CAsiatic lords enter in tunics and boots, obeying Iranian, Greek and Indian deities; Stupas surrounded by statues resound with the recitation of verses in the now extinct Gandhari language. The historical Buddha—who was active in only a small part of the Gangetic plain—may not have even recognized the “Buddhism” prevalent in the northwest of the subcontinent in the first century.scheduled tribe-2Ra century CE. But compared to our modern notion of a unitary “classical” India that influenced the world, it was actually Buddhism from the highly diverse region of Gandhara, or to be precise Gandharan—not “Indian”—Buddhism, begins its global conquest.
Innovation in Stupa Worship
As we saw in the previous edition medieval thinkingby 1scheduled tribe century CE, the northwest of the subcontinent (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India) was in a state of cultural churning. “Shakstan”, a confederation of Indo-Scythian or Shaka families that intermarried with local powers, extended from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in present-day Pakistan to Mathura in present-day India. Inscriptions reveal that several Saka royal families, including a queen Aysia, lived in Mathura.Donation As far as SarvastivadaBuddhist. Around the same time, his distant relative Senavarma, a ruler of the Odi Kingdom in the Swat Valley, made an important decision: he would dedicate a stupa to a Buddhist monument that he had renovated and expanded.
While stupa worship and relic worship are integral parts of Buddhism today, it has gone through several evolutionary stages. But Andhra coast, for example, this corresponded to older practices of worshiping the dead buried in megalithic structures. In the northwest, where waves of migration created polycentric, multiethnic political systems, enterprising monasteries developed another approach.
by 1scheduled tribe century CE, as suggested by the epigraphist Professor Richard Salomon in his paper Inscription of King Senavarma of Odi, that the stupa cult had become quite popular among the elite. Here, Buddhist rituals allow “merit” to arise “to the end and completion”. World”, the mortal universe, through enshrining the relics in large stupas. And the custodians of such relics – usually wealthy political nobles – can then distribute the merits practically in whatever way they choose. Thus, “merit” became one of many items exchanged between vassals and overlords as tribute, perfect for the politics of the region. In fact, this may be one of the reasons why Central Asian rulers in India embraced Buddhism with such enthusiasm.
This makes the above donation of King Senavarma of Odi more attractive. Although his family intermarried extensively with the Shakas and paid tribute to them on occasion, there is little mention of him in his donation inscriptions. Instead, the primary recipient of merit (outside his family) is a sadakshana, “son of the gods, son of the great king, king over kings, Kuyula Katafasa”. This was a sign of things to come, as the dominance of the Shakas was waning. Katafsa Kujula was none other than Kadphises, known as Qijiuq in Chinese, to form what became known as the Kushan Empire: a new confederation that would change Asian history.
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Most important ancient kingdom?
The Kushans were the culmination of several waves of migrant peoples who had settled and ruled the northwest of the subcontinent over the previous centuries. By the 1st century CE, writes Historian Jason Neelis in IEarly Buddhist transmission and trade networkThey were united under the banner of Kujula, who assumed the title of “Kushana”. Yabgu [Confederation] firm in religion” and began exerting pressure on the Shaka confederations in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which corresponded to the fringes of Gandhara, known as Shakastan.
Within another century, Kujul’s grandson Kanishka had conquered most of Sakastan, made Mathura his primary center of power, and subjugated all of it. Mahajanapada or the “great country” of the Gangetic plains.
“By operating a network from the Oxus basin to the Ganges delta, the Kushans effectively integrated the major nodes of the northern [trade] The routes are called Uttarpath. The Kushan administration of this artery of commercial and cultural exchange facilitated the long-distance movement of merchants and missionaries between South Asia, Central Asia and East Asia,” writes Neelis.
This Kushan Empire was nothing like the modern nation-state, but that did not make it any less of a historical power. American art historian John M. as Rosenfield writes in his introduction Gandhara Buddhism: Archaeology, Art, TextsIt controlled some major strongholds including Kapisha (near present-day Kabul), Purushapura/Kanishkapura (present-day Peshawar) and Mathura.
Trade arteries connected major strongholds, and the pressure of Kushan military power brought cities “deep into present-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan” under their fold. It was also possibly associated with the mountain kingdom of Kashmir and the city-state of Khotan in the western Tarim Basin. [in China’s Xinjiang]Rosenfield writes. Within this extraordinarily diverse network of people and politics, says Rosenfield, “lived astronomers, mathematicians, theologians, dramatists, poets, grammarians, logicians, and physicians.”
It was the Kushan dominions, more than any of the Gangetic powers, that really spread Buddhism in a great wave from South Asia to Central Asia.
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Gandhari: Folk Language of Ancient Asia
Kanishka issued coins bearing the Buddha’s symbol (written as ΒΟΔΔΟ in Greek script), a clear indication that he wished to be associated with the Buddhists. He and other Kushan rulers spread their patronage widely, encouraging the amalgamation of the various deities worshiped in their territories. there is little evidence that he Was A Buddhist, although Buddhists went out of their way to claim him in later texts.
What is there Is The archaeological evidence for this is that Buddhism exploded in popularity, taking advantage of the stability offered by the Kushan Empire. Monasteries and stupas, once centered in the center of the Gandhara region, now began to be established further and further from the great node of Purushapur. A large number of Kushan nobles and officials established relics for merit (most of which were formally granted to their overlord, Kanishka). Obviously, the innovations developed by the earlier Buddhists were adapted to the new socio-political conditions of the Kushan Empire.
Over the past few decades, archaeological excavations in China, Afghanistan and Pakistan have also turned up caches of Buddhist scrolls written in the Gandhari language, which Professor Salomon discusses in his paper. Gandhari in the world of India, Iran and Central Asia. Thanks to the primacy of the Kushanas, Gandhari spread as the language of ritual, sacred knowledge, commerce and administration throughout much of Central Asia, known as ‘Greater Gandhara’. “Gandhari rose to this eminence on a temporary basis by the time-honored method: it had an army,” notes Salomon, rather dry.
It was Gandharan elites, Gandharan texts, Gandharan translators, and Gandharan Buddhist experts who turned the region into an eclectic cultural powerhouse with resources and cultural institutions that were (as Neelis puts it) a “springboard” for the transmission of Buddhism. As in Asia at large. As mentioned earlier, Buddhism spread from Gandhara with its emphasis on the stupa cult and entirely new texts would have been unfamiliar to the historical Buddha. It was a completely different cultural complex, with the only similarity to ancient Buddhism being the use of some basic ideological terms. It was as different from the Buddhism of the Buddha as the Eastern ‘orthodox’ Christianity of the Byzantine Empire was from the Christianity of the Messiah, adapted to the needs of a diverse, cosmopolitan imperial elite.
When Chinese pilgrims began traveling to South Asia several centuries later in search of the original texts, Gandhara was seen as one of the central centers of the religion, comparable to ancient sites deep in the Gangetic plains. by 2Ra century CE, the Gandhari language had also begun to exchange words with various Iranian languages native to Central Asia, indicating that it was spoken bilingually across a swath of the continent.
Big changes were afoot. As we’ll see in future versions of medieval thinkingGandhara, the most diverse part of the ancient world that completely confounds our modern notions of monolithic national pride, would influence everything: from the new Mahayana Buddhism and emerging Indian notions of kingship to Hindu deities such as Skanda and Durga .
Anirudh Kanisetty is a public historian. He is the author of Lords of the Deccan, a new history of medieval South India, and hosts the Echoes of India and War podcasts. He tweeted @AKanisetti. Thoughts are personal.
This article is a part of ‘Thinking Medieval’ series Which takes a deep dive into the medieval culture, politics and history of India.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)