fig. 17.6). The pre-Roman phase is
represented at a fairly high level of sculptural
competence in the Dharmarajika frieze; “Absence of
religious formality is revealed by the small halo of the
realistic seat…the perfunctory drapery lines show an
indifference to classical values. The figures, for all their
variety in detail, stand in almost identical three-quarters
poses, in the superimposed tiers normal in non-classical
art” (ibid:311). Another revealing statue is the image of
the Bodhisattva Maitreya (fig. 17.7) standing on a
pedestal where the front is supported at the corners by
Corinthian pilasters (see Appendix E for a detailed
account of these two finds, for other finds see Marshall
1951b).
Although not a part of my core area, I feel it is
nevertheless necessary to mention the world’s largest
Buddha statues in the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan,
which were demolished by the Taliban in 2001. This site
is important not only for Indian art, but also for the
intimate relationship to the art of Iran and Central Asia,
and all the styles at Bamiyan are hybrid in character. The
Buddha statues measured respectively 175 and 120 feet.
“These two statues in themselves are extraordinarily
interesting to illustrate the cosmopolitan nature of
Buddhist art at Bamiyan. The smaller statue (fig. 17.8) is
simply an enormous magnification of a typical Gandhara
image with its voluminous drapery reminiscent of the
style prevalent in north-western India in the second and
third centuries A.D.” (Rowland 1959:98). The larger of
the two Buddhas is made in a quite different style,
although the method is basically the same.
If the smaller is made in the third or fourth century CE,
the larger is probably made a century later. The statues
are extraordinaire due to the appearance of the colossal
cult, which is an impulse from the west. Moreover, the
various domical forms are iconographically and
stylistically derived from Greco-Roman and Iranian
sources. “We have, of course, the precedent of the
famous colossi of the Greek world, and, more nearly
contemporary, the later Roman fashion of erecting
colossal images of the deified Caesars.