Buner reliefs

Buner reliefs
Buner Show map of Gandhara

Buner reliefs is a term for a number of stone

.

Most come from Buddhist contexts, but are decorative small-scale architectural sculpture, and many show purely secular scenes, in a style heavily influenced by Hellenistic art.

Hellenistic scenes

Some of the reliefs depict people in

style.

• 
  Left detail
• 
  Centre detail
• 
  Right detail

Military scenes

Other reliefs, thought to be contemporary because of their identical style and structure, represent soldiers in military attire. They are depicted in ample tunics with trousers (the

troops from the Hellenistic realm.

Another relief is known where the same type of soldiers are dancing and playing musical instruments. The instruments are a small harp, a hand drum and a small portable xylophone. Three of the men are dancing, clasping both hands together.^[1]

Buddhist scenes

Again other reliefs show people in Indian dress, typically holding lotus flowers.

All of these friezes, being contemporary with each other, hint at an intermixing of Indo-Scythians (holding military power),

(confined, under Indo-Scythian rule, to civilian life, and usually shown revelling with drinking cups) and Buddhists (possibly most directly involved in religious matters, and shown with the reverencial lotus).

These reliefs usually belonged to

.

One of the most famous of these reliefs is the one located in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Other possible Buner reliefs

• 
• 
• 
  A

  stair riser depicting an ichthyocentaur, one of the Buner reliefs. Victoria and Albert Museum

References

Resources

• John Boardman, The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity (Princeton University Press, 1994)
  ISBN 0-691-03680-2
• Alexander the Great: East-West Cultural Contacts from Greece to Japan (NHK and Tokyo National Museum, 2003)

External links

• Cleveland Museum Buner relief collection