page_title: Greco-Buddhist art
section_title: Art of the Shunga
hierarchical_section_title: Greco-Buddhist art / Southern influences / Art of the Shunga
caption_attribution_description: English: Greek Warrior. Bharhut, c. 100 BC. Indian Museum, Calcutta The Greeks (speciafically Indo-Greeks) were evidently known at this date to people in the middle of India; here, a Greek warrior has been coopted into the role of dvarapala. The evidence includes his hairstyle, tunic, and boots. In his right hand he holds a grape plant, emblematic of his origin. The sheath of his broadsword is decorated with a nandipada. INSCRIPTION Inscription 55 in the Pillars of Railing of the SW Quadrant at Bharhut. The inscription at the top, classified as Inscription 55 in the Pillars of Railing of the SW Quadrant at Bharhut (The Stupa of Bharhut, Cunningham, p.136 [1]), is in the Brahmi script and reads from left to right: "Bhadanta Mahilasa thabho dânam" "Pillar-gift of the lay brother Mahila."
context_page_description: Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism. Greco-Buddhist art is characterized by the strong idealistic realism and sensuous description of Hellenistic art and the first representations of the Buddha in human form, which have helped define the artistic canon for Buddhist art throughout the Asian continent up to the present. It is also a strong example of cultural syncretism between eastern and western traditions.
  The origins of Greco-Buddhist art are to be found in the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom, located in today’s Afghanistan, from which Hellenistic culture radiated into the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of the Indo-Greek kingdom. Under the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushans, the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished in the area of Gandhara, in today’s northern Pakistan, before spreading further into India, influencing the art of Mathura, and then the Hindu art of the Gupta empire, which was to extend to the rest of South-East Asia.
context_section_description: Examples of the influence of Hellenistic or Greco-Buddhist art on the art of the Shunga Empire (183-73 BC) are usually faint. The main religion, at least at the beginning, seems to have been Brahmanic Hinduism, although some late Buddhist realizations in Madhya Pradesh as also known, such as some architectural expansions that were done at the stupas of Sanchi and Bharhut, originally started under King Ashoka.
caption: Indian relief of probable Indo-Greek king, with Buddhist triratana symbol on his sword. Bharhut, 2nd century BC. Indian Museum, Calcutta.
exif: {}