greece, the final frontier? 143
largely unknown in the West.^52 G. A. Koshelenko supposed that the
appearance of Buddhism in Margiana was due more to the contact
the Parthians had with that religion in their Indian possessions than
to any in uence from Bactria.^53 Of course, here, like elsewhere, there
may have been several ways by which Buddhism expanded.
Between 224 and 226 AD the Sassanians overthrew both the Kuas
and the Parthians, and in the Kua areas this seems to have been
accompanied or followed by massive destruction and desertion of
Buddhist sites.^54 Violent suppression of Buddhists, as well as Christians,
Manichaeans, Brahmans, and other minorities by the Zoroastrians is
also evident from an inscription of the high-priest Kartr (Kerder) on
the Kabah of Zartusht dating from ca. 290 AD. However dominant
Zoroastrianism was under the Sassanians and whatever exclusivistic
and even fanatical tendencies it showed, Buddhism seems to also have
been tolerated at times. Even more than tolerance was present if one
considers some coins of governor Peroz (242–252 AD) and of king
Hormizd (256–264 AD), which depict them as paying homage to the
Buddha.
Mostly it is argued that the real break-through of Buddhism in parts
of Central Asia, like Margiana and especially Sogdiana, only came
around the turn of the fth century, when the Sassanians had to retreat
before the Hephtalites or White Huns.^55 But this break-through was
rather short-lived. After a coalition of Sassanians and Western Turks
reconquered most of the Hephtalite domains in 560, Indian elements
were again absorbed by the former’s culture, but Buddhism, still mostly
out of favour with the rulers, did not do much more than survive.^56
Aside from the Turki Shahis, who brought it to blossom in Central
Afghanistan, Buddhism only once again found patrons west of India in
the rulers of the Western Turk Empire, who between the early seventh
and the early eighth century promoted it in Uzbekistan, Kirghizistan,
and Kazakhstan. As far as I know, the reasons why Buddhism nally
disappeared from western countries have not been clari ed in detail,
but the most obvious reason is that it was swept away by the Muslim
(^52) Koshelenko 1966; Stavisky 1994, p. 128; Litvinskij 1998, p. 177; Walter 1998,
pp. 42–43. 53
Koshelenko 1966, pp. 180–183.
(^54) Pugachenkova 1992, p. 35; Stavisky 1985, p. 1396; Zeymal 1999, pp. 415–416.
(^55) E.g., Grenet 2002, pp. 212–213.
(^56) Grenet 2002, pp. 213–214.