58 siglinde dietz
- Greek Influence on Gandhra’s Buddhist Art and Practice
Whereas Greek in uence on Buddhism^55 in Gandhra seems to have
been minimal, the Gandhran art in fact represents a Graeco-Buddhist
synthesis. It has to be stressed, however, that Gandhra was as much
open to in uences from India as from Persia and Greece. Fussman^56
remarks that as different as the images at Amarvat and Mathur
may be from Gandhran art, the ideological content is the same: they
illustrate the same Jtakas^57 and episodes of the life of the Buddha. It is,
however, a fact that the aniconic Buddha on Mathur and Gandhra
images was replaced by the anthropomorphic presentations of the
Buddha at nearly the same time, probably around the beginning of
the Christian era. The rst representation of an anthropomorphic
Buddha is found in Gandhra at about 50 BC.^58 This Buddha has the
appearance of Zeus or Heracles as they are depicted in contemporary
Greek sculptures. This kind of representation of the Buddha, which is
the earliest known evidence for a Hellenised Buddha image, is differ-
ent from the later Gandhran art.^59 The classical Gandhran Buddha,
dressed in a monk’s robe with Greek drapery and wearing his hair in
Greek style,^60 must have appeared around 20 AD at the latest, because
it is represented in this way on the reliquary of Bimarn.^61 The rst
sitting Buddhas are found in Mathur at about the same time. It is
(^55) Cf. below the adoption of the Greek calendar in Buddhist practice.
(^56) Fussman 1994, p. 27.
(^57) These “Birth Stories” refer to previous lives of the Buddha as a bodhisattva.
(^58) Fussman 1987, pp. 71f. and Fig. 2: “The obverse of the Tilia Tepe token shows
a bearded man, depicted as a likeness of Zeus (? [or Heracles?]) standing and pushing
a wheel to his left; on the right, in Kharo h script: dharmacakrapravartako, “he who sets
in motion the Wheel of the Law”,... The reverse depicts a lion standing to the left.. .;
to the right, in Kharo h script, Siho vigatabhayo, “the lion who chased away fear”, i.e.,
the Buddha, the lion of the 59 kyas.”
Fussman 1994, p. 29.
(^60) In this style the Buddha’s hair is arranged in waves gathered together at the top
of his head.
(^61) This reliquary was a container for fragments of Buddhist relics. It is a round box
of pure gold repoussé, inlaid with rubies, which now is kept in the British Museum at
London. It was enclosed in a stone box when discovered by Charles Masson in the
ruins of a stpa at Bimarn near Jalalabad in Afghanistan. This reliquary is decorated
with a band of eight arched niches enclosing gures of the Buddha, anked by the
gods Indra and Brahma. Cf. the description in Fussman 1987, p. 70. Fussman, loc.cit.,
assumes an enshrinement date at ca. 20 AD or a little later, ca. 20–50 AD. However,
an assignment of the date to “the second or even the third century” is given in
Snellgrove 1978, p. 63.