Gandhara

Gandhara (

Gandhara's first recorded culture was the Grave Culture that emerged c. 1200 BCE and lasted until 800 BCE,

The first mention of the Gandhārīs is attested once in the Ṛigveda as a tribe that has sheep with good wool. In the Atharvaveda, the Gandhārīs are mentioned alongside the Mūjavants, the Āṅgeyas and the Māgadhīs in a hymn asking fever to leave the body of the sick man and instead go those aforementioned tribes. The tribes listed were the furthermost border tribes known to those in Madhyadeśa, the Āṅgeyas and Māgadhīs in the east, and the Mūjavants and Gandhārīs in the north.^[35][36] The Gandhara tribe, after which it is named, is attested in the Rigveda (c. 1500 – c. 1200 BCE),^[37][38] while the region is mentioned in the Zoroastrian Avesta as Vaēkərəta, the seventh most beautiful place on earth created by Ahura Mazda.

The Gāndhārī king

By the later Vedic period, the situation had changed, and the Gāndhārī capital of Takṣaśila had become an important centre of knowledge where the men of Madhya-desa went to learn the three Vedas and the eighteen branches of knowledge, with the Kauśītaki Brāhmaṇa recording that brāhmaṇas went north to study. According to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Uddālaka Jātaka, the famous Vedic philosopher Uddālaka Āruṇi was among the famous students of Takṣaśila, and the Setaketu Jātaka claims that his son Śvetaketu also studied there. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, Uddālaka Āruṇi himself favourably referred to Gāndhārī education to the Vaideha king Janaka.^[39] During the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west Iron Age South Asia, with the valley of Kaśmīra being part of the kingdom.^[40] Due to this important position, Buddhist texts listed the Gandhāra kingdom as one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas ("great realms") of Iron Age South Asia. It was the home of Gandhari, the princess of Gandhara kingdom.^[42][43]

Pukkusāti and Achaemenid Gandāra

During the 6th century BCE, Gandhara was governed under the reign of King

The sovereign of

During the Mauryan era, Gandhara held a pivotal position as a core territory within the empire, with Taxila serving as the provincial capital of the North West.^[64] Chanakya, a prominent figure in the establishment of the Mauryan Empire, played a key role by adopting Chandragupta Maurya, the initial Mauryan emperor. Under Chanakya's tutelage, Chandragupta received a comprehensive education at Taxila, encompassing various arts of the time, including military training, for a duration spanning 7–8 years.^[65]

According to Buddhist traditions, Taxila was regarded as the hometown of Chanakya, who grew up in a Brahmin family.^[66] Additionally, Plutarch's accounts suggest that Alexander the Great encountered a young Chandragupta Maurya in the Punjab region, possibly during his time at the university.^[67] Subsequent to Alexander's death, Chanakya and Chandragupta allied with Trigarta king Parvataka to conquer the Nanda Empire.^[68] This alliance resulted in the formation of a composite army, comprising Gandharans and Kambojas, as documented in the Mudrarakshasa.^[69]

Bindusaras reign witnessed a rebellion among the locals of Taxila to which according to the Ashokavadana, he dispatched Ashoka to quell the uprising. Upon entering the city, the populace conveyed that their rebellion was not against Ashoka or Bindusara but rather against oppressive ministers.^[70] In Ashoka's subsequent tenure as emperor, he appointed his son as the new governor of Taxila.^[71] During this time, Ashoka erected numerous rock edicts in the region in the Kharosthi script and commissioned the construction of a monumental stupa in Pushkalavati, Western Gandhara, the location of which remains undiscovered to date.^[72]

According to the

The Indo-Greek king Menander I (reigned 155–130 BCE) drove the Greco-Bactrians out of Gandhara and beyond the Hindu Kush, becoming king shortly after his victory.

His empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last independent Greek king,

It is during this period that the fusion of Hellenistic and South Asian mythological, artistic and religious elements becomes most apparent, especially in the region of Gandhara.^[citation needed]

Local Greek rulers still exercised a feeble and precarious power along the borderland, but the last vestige of the Greco-Indian rulers was finished by a people known to the old Chinese as the Yeuh-Chi.^[76]

Apracharajas

The

The

During the dominion of the Indo-Parthians, Apracharaja Sasan, as described on numismatic evidence identifying him as the nephew of Aspavarma, emerged as a figure of significance.^[85] Aspavarman, a preceding Apracharaja contemporaneous with Gondophares, was succeeded by Sasan, after having ascended from a subordinate governance role to a recognized position as one of Gondophares's successors.^[86] He assumed the position following Abdagases I.^[87] The Kushan ruler Vima Takto is known through numismatic evidence to have overstruck the coins of Sasan, whilst a numismatic hoard had found coins of Sasan togethor with smaller coins of Kujula Kadphises^[88] It has also been discovered that Sasan overstruck the coins of Nahapana of the Western Satraps, this line of coinage dating between 40 and 78 CE.^[89]

It was noted by

The Kushans conquered

According to the Xiyu Zhuan, the inhabitants residing in the upper reaches of the Kabul River were extremely wealthy and excelled in commerce, with their cultural practices bearing resemblance to those observed in Tianzhu (India). However, the text also characterizes them as weak and easily conquered with their political allegiance never being constant.^[103] Over time, the region underwent successive annexations by Tianzhu, Jibin, and Parthia during periods of their respective strength, only to be lost when these powers experienced a decline.^[104] The Xiyu Zhuan describes Tianzhu's customs as bearing similarities to that of the Yuezhi and the inhabitants riding on elephants in warfare.^[105]

The Kushan period is considered the Golden Period of Gandhara. Peshawar Valley and Taxila are littered with ruins of stupas and monasteries of this period.

• 
  Head of a bodhisattva, c. 4th century CE
• 
  The Buddha and

  Herakles

  , c. 2nd–3rd century CE

Kidarites

The Kidarites conquered Peshawar and parts of the northwest Indian subcontinent including Gandhara probably sometime between 390 and 410 from Kushan empire,^[109] around the end of the rule of Gupta Emperor Chandragupta II or beginning of the rule of Kumaragupta I.^[110] It is probably the rise of the Hephthalites and the defeats against the Sasanians which pushed the Kidarites into northern India. Their last ruler in Gandhara was Kandik, c. 500 CE.

Alchon Huns

Around 430 King

Buddhist sources to have been a "terrible persecutor of their religion" in Gandhara.^[122] During the reign of Mihirakula, over one thousand Buddhist monasteries throughout Gandhara are said to have been destroyed.^[123] In particular, the writings of Chinese monk Xuanzang from 630 CE explained that Mihirakula ordered the destruction of Buddhism and the expulsion of monks.^[124] Indeed, the Buddhist art of Gandhara, in particular Greco-Buddhist art, becomes essentially extinct around that period. When Xuanzang visited Gandhara in c. 630 CE, he reported that Buddhism had drastically declined in favour of Shaivism and that most of the monasteries were deserted and left in ruins.^[125] It is also noted by Kalhana that Brahmins of Gandhara accepted from Mihirakula gifts of Agraharams.^[126]

Turk and Hindu Shahis

The

Oddiyana in Gandhara.^[128][129]

The first king Kallar had moved the capital into Udabandhapura from Kabul, in the modern village of

Muslim Ghaznavid and Hindu Shahi struggles.^[135] Sebuk Tigin, however, defeated him, and he was forced to pay an indemnity.^[135] Jayapala defaulted on the payment and took to the battlefield once more.^[135] Jayapala however, lost control of the entire region between the Kabul Valley and Indus River.^[136]

However, the army was defeated in battle against the Western forces, particularly against the Mahmud of Ghazni.

Qarakhanids north of the Hindu Kush, Jaipal attacked Ghazni once more and upon suffering yet another defeat by the powerful Ghaznavid forces, near present-day Peshawar. After the Battle of Peshawar, he died because of regret as his subjects brought disaster and disgrace to the Shahi dynasty.^[135][136]

Jayapala was succeeded by his son

Siwalik Hills.^[136]

Rediscovery

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By the time Gandhara had been absorbed into the empire of Mahmud of Ghazni, Buddhist buildings were already in ruins and Gandhara's art had been forgotten. After Al-Biruni, the Kashmiri writer Kalhaṇa wrote his book Rajatarangini in 1151. He recorded some events that took place in Gandhara and provided details about its last royal dynasty and capital Udabhandapura.

In the 19th century, British soldiers and administrators started taking an interest in the ancient history of the Indian Subcontinent. In the 1830s coins of the post-Ashoka period were discovered, and in the same period, Chinese travelogues were translated. Charles Masson, James Prinsep, and Alexander Cunningham deciphered the Kharosthi script in 1838. Chinese records provided locations and site plans for Buddhist shrines. Along with the discovery of coins, these records provided clues necessary to piece together the history of Gandhara. In 1848 Cunningham found Gandhara sculptures north of Peshawar. He also identified the site of Taxila in the 1860s. From then on a large number of Buddhist statues were discovered in the Peshawar valley.

Archaeologist John Marshall excavated at Taxila between 1912 and 1934. He discovered separate Greek, Parthian, and Kushan cities and a large number of stupas and monasteries. These discoveries helped to piece together much more of the chronology of the history of Gandhara and its art.

After 1947

Ahmed Hassan Dani and the Archaeology Department at the University of Peshawar

made several discoveries in the Peshawar and Swat Valley. Excavation of many of the sites of the Gandhara Civilization is being done by researchers from Peshawar and several universities around the world.

Culture

Language

Main article: Gandhari language

Gandhara's language was a Prakrit or "Middle Indo-Aryan" dialect, usually called Gāndhārī.^[137] Under the Kushan Empire, Gāndhārī spread into adjoining regions of South and Central Asia.^[137] It used the Kharosthi script, which is derived from the Aramaic script, and it died out about in the 4th century CE.^[137][138]

Linguistic evidence links some groups of the

Kohistani languages, now all being displaced from their original homelands, were once more widespread in the region and most likely descend from the ancient dialects of the region of Gandhara.^[142][143] The last to disappear was Tirahi, still spoken some years ago in a few villages in the vicinity of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, by descendants of migrants expelled from Tirah by the Afridi Pashtuns in the 19th century.^[144] Georg Morgenstierne claimed that Tirahi is "probably the remnant of a dialect group extending from Tirah through the Peshawar district into Swat and Dir".^[145] Nowadays, it must be entirely extinct and the region is now dominated by Iranian languages brought in by later migrants, such as Pashto.^[144] Among the modern day Indo-Aryan languages still spoken today, Torwali shows the closest linguistic affinity possible to Niya, a dialect of Gāndhārī.^[143][146]

Religion

Further information: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism and Gandharan Buddhism

Avalokiteśvara

Bodhisattva. 2nd–3rd century CE, Gandhāra.

Mahāyāna Buddhism

Mahāyāna

samādhi, and meditation on the Buddha Akṣobhya. Lokaksema's translations continue to provide insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This corpus of texts often includes and emphasizes ascetic practices forest dwelling, and absorption in states of meditative concentration:^[149]

Paul Harrison has worked on some of the texts that are arguably the earliest versions we have of the Mahāyāna sūtras, those translated into Chinese in the last half of the second century AD by the Indo-Scythian translator Lokakṣema. Harrison points to the enthusiasm in the Lokakṣema sūtra corpus for the extra ascetic practices, for dwelling in the forest, and above all for states of meditative absorption (samādhi). Meditation and meditative states seem to have occupied a central place in early Mahāyāna, certainly because of their spiritual efficacy but also because they may have given access to fresh revelations and inspiration.

Some scholars believe that the Mahāyāna

Mahāsthāmaprāpta which were made in Gandhāra during the Kushan era.^[152]

The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa records that Kaniṣka of the Kushan Empire presided over the establishment of the Mahāyāna Prajñāpāramitā teachings in the northwest.^[153] Tāranātha wrote that in this region, 500 bodhisattvas attended the council at Jālandhra monastery during the time of Kaniṣka, suggesting some institutional strength for Mahāyāna in the north-west during this period.^[153] Edward Conze goes further to say that Prajñāpāramitā had great success in the north-west during the Kushan period, and may have been the "fortress and hearth" of early Mahāyāna, but not its origin, which he associates with the Mahāsāṃghika branch of Buddhism.^[154]

Art

See also: Greco-Buddhist art, Kushan art, Indo-Greek art, and Indo-Scythian art

Gandhāra is noted for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, which shows the influence of Hellenistic and local Indian influences from the Gangetic Valley.^[155] The Gandhāran art flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th centuries, but it declined and was destroyed after the invasion of the Alchon Huns in the 5th century.

Siddhartha shown as a bejeweled prince (before the Sidhartha renounces palace life) is a common motif.^[156] Stucco, as well as stone, were widely used by sculptors in Gandhara for the decoration of monastic and cult buildings.^[156][157] Buddhist imagery combined with some artistic elements from the cultures of the Hellenistic world. An example is the youthful Buddha, his hair in wavy curls, similar to statutes of Apollo.^[156] Sacred artworks and architectural decorations used limestone for stucco composed by a mixture of local crushed rocks (i.e. schist and granite) which resulted compatible with the outcrops located in the mountains northwest of Islamabad.^[158]

The artistic traditions of Gandhara art can be divided into the following phases:

• Indo-Greek art; 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE
• Indo-Scythian art; 1st century BCE to 1st century CE
• Kushan art; 1st century CE to 4th century CE

• 
  Standing Bodhisattva (1st–2nd century)
• 
  Buddha head (2nd century)
• 
  Buddha head (4th–6th century)
• 
  Buddha in acanthus capital
• 
  The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda
• 
  The Bodhisattva Maitreya (2nd century)
• 
  Wine-drinking and music, Hadda (1st–2nd century)
• 
  Maya's white elephant dream (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  The birth of Siddharta (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  The Great Departure from the Palace (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  The end of asceticism (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  The Buddha preaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  Scene of the life of the Buddha (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  The death of the Buddha, or parinirvana (2nd–3rd century)
• 
  A sculpture from Hadda, (3rd century)
• 
  The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century)
• 
  Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, Afghanistan
• 
  Hellenistic scene, Gandhara (1st century)
• 
  A stone plate (1st century)
• 
  "Laughing boy" from Hadda
• 
  Bodhisattva seated in

  meditation
• 
  Marine deities, Gandhara
• 
  The Seated Buddha, dating from 300 to 500 CE, was found near Jamal Garhi, and is now on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
• 
  Sharing of the

  Buddha

  's relics, above a Gandhara fortified city

Major cities

Major cities of ancient Gandhara are as follows:

• Puṣkalavati (Charsadda), Pakistan
• Takshashila (Taxila), Pakistan
• Peshawer), Pakistan
• Sagala (Sialkot), Pakistan
• Swat), Pakistan
• Kapisi (Bagram), Afghanistan
• Jibin, appears in the Chinese sources

Notable people

Main article: list of people from Gandhara

In popular culture

• Gandhara:Buddha no Seisen is an action RPG released in Japan in 1987.^[159]
• "Gandhara" is a 1978 song by Japanese rock band Godiego, serving as their 7th single.
• Gandhara is a Buddhist pacifist organization in the Japanese manga series Shaman King.

See also

• History of Pakistan
• History of Afghanistan
• History of India

References

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64. ISBN 978-1-108-00941-6
    . The Mauryan empire proper, north of the line of the Nerbudda and the Vindhya mountains, had pivoted upon three great cities: pataliputra the capital and the seat of the emperor, Taxila the seat of the viceroy of the North West...
65. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 2. he bought the boy by paying on the spot 1000 kdrshapanas. Kautilya(Chanakya) then took the boy with him to his native city of Takshasila (Taxila), then the most renowned seat of learning in India, and had him educated there for a period of seven or eight years in the humanities and the practical arts and crafts of the time, including the military arts.
66. ^ Trautmann, Thomas R. (1971). Kautilya And The Arthasastra. p. 12. Chanakya was a native of Takkasila, the son of a brahmin, learned in the three Vedas and mantras, skilled in political expedients, deceitful, a politician.
67. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 2. This tradition is curiously confirmed by Plutarch's statement that Chandragupta as a youth had met Alexander during his campaigns in the Panjab. This was possible because Chandragupta was already living in that locality with Kautilya (Chanakya).
68. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 3. According to tradition he began by strengthening his position by an alliance with the Himalayan chief Parvataka, as stated in both the Sanskrit and Jaina texts, Mudradkshasa and Parisishtaparvan.
69. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 4. The army of Malayaketu (Parvataka) comprised recruits from the following peoples : Khasa, Magadha, Gandhara, Yavana, Saka, Chedi and Huna.
70. ISBN 978-0-674-91525-1
    . Ashoka arrived in Taxila at the head of an armed contingent, the swords remained in their scabbards: the citizenry, instead of offering resistance came out of their city and on its roads to welcome him, saying 'we did not want to rebel against the prince.. nor even against King Bundusara; but evil ministers came and oppressed us'
71. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 22. In the Gupta epoch, again, some of the provinces were administered by princes of the royal blood designated kumaras. The same was the case in the time of Asoka. Three instances of such Kumara governorship are known from his edicts. Thus one kumara was stationed at Takshasila to govern the frontier province of Gandhara..
72. ISBN 978-3-368-13568-3
    . ...3/4 of a mile to the north of this place there was a great stupa built by Ashoka
73. ^ Prakesh, Buddha. "Studies In Indian History And Civilization" (PDF). p. 157. Subhagasena seems to be the successor of Virasena, who came to the throne after Ashoka, according to Taranatha. It appears that after the secession of the north-western half of India from the Maurya empire after the death of Ashoka, Virasena entrenched his hold over it while the other eastern and southern half of the country passed under the domination of Samprati.
74. ^ Prakesh, Buddha. "Studies In Indian History And Civilization" (PDF). p. 155. Polybius states: "He (Antiochus the Great) crossed the Caucasus and descended into India, renewed his friendship with Sophogsenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had 150 altogether
75. ^ Rapson, Edward James; Haig, Sir Wolseley; Burn, Sir Richard; Dodwell, Henry; Wheeler, Sir Robert Eric Mortimer (1968). The Cambridge History of India. CUP Archive. p. 512. ..with whom Antiochus the Great renewed an ancestral relatonship in 206 BCE
76. ^ (Imperial Gazetteer, p. 149)
77. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5
    . The domain of the Apracas was probably centred in Bajaur and extended to Swat, Gandhara, Taxila and other parts of Eastern Afghanistan
78. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5
    . The apracas were also connected by marital alliance with the Odi kings in the Swat valley since a royal relative and officer named Suhasoma in a Buddhist reliquary inscription of Senavarman was married to Vasavadatta.
79. ISBN 978-1-000-86852-4
    .
80. ^ The Grandeur of Gandhara, Rafi-us Samad, Algora Publishing, 2011, p.64-67 [1]
81. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5
    . Another important member of the Apraca lineage was the general (stratega) Aspavarman
82. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5
    . A silver drinking vessel with an animal style ibex figure formerly belonging to the "Yagu king" Kharaosta that was rededicated as a Buddhist reliquary by Indravarman may indicate this object was given to the apracas as a gift in exchage for some form of tribute or assistance
83. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5
    . Since Aspavarman's coins overlap with late or post-humous issues of Azes II and the Indo-parthian ruler Gondophares, he probably flourished from ca. 20-50 CE.
84. JSTOR 44158359
    . The name of Aspavarma occurs four times in the eighth avadana of the above mentioned Buddhist manuscripts. The story in the Avadana text involves some interaction between Aspavarman and Jhadamitra (a Saka noble) about the provision of a place for the monks to stay during the rainy season. This shows that the Aspavarman was a patron of the Buddhist Samgha.
85. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 215. The interesting additional information we get from these coins is that Sasan, a former associate of Gondophares and afterwards one of his successors in the Taxila region, was the son of Aspa's brother
86. ^ Sastri, K. a Nilakanta (1957). Comprehensive History Of India Vol.2 (mauryas And Satavahanas). p. 215. The coins further show that Sasan, who was at first a subordinate ruler under Gondophares, subsequently assumed independent or quasi-independent status.
87. ISBN 978-90-474-2049-1
    . In the Indus valley Gondophares was succeeded by his nephew Abdagases and then by Sases.
88. ISBN 978-90-474-2049-1
    .
89. ISBN 978-1-78491-855-2
    .
90. ISBN 978-90-474-2049-1
    . Philostratus comments that the people who live between the River Kophen and Taxila have a coinage not of gold and silver but of Orichalcum and black brass. He describes the houses as designed so that if you look at them from the outside, they appear to have only one storey, but if you go inside they have underground rooms as well.
91. JSTOR 25581224
    . Taxila was about the size of Ninovoh, walled like a Greek city
92. JSTOR 25581224
    . They are taken to the palace. They found the city divided by narrow streets, well-arranged, and reminding them of Athens.
93. JSTOR 25581224
    . and was the residence of a sovereign who ruled over what of old was the kingdom of Porus.
94. JSTOR 25581224
    . Phraotes, in answer, said that he was moderate because his wants were few, and that as he was wealthy, he employed his wealth in doing good to his friends, and in subsidizing the barbarians, his neighbours, to prevent them from themselves ravaging, or allowing other barbarians to ravage his territories.
95. JSTOR 25581224
    . The king then told how his father, the son of a king, had been left very young an orphan; and how during his minority two of his relatives according to Indian custom acted as regents, but with so little regard to law, that some nobles conspired against them, and slow them as they were sacrificing to the Indus, and seized upon the government
96. JSTOR 25581224
    . How on this his father, then sixteen years of age, fled to the king beyond the Hydaspes, a greater king than himself, who received him kindly... he requested to be sent to the Brahmans; and how the Brahmans educated him; and how in time he married the daughter of the Hydaspian king, and received with her seven villages as pin-money, and had issue one son, himself, Phraotes.
97. JSTOR 25581224
    . When I crossed the Hydraotis, I heard that, of the usurpers, one was already dead, and the other besieged in this very palace; so I hurried on, proclaiming to the villages I passed through who I was, and what were my rights : and the people received me gladly, and declaring I was the very picture of my father and grandfather, they accompanied me, many of them armed with swords and bows, and our numbers increased daily ; and when we reached this city, the inhabitants, with torches lit at the altar of the Sun, and singing the praises of my father and grandfather, came out and welcomed me, and brought me hither.
98. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
    . Formerly, when the Yuezhi had been destroyed by the Xiongnu, they moved to Daxia and divided the country into five Xihou.
99. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
    . More than a hundred years later, the xihou of guishuang(kushan) named Qiujiuque(Kujula) attacked and destroyed the other four xihou and established himself king.
100. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
     . This king invaded Anxi(Parthia) and took Gaofu(Kabul) and destroyed Puda and Jibin.
101. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
     . and his son yangouzhen(Vima takto) succeeded him as king. He in his turn destroyed Tianzhu and installed a general there to control it.
102. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
     . occupied Gandhara around 60 CE and Taxila by 78 CE
103. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
     . The state of Gaofu to the southwest of Da Yuezhi and is also a large state. Its way of life resembles that of Tianzhu and the people are weak and easily conquered. They excel in commerce, and internally they are very wealthy. Their political allegiance has never been constant.
104. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
     . The three states of Tianzhu Jibin and Anxi had possessed it when they were strong and have lost it when they were weak.
105. ISBN 978-7-100-19365-8
     . its customs are the same as those of Yuezhi...the inhabitants ride on elephants in warfare
106. ISBN 9780984404308
     .
107. ^ Marshall, John H. (1909): "Archaeological Exploration in India, 1908–9." (Section on: "The stūpa of Kanishka and relics of the Buddha"). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909, pp. 1056–1061.
108. ISBN 978-81-7017-088-4
     . Retrieved 13 December 2012.
109. ISBN 9789231032110
     .
110. ISBN 9788124600177
     .
111. ISBN 9789004181595
     .
112. ISBN 978-90-6984-715-3, archived from the original
     on 11 January 2020, retrieved 1 May 2021
113. ISBN 9780883863015
     .
114. ^ Upendra Thakur (1967). The Hūṇas in India. Chowkhamba Prakashan. pp. 52–55.
115. JSTOR 44710198
     .
116. ^
     JSTOR 44710198
     .
117. ^ Iaroslav Lebedynsky, "Les Nomades", p172.
118. ^ "British Museum notice". British Museum. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
119. ^ ^{a b} Ghosh, Amalananda (1965). Taxila. CUP Archive. p. 791.
120. ISBN 9780674981287
     .
121. ISBN 9780984404308
     . Retrieved 24 March 2017.
122. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9
     .
123. ISBN 9789004135956
     .
124. ISBN 9780674981287
     .
125. ISBN 978-90-474-2006-4
     .
126. ^ Thakur Upender (1967). The Hunas In India Vol-lviii (1967) Ac 4776. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office. p. 267. The Brahmanas of Gandhara accepted from him gift of agraharas; they no doubt, too, were similar as his own and were the meanest Brahmanas.
127. ^ Rehman 1976, p. 187 and Pl. V B., "the horseman is shown wearing a turban-like head-gear with a small globule on the top".
128. ^ Rahman, Abdul (2002). "New Light on the Khingal, Turk and the Hindu Sahis" (PDF). Ancient Pakistan. XV: 37–42. The Hindu Śāhis were therefore neither Bhattis, or Janjuas, nor Brahmans. They were simply Uḍis/Oḍis. It can now be seen that the term Hindu Śāhi is a misnomer and, based as it is merely upon religious discrimination, should be discarded and forgotten. The correct name is Uḍi or Oḍi Śāhi dynasty.
129. ^ Meister, Michael W. (2005). "The Problem of Platform Extensions at Kafirkot North" (PDF). Ancient Pakistan. XVI: 41–48. Rehman (2002: 41) makes a good case for calling the Hindu Śāhis by a more accurate name, "Uḍi Śāhis".
130. ^ The Shahi Afghanistan and Punjab, 1973, pp 1, 45–46, 48, 80, Dr D. B. Pandey; The Úakas in India and Their Impact on Indian Life and Culture, 1976, p 80, Vishwa Mitra Mohan – Indo-Scythians; Country, Culture and Political life in early and medieval India, 2004, p 34, Daud Ali.
131. ^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1954, pp 112 ff; The Shahis of Afghanistan and Punjab, 1973, p 46, Dr D. B. Pandey; The Úakas in India and Their Impact on Indian Life and Culture, 1976, p 80, Vishwa Mitra Mohan – Indo-Scythians.
132. ^ India, A History, 2001, p 203, John Keay.
133. ^ Sehrai, Fidaullah (1979). Hund: The Forgotten City of Gandhara, p. 2. Peshawar Museum Publications New Series, Peshawar.
134. ^ (Wynbrandt 2009, pp. 52–54)
135. ^
     ISBN 978-0-521-29137-8
     , ... Jaypala of Waihind saw danger in the consolidation of the kingdom of Ghazna and decided to destroy it. He, therefore, invaded Ghazna, but was defeated ...
136. ^ ^{a b c d} Ferishta's History of Dekkan from the first Mahummedan conquests(etc). Shrewsbury [Eng.] : Printed for the editor by J. and W. Eddowes. 1794 – via Internet Archive.
137. ^ ^{a b c} Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. "GĀNDHĀRĪ LANGUAGE". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
138. ISBN 978-90-04-39186-4
     .
139. ISBN 978-969-35-1231-1
     .
140. ISBN 978-3-11-089887-3
     .
141. ISBN 978-3-946234-31-9
     . Palula belongs to a group of Indo-Aryan (IA) languages spoken in the Hindukush region that are often referred to as "Dardic" languages... It has been and is still disputed to what extent this primarily geographically defined grouping has any real classificatory validity... On the one hand, Strand suggests that the term should be discarded altogether, holding that there is no justification whatsoever for any such grouping (in addition to the term itself having a problematic history of use), and prefers to make a finer classification of these languages into smaller genealogical groups directly under the IA heading, a classification we shall return to shortly... Zoller identifies the Dardic languages as the modern successors of the Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) language Gandhari (also Gandhari Prakrit), but along with Bashir, Zoller concludes that the family tree model alone will not explain all the historical developments.
142. ISBN 978-88-6323-149-6
     . ...This leads us to the conclusion that the ancient dialects of the Peshawar District, the country between Tirah and Swât, must have belonged to the Tirahi-Kohistani type and that the westernmost Dardic language, Pashai, which probably had its ancient centre in Laghmân, has enjoyed a comparatively independent position since early times". …Today the Kohistâni languages descendent from the ancient dialects that developed in these valleys have all been displaced from their original homelands, as described below.
143. ^
     JSTOR 608051
     . ... It might be going too far to say that Torwali is the direct lineal descendant of the Niya Prakrit, but there is no doubt that out of all the modern languages, it shows the closest resemblance to it. A glance at the map in the Linguistic Survey of India shows that the area at present covered by "Kohistani" is the nearest to that area around Peshawar, where, as stated above, there is most reason to believe was the original home of the Niya Prakrit. That conclusion, which was reached for other reasons, is thus confirmed by the distribution of the modern dialects.
144. ^
     ISBN 978-969-35-1231-1
     . In the Peshawar district, there does not remain any Indian dialect continuing this old Gandhari. The last to disappear was Tirahi, still spoken some years ago in Afghanistan, in the vicinity of Jalalabad, by descendants of migrants expelled from Tirah by the Afridis in the 19th century. Nowadays, it must be entirely extinct and in the NWFP can only found modern Iranian languages brought in by later immigrants (Baluch, Pashto) or Indian languages brought in by the paramount political power (Urdu, Panjabi) or by Hindu traders (Hindko).
145. ISBN 978-1-135-79710-2
     .
146. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3
     .
147. ^ "The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue". www.acmuller.net.
148. ^ Mukherjee, Bratindra Nath. India in Early Central Asia. 1996. p. 15
149. ^ Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2008. p. 30
150. ^ ^{a b} Nakamura, Hajime. Indian Buddhism: A Survey With Biographical Notes. 1999. p. 205
151. ^ Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2008. p. 239
152. ^ "Gandharan Sculptural Style: The Buddha Image". Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
153. ^ ^{a b} Ray, Reginald. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. 1999. p. 410
154. ^ Ray, Reginald. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. 1999. p. 426
155. ISBN 978-0774841283
     . Retrieved 16 August 2019.
156. ^ ^{a b c} "Buddhism and Buddhist Art".
157. JSTOR 864875
     .
158. DOAJ
159. ^ "Gandhara:Buddha no Seisen". Retrieved 21 March 2023.

Sources

• Beal, Samuel. 1884. Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang. 2 vols. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. Reprint: Delhi. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. 1969.
• Beal, Samuel. 1911. The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by the Shaman Hwui Li, with an Introduction containing an account of the Works of I-Tsing. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. 1911. Reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi. 1973.
• Bellew, H.W. Kashmir and Kashgar. London, 1875. Reprint: Sang-e-Meel Publications 1999
  ISBN 969-35-0738-X
• Caroe, Sir Olaf, The Pathans, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 1958.
• Eggermont, Pierre Herman Leonard (1975), Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia, Peeters Publishers,
  ISBN 978-90-6186-037-2
• Herodotus (1920). Histories (in Greek and English). With an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu". 2nd Edition: Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes, 1st to 2nd centuries CE. 2015. John E. Hill. Volume I,
  ISBN 978-1503384620
  . CreateSpace, North Charleston, S.C.
• Hussain, J. An Illustrated History of Pakistan, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 1983.
• "Imperial Gazetteer2 of India, Volume 19– Imperial Gazetteer of India". Digital South Asia Library. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
• Legge, James. Trans. and ed. 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fâ-hsien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Reprint: Dover Publications, New York. 1965.
• Neelis, Jason (2010), Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia, BRILL,
  ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5
• Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (1953). Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty. University of Calcutta.
• Rehman, Abdur (January 1976). The Last Two Dynasties of the Sahis: An analysis of their history, archaeology, coinage and palaeography (Thesis). Australian National University.
• Shaw, Isobel. Pakistan Handbook, The Guidebook Co., Hong Kong, 1989
• Watters, Thomas. 1904–5. On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India (A.D. 629–645). Reprint: Mushiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi. 1973.
• Wynbrandt, James (2009). A Brief History of Pakistan. New York: Infobase Publishing.

Further reading

• Lerner, Martin (1984). The flame and the lotus: Indian and Southeast Asian art from the Kronos collections. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  ISBN 0-87099-374-7
  .
• Rehman, Abdur (2009). "A Note on the Etymology of Gandhāra". Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 23: 143–146.
  JSTOR 24049432
  .
• Filigenzi, Anna (2000). "Reviewed Work: A Catalogue of the Gandhāra Sculpture in the British Museum, Vol. I: Text, Vol. II: Plates by Wladimir Zwalf". Wladimir Zwalf, Review by: Anna Filigenzi. 50 (1/4). Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente: 584–586.
  JSTOR 29757475
  .
• Rienjang, Wannaporn, and Peter Stewart (eds), The Rediscovery and Reception of Gandharan Art (Archaeopress, 2022) ISBN 978-1-80327-233-7.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gandhara.

• Gandharan Connections Project (Cambridge, 2016–2021)
• Livius.org: Gandara Archived 19 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• The Buddhist Manuscript project
• University of Washington's Gandharan manuscript
• Coins of Gandhara janapada
• Gandhara Civilization- National Fund for Cultural Heritage (Pakistan)

33°45′22″N 72°49′45″E / 33.7560°N 72.8291°E / 33.7560; 72.8291

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