page_title: Legacy of the Indo-Greeks
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Legacy of the Indo-Greeks / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Iconographical evolution of the Greek Herakles into the Japanese Shukongoshin. All Wikipedia Public Domain photograph (except Herakles, which is GNU Free Documentation license).
context_page_description: The legacy of the Indo-Greeks starts with the formal end of the Indo-Greek Kingdom from the 1st century, as the Greek communities of central Asia and northwestern India lived under the control of the Kushan branch of the Yuezhi, apart from a short-lived invasion of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. The Kushans founded the Kushan Empire, which was to prosper for several centuries. In the south, the Greeks were under the rule of the Western Kshatrapas.
  It is unclear how much longer the Greeks managed to maintain a distinct presence in the Indian sub-continent.
context_section_description: Art
  The "Kanishka casket", dated to the first year of Kanishka's reign in 127 CE, was signed by a Greek artist named Agesilas, who oversaw work at Kanishka's stupas (caitya), confirming the direct involvement of Greeks with Buddhist realizations at such a late date.
  Greek representations and artistic styles, with some possible admixtures from the Roman world, continued to maintain a strong identity down to the 3rd–4th century, as indicated by the archaeological remains of such sites as Hadda in eastern Afghanistan.
  The Greco-Buddhist image of the Buddha was transmitted progressively through Central Asia and China until it reached Japan in the 6th century.
  Numerous elements of Greek mythology and iconography, introduced in northwestern India by the Indo-Greeks through their coinage at the very least, were then adopted throughout Asia within a Buddhist context, especially along the Silk Road. The Japanese Buddhist deity Shukongoshin, one of the wrath-filled protector deities of Buddhist temples in Japan, is an interesting case of transmission of the image of the famous Greek god Herakles to the Far-East along the Silk Road. The image of Herakles was introduced in India with the coinage of Demetrius and several of his successors, used in Greco-Buddhist art to represent Vajrapani the protector of the Buddha, and was then used in Central Asia, China and Japan to depict the protector gods of Buddhist temples.
  Religion
  The impact of the Indo-Greeks on Indian thought and religion is unknown, although many influences have been suggested. Initially Greek settlers followed a pantheon of gods and goddesses assimilating with other deities. For example, Eucratides I depicted coinage with Zeus/Indra riding Airavata. Buddhism was spread to Greek communities by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Scholars believe that Mahayana Buddhism began around the 1st century BCE in the North-western Indian subcontinent, corresponding to the time and place of Indo-Greek florescence. Intense multi-cultural influences have indeed been suggested in the appearance of Mahayana. According to Richard Foltz, "Key formative influences on the early development of the Mahayana and Pure Land movements, which became so much part of East Asian civilization, are to be sought in Buddhism's earlier encounters along the Silk Road". As Mahayana Buddhism emerged, it received "influences from popular Hindu devotional cults (bhakti), Persian and Greco-Roman theologies which filtered into India from the northwest".
caption: Iconographical evolution from the Greek god Herakles to the Japanese god Shukongōshin. From left to right:
  1) Herakles (Louvre Museum).
  2) Herakles on coin of Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I.
  3) Vajrapani, the protector of the Buddha, depicted as Herakles in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.
  4) Shukongōshin, manifestation of Vajrapani, as protector deity of Buddhist temples in Japan.
exif: {}