Synopsis
Since the beginning of Gandhāran studies in the nineteenth century, chronology has been one of the most significant challenges to the understanding of Gandhāran art. Many other ancient societies, including those of Greece and Rome, have left a wealth of textual sources which have put their fundamental chronological frameworks beyond doubt. In the absence of such sources on a similar scale, even the historical eras cited on inscribed Gandhāran works of art have been hard to place. Few sculptures have such inscriptions and the majority lack any record of find-spot or even general provenance. Those known to have been found at particular sites were sometimes moved and reused in antiquity. Consequently, the provisional dates assigned to extant Gandhāran sculptures have sometimes differed by centuries, while the narrative of artistic development remains doubtful and inconsistent. Building upon the most recent, cross-disciplinary research, debate and excavation, this volume reinforces a new consensus about the chronology of Gandhāra, bringing the history of Gandhāran art into sharper focus than ever. By considering this tradition in its wider context, alongside contemporary Indian art and subsequent developments in Central Asia, the authors also open up fresh questions and problems which a new phase of research will need to address. Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art is the first publication of the Gandhāra Connections project at the University of Oxford’s Classical Art Research Centre, which has been supported by the Bagri Foundation and the Neil Kreitman Foundation. It presents the proceedings of the first of three international workshops on fundamental questions in the study of Gandhāran art, held at Oxford in March 2017.
Table of Contents
Introduction – by Wannaporn Rienjang and Peter Stewart
Numismatic evidence and the date of Kaniṣka I – by Joe Cribb
Positioning Gandhāran Buddhas in chronology: significant coordinates and anomalies – by Juhyung Rhi
A framework for Gandhāran chronology based on relic inscriptions – by Stefan Baums
On Gandhāran sculptural production from Swat: recent archaeological and chronological data – by Luca Maria Olivieri and Anna Filigenzi
The chronology of stūpa relic practice in Afghanistan and Dharmarājikā, Pakistan, and its implication for the rise in popularity of image cult – by Wannaporn Rienjang
Buddhist art’s late bloomer: the genius and influence of Gandhāra – by Monika Zin
On the relationship between Gandhāran toilet-trays and the early Buddhist art of northern India – by Ciro Lo Muzio
Is it appropriate to ask a celestial lady’s age? – by Robert Bracey
Architectural evidence for the Gandhāran tradition after the third century – by Kurt Behrendt
About the Author
WANNAPORN RIENJANG is Project Assistant of the Gandhāra Connections Project at the Classical Art Research Centre, Oxford. She completed her doctoral degree in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge on Buddhist relic cult in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Before starting her PhD, she worked as a research assistant for the Masson Project at the Department of Coins and Medals, the British Museum. Her research interests include the art and archaeology of Greater Gandhāra, Buddhist studies, and working technologies of stone containers and beads.
PETER STEWART is Director of the Classical Art Research Centre and Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He has worked widely in the field of ancient sculpture. His publications include Statues in Roman Society: Representation and Response (2003) and The Social History of Roman Art (2008). Much of his research concerns the relationship between Gandhāran art and Roman sculpture.
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