NORTH PAKISTAN

GRECO BUDDHIST ART & GANDHARA
Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of
Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the
Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed
over a period of close to 1,000 years in Central
Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great
in the 4th century BC, and the Islamic conquests of
the 7 th c. AD. It is characterized by the strong idealistic
realism and sensuous description of Hellenistic
art and the first representations of the Buddha in
human form, which have helped define the artistic
and particularly sculptural canon for Buddhist art
throughout the Asian continent up to the present.
The origins of Greco-Buddhist art are found in the
Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250–130 BC),
located in today’s Afghanistan, from which Hellenistic
culture radiated into the Indian subcontinent with the
establishment of the Indo-Greek kingdom (180–10
BC). Under the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushans,
the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished
in the area of Gandhara, in today’s northern
Pakistan, before spreading further into India, influencing
the art of Mathura, and then the Hindu art of
the Gupta empire, which was to extend to the rest of
South-East Asia. The influence of Greco-Buddhist art
also spread northward towards Central Asia, strongly
affecting the art of the Tarim Basin, and ultimately
the arts of China, Korea, and Japan.
HELLENISTIC ART IN SOUTHERN ASIA: Powerful
Hellenistic states were established in the areas of
Bactria and Sogdiana, and later northern India for
three centuries following the conquests of Alexander
the Great around 330 BC, the Seleucid empire until
250 BC, followed by the Greco-Bactrian kingdom
until 130 BC, and the Indo-Greek kingdom from 180
BC to around 10 BC.
The clearest examples of Hellenistic art are found in
the coins of the Greco-Bactrian kings of the period,
such as Demetrius I of Bactria. Many coins of the
Greco-Bactrian kings have been unearthed, including
the largest silver and gold coins ever minted in the
Hellenistic world, ranking among the best in artistic
and technical sophistication: showing a degree of
individuality never matched by the descriptions of
their royal contemporaries further West.
These Hellenistic kingdoms established cities on the
Greek model, displaying purely Hellenistic architectural
features, statuary, and remains of Aristotelian
papyrus prints and coins. These Greek elements
penetrated India quite early as shown by the Hellenistic
Pataliputra capital (3 rd c. BC), but the influence
became especially strong, particularly in NW India,
following the invasion of the Greco-Bactrians in 180
BC, when they established the Indo-Greek kingdom
in India. Fortified Greek cities, such as Sirkap in
northern Pakistan, were established. Architectural
styles used Hellenistic decorative motifs such as fruit
garland and scrolls. Stone palettes for aromatic oils
representing purely Hellenistic themes such as a
Nereid riding and deities such are Atlas. Dionysiac
scenes represent people in Classical style drinking
wine from amphoras and playing instruments.
Early Gandhara creations: stone palettes (2 nd c. BCE
– 1 st c. CE): The Greeks in Asia are well known archaeologically
for their stone palettes, also called “toilet
trays”, round trays commonly found in the areas of
Bactria and Gandhara, which usually represent Greek
mythological scenes. The earliest of them are attributed
to the Indo-Greek period in the 2 nd and 1 st c.BCE.
Artistic model: Later, Greco-Buddhist art depicts
the life of the Buddha in a visual manner, probably
by incorporating the real-life models and concepts
which were available to the artists of the period.
The Bodhisattvas are depicted as bare-chested and
jeweled Indian princes, and the Buddhas as Greek
kings wearing the light toga-like himation. The buildings
in which they are depicted incorporate Greek
style, with the ubiquitous Indo-Corinthian capitals
and Greek decorative scrolls. Surrounding deities
form a pantheon of Greek (Atlas, Herakles) and Indian
gods (Indra).
Stylistic evolution: Stylistically, Greco-Buddhist
art started by being extremely fine and realistic,
as apparent on the standing Buddhas, with a realistic
treatment of the folds and on some even a hint
of modelled volume that characterizes the best
Greek work. It then lost this sophisticated realism,
becoming progressively more symbolic and decorative
over the centuries.
Architecture: The presence of stupas at the Greek city
of Sirkap, which was built by Demetrius around 180
BC, already indicates a strong syncretism between
Hellenism and the Buddhist faith, together with
other religions such as Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.
The style is Greek, adorned with Corinthian columns
in excellent Hellenistic execution. Later in Hadda, the
Greek divinity Atlas is represented holding Buddhist
monuments with decorated Greek columns. The
motif was adopted extensively throughout the
Indian sub-continent, Atlas being substituted for the
Indian Yaksa in the monuments of the Shunga Empire
around the 2 nd c. BC.
Buddha: Sometime between the 2 nd c. BC and the
1st c. AD, the first anthropomorphic representations
of the Buddha were developed. These were absent
from earlier strata of Buddhist art, which preferred
to represent the Buddha with symbols, such as the
stupa, the Bodhi tree, the empty seat, the wheel, or
the footprints. But the innovative anthropomorphic
Buddha image immediately reached a very high level
of sculptural sophistication, naturally inspired by the
sculptural styles of Hellenistic Greece.
Many of the stylistic elements in the representations
of the Buddha point to Greek influence: the Greek
himation (a light toga-like wavy robe covering both
shoulders: Buddhist characters are always represented
with a dhoti loincloth before this innovation),
the halo, the contrapposto stance of the upright
figures, the stylized Mediterranean curly hair and
top-knot apparently derived from the style of the
Belvedere Apollo (330 BC), and the measured quality
of the faces, all rendered with strong artistic realism.
Some of the standing Buddha were sculpted using
the specific Greek technique of making the hands
and sometimes the feet in marble to increase the
realistic effect, and the rest of the body in another
material.
In Gandharan art, the Buddha is often shown under
the protection of the Greek go Hercules, standing