Vajrapāṇi in the Narrative Reliefs, in: Migration, Trade and Peoples, Part 2: Gandharan Art, ed. C. Fröhlich, The British Association for South Asian Studies, (Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the European Association of South

The frieze of the Buddha and the nude Vajrapani at Jamal Garhi

The Gandharan school of art can be recognized as an Indian school of art with Greek influence. The hitherto known archaeological evidence at the sites of Gandharan school of art reveal art and architectural elements which attest both oriental and Hellenistic elements in depiction as a result of "the cultural influence of the Indo-Greeks and the indo-Parthians who had mingled with the local population" 1. Among the prominent art and sculptures found in the Gandharan art, the depiction of Vajrapani as the protector of Lord Buddha in reliefs is significant. The objective of the paper is to highlight the importance of the selected frieze where the nude Vajrapani is depicted turning complete backward unlike any other Indian or Hellenistic art found so far. Further the paper will discuss both the Hellenistic and oriental elements in the selected illustration of the Buddha and the Vajrapani in the relief found at the monastic site of Jamal-Garhi, Gandhara. Further, the discussion will be extended by focusing on the fact whether the artist of the specific relief is an Indian or a Greek artist based on the analysis of the relief and examine how the artist have amalgamated both the oriental and Greek values in the same relief in order to serve the purpose of the particular art. The ancient region of Gandhara is comprised of the Northwestern part of ancient India which includes the Peshawar valley and the Swat valley. In the modern map, this is the part of Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan. The region of Gandhara belonged to the Achaemenide 2 empire and was under the Persian domination during the 6 th century BCE. Once Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire in the late 4 th century BCE, Gandhara came under the power of Macedonia. In 320 BCE, Chandra Gupta Maurya initiated the Maurya dynasty. The edicts or the pillars erected by King Ashoka (268-232 BCE) proves that he declared Buddhism as the religion of the state and became a patron of Buddhism during his 1 (Agrawala, 1964) 2 Ancient Persian Empire from 770-330 BCE

The universal compassionate Bodhisattva, Miscellaneous Aspects of Avalokitasvara/ Avalokiteshvara in India, Silk Road Art and Archaeology, Kamakura: The Institute of Silk Road Studies, vol. 10, 2004, pp. 225-90

different" or "better" through the adjunction of artificial elements. On the contrary, the positions which it presents are drawn from the real life experienced by the artists and reflect, I would suggest, and although this would require further studies, the emotional field of human mind." The human body has developed its own language which varies from culture to culture, from period to period. The image of the divine body is a human product and acts as an echo to the human body; we can, therefore, surmise that the meaning of this language is shared by men and gods, that human beings use the divine body for projecting their feelings within the images which they The universal compassionate Bodhisattva produce, and imprinting those feelings and emotions with etemity. 221 The positions displayed by the body reflect hidden aspects of the deity (as projected by human s.R. A.A., X (2004) For the sake of clarity, we divide the development in three successice phases: early period (1''-4,r.c. AD), intern-rediate period (J'r'-7tn c.) and late period (8'n-10'u c.). Simultaneously, we distinguish three large areas, which are l) the Northwest (Gandhara, North Pakistan; Afghanistan) and the North (Mathura) of the Peninsula, 2) Maharashtra. and 3) Eastem lndia (Bihar, Bengal and Orissa). The production in the flrst region broadly belongs to the early period, with, however, a concentration of images ir-r the Swat valley during the intermediate period, and some stelae fiom this area might well be dated in the 7'r' c.; the production in the second region dates back to the intermediate period, and the images from Eastern India belongs on the whole to the late period.

"Intrusive Art" at Ajaṇṭā in the Late Middle Period: The Case of Bhadrāsana Buddhas

Religions 13(9): 771, 2022

Following the apparent chaos that ensued at Ajaṇṭā during the so-called “period of disruption” in the wake of King Hariṣeṇa’s death (ca. 478–480 CE), local monks and residents in the caves continued to sponsor the donation of what we term “intrusive” images after the late Walter Spink. These new donations consisted of hundreds of Buddha images, a few of which retain today painted or incised dedicatory inscriptions in Sanskrit. Many of these images represent the Buddha preaching and seated in the “auspicious pose” (bhadrāsana) on the conventional lion throne with his legs down. In this article, the author focuses on the images accompanied by inscriptions since they provide a better understanding of the reuse of consecrated caves, and of the nature of this new and brief iconographic development implemented by local Buddhist residents. The sudden appearance of Bhadrāsana Buddhas seems indeed to correlate with a rise to prevalence of Mahāyāna Buddhist practices at Ajaṇṭā during the late Middle Period.