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60-549: Bishnumati is one of the very important rivers of the valley. It provides water for drinking, cultivating agriculture and ritual purposes of the local citizens. It has rich ritual cultural values. But for the last 35 years, it has been used as a dumping site. Encroachment on the river with the diversion of its water has occurred. For that surrounding environment should be improved. That is the riverside improvement and demand of greenery development by bioengineering system to be needed today The 1500-year history of funerary architecture in

120-856: A battle against King Porus of Pauravas in Punjab, the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC. The Mauryan Empire would later defeat the successor Seleucid Empire, during the Seleucid-Mauryan War . Resulting in the transfer of the satraps in the Indus Valley and Gandhara , that had been part of the Achaemenid , Macedonian and Seleucidian , to the Mauryan Empire. However, contacts were kept with his Greco-Iranian neighbors in

180-632: A common religious focus for populations with different traditions: a well-known example is Serapis , introduced by Ptolemy I Soter in Hellenistic Egypt , who combined aspects of Greek and Egyptian Gods. In India as well, it was only natural for the Greeks to create a single common divinity by combining the image of a Greek god-king ( Apollo , or possibly the deified founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom , Demetrius I of Bactria ), with

240-424: A large part of the symbolism of Indo-Greek coinage, but refrained from ever using the elephant, suggesting that its meaning was not merely geographical. Finally, after the reign of Menander I, several Indo-Greek rulers, such as Amyntas Nikator , Nicias , Peukolaos , Hermaeus , Hippostratos and Menander II , depicted themselves or their Greek deities forming with the right hand a benediction gesture identical to

300-651: A legend preserved in the Pali Canon , two merchant brothers from Kamsabhoga in Bactria, Tapassu and Bhallika, visited Gautama Buddha and became his disciples. The legend states that they then returned home and spread the Buddha's teaching. In 326 BC, Alexander conquered the Northern region of India. King Ambhi of Taxila, known as Taxiles , surrendered his city, a notable Buddhist center, to Alexander. Alexander fought

360-452: A lion-skin, the protector deity of Demetrius I of Bactria , "served as an artistic model for Vajrapani , a protector of the Buddha". In Japan , this expression further translated into the wrath-filled and muscular Niō guardian gods of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples. According to Katsumi Tanabe, professor at Chūō University, Japan, besides Vajrapani, Greek influence also appears in several other gods of

420-616: A nonexistent category today. However, temples such as Tongdosa in South Korea claim to keep his robe and begging bowl. The category also includes all places the Buddha visited, so Bodh Gaya itself functions as a paribhogaka. The most common paribhogaka is the Bodhi Tree , which was transplanted across Southeast Asia; cuttings of the original bodhi tree still survive today in Sri Lanka. Another extremely common paribhoga cetiya

480-417: A reminder of Buddhist insight. The conventional view has long been this meant that early Buddhist art was aniconic . However, this view has recently been the subject of debate among specialists . There does not seem to have been any prohibition of creating images of the Buddha. Rather, creating images of the paribhogaka was regarded as a more fulfilling and meaningful symbol by the early Buddhists, evoking

540-596: A very active part in it. Several Buddhist dedications by Greeks in India are recorded, such as that of the Greek meridarch (civil governor of a province) named Theodorus , describing in Kharosthi how he enshrined relics of the Buddha . The inscriptions were found on a vase inside a stupa, dated to the reign of Menander or one of his successors in the 1st century BC. Finally, Buddhist tradition recognizes Menander as one of

600-551: A wider audience: One of the distinguishing features of the Gandharan school of art that emerged in north-west India is that it has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the Classical Greek style. Thus, while these images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc. and slept much as we do. I feel this

660-561: Is the Buddha footprint , which are found across the Buddhist world symbolizing the ground that Buddha walked on and the powerful size of his dhammakāya . Sometimes these footprints are also classed as udesaka, a representation of the Buddha's foot, or sārīraka, implying that the footprint was the foot itself. The final category, udesaka or uddesika cetiya, literally translates as "indicative reminders" or "votive objects", for example images of

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720-446: Is very important. These figures are inspiring because they do not only depict the goal, but also the sense that people like us can achieve it if we try. During the following centuries, this anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha defined the canon of Buddhist art, but progressively evolved to incorporate more Indian and Asian elements. Several other Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For example, Heracles with

780-678: The Anatolian peninsula , which at the time was inhabited by many Greek cultures. When they rebelled, those Greeks were often ethnically cleansed by being relocated to the far end of the Persian Empire, those central Asian provinces. When Alexander the Great conquered Achaemenid Empire and further regions of Central Asia in 334 BC, he thus encountered many Greeks already established in the easternmost stretches of its empire. He then ventured into Punjab (land of five rivers). Alexander crossed

840-858: The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom , Indo-Greek Kingdoms , and Kushan Empire . Mahayana Buddhism was spread from the Gangetic plains in India into Gandhara and then Central Asia during the Mauryan Era, where it became the most prevalent branch of Buddhism in Central Asia. Mahayana Buddhism was later transmitted through the Silk Road into the Han dynasty during the Kushan era under the reign of Emperor Kanishka . Buddhist tradition details

900-581: The Greco-Buddhist art shows clear Hellenistic influences, the majority of scholars do not assume a noticeable Greek influence on Gandharan Buddhism beyond the artistic realm. Cultural interactions between ancient Greece and Buddhism date back to Greek forays into the Indian subcontinent from the time of Alexander the Great . A few years after Alexander's death, the Easternmost fringes of

960-607: The Indus and Jhelum River when defeating Porus and appointing him as a satrap following the Battle of the Hydaspes . Alexander's army would mutiny and retreat along the Beas River when confronted by the Nanda Empire , thus wouldn't conquer Punjab entirely. Thanks to relocation by the Persian Empire, there was established Greek culture in the far east of Alexander's empire. He founded several cities in his new territories in

1020-953: The Kambojas , the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma . Finally, some of the emissaries of Ashoka, such as the famous Dharmaraksita , are described in Pali sources as leading Greek (" Yona ") Buddhist monks active in Buddhist proselytism (the Mahavamsa , XII ), founding

1080-522: The Pāli Canon : "Relic [Dhatu], Memorial [Paribhoga], Teaching [Dhamma], and votive [Udesaka]." Griswold, in contrast, states that three are traditional and the fourth, the Buddha Dhamma , was added later to remind monks that the true memory of Gautama Buddha can be found in his teachings. While these can be broadly called Buddhist symbolism , the emphasis tends to be on a historical connection to

1140-537: The Pāli canon ; we find the same description in the Dāsāṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā . Additionally, the nudity of Jainist sculptures might have been inspired by Apollonian archetypes. Greek artists were most probably the authors of these early representations of the Buddha, in particular the standing statues, which display "a realistic treatment of the folds and on some even a hint of modelled volume that characterizes

1200-563: The Seleucid Empire . Emperor Seleucus I Nicator came to a marital agreement as part of a peace treaty, and several Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes , resided at the Mauryan court. Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka embraced the Buddhist faith and became a great proselytizer in the line of the traditional Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism, insisting on non-violence to humans and animals ( ahimsa ), and general precepts regulating

1260-697: The empire of his general Seleucus were lost in a war with the Mauryan Empire , under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya . The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka would convert to Buddhism and spread the religious philosophy throughout his domain, as recorded in the Edicts of Ashoka . This spread to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom , which itself seceded from the Seleucid Empire. Following the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, Buddhism continued to flourish under

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1320-403: The 18 months they were in India, they were able to interact with Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism , generally described as gymnosophists ("naked philosophers"). Pyrrho returned to Greece and founded Pyrrhonism , considered by modern scholars as the first Western school of skepticism . The Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius explained that Pyrrho's equanimity and detachment from

1380-475: The Buddha and not a metaphysical one. In pre-Buddhist India caitya was a term for a shrine or holy place in the landscape, generally outdoors, inhabited by, or sacred to, a particular deity. In the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra , near the end of his life the Buddha remarks to Ananda how beautiful are the various caitya round Vaishali . The sārīraka (Sanskrit śarīra ) or dhātu cetiya,

1440-679: The Buddha and was famous for his religious syncretism, convened the Fourth Buddhist council around 100 in Kashmir in order to redact the Sarvastivadin canon . Some of Kanishka's coins bear the earliest representations of the Buddha on a coin (around 120), in Hellenistic style and with the word "Boddo" in Greek script. Kanishka also had the original Gandhari Prakrit Mahāyāna sūtras translated into Sanskrit , "a turning point in

1500-629: The Buddha himself are often considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist interaction. Before this innovation, Buddhist art was " aniconic ": the Buddha was only represented through his symbols (an empty throne, the Bodhi Tree , Buddha footprints , the Dharmachakra ). This reluctance towards anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, and the sophisticated development of aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative scenes where other human figures would appear), seem to be connected to one of

1560-525: The Buddha's sayings reported in the Digha Nikaya that discouraged representations of himself after the extinction of his body. Probably not feeling bound by these restrictions, and because of "their cult of form, the Greeks were the first to attempt a sculptural representation of the Buddha". In many parts of the Ancient World, the Greeks did develop syncretic divinities, that could become

1620-417: The Buddha. Udesaka do not have any physical connection to the Buddha but still serve as relics because they were created in his memory. Originally udesaka were secondary to paribhogaka and sārīraka, but with the influence of Greco-Buddhism , statues of the Buddha were produced in great numbers, followed later by paintings and other images. The dharmachakra "wheel of the dharma", falls under this category as

1680-635: The Buddhist monk Nagasena . The Mahavamsa , chapter 29, records that during Menander's reign, a Greek thera (elder monk) named Mahadharmaraksita led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of Alexandria" (possibly Alexandria on the Caucasus , around 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of a stupa, indicating that Buddhism flourished in Menander's territory and that Greeks took

1740-656: The Buddhist vitarka mudra (thumb and index joined together, with other fingers extended), which in Buddhism signifies the transmission of Buddha's teaching. According to Ptolemy , Greek cities were founded by the Greco-Bactrians in northern India . Menander established his capital in Sagala (modern Sialkot , Punjab, Pakistan ) one of the centers of the blossoming Buddhist culture . A large Greek city built by Demetrius and rebuilt by Menander has been excavated at

1800-432: The Buddhist world, in such quantity that not all could be legitimate; in this sense the sārīraka functions mainly as a symbol, with the importance of authenticity varying between cultures. The body parts of especially powerful monks are also called sārīraka, but these usually take on the form of bright jewels formed during the cremation of the body. The paribhoga cetiya, things used by the Buddha, would seem at first to be

1860-734: The Dharma") in Prakrit written in Kharoshthi . Some of the coins of Menander I and Menander II incorporate the Buddhist symbol of the eight-spoked wheel, associated with the Greek symbols of victory, either the palm of victory, or the victory wreath handed over by the goddess Nike . According to the Milinda Pañha , at the end of his reign Menander I became a Buddhist arhat , a fact also echoed by Plutarch , who explains that his relics were shared and enshrined. The ubiquitous symbol of

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1920-539: The Greco-Bactrians and invading the northern parts of Pakistan and India from around 1 AD. By that time they had already been in contact with Greek culture and the Indo-Greek kingdoms for more than a century. They used the Greek script to write their language, as exemplified by their coins and their adoption of the Greek alphabet . The Kushan King Kanishka, who honored Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanic deities as well as

1980-507: The Greek king Antiochos (Antiyoga) rules, and beyond there where the four kings named Ptolemy (Turamaya), Antigonos (Antikini), Magas (Maka) and Alexander (Alikasu[n]dara) rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas , the Pandyas , and as far as Tamraparni . Ashoka also claims he converted to Buddhism Greek populations within his realm: Here in the king's domain among the Greeks,

2040-528: The Greek populations within his realm to Buddhism: Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas , the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras, and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma . The decline and overthrow of the Mauryans by the Shunga Empire , and of the revolt of Bactria in the Seleucid Empire led to

2100-623: The Kathmandu Valley is some of the finest examples of stone architecture found on the subcontinent. A caitya is placed in almost all courtyards in cities like Patan . This article related to a river in Nepal is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Caitya Cetiya , "reminders" or "memorials" ( Sanskrit caitya ), are objects and places used by Buddhists to remember Gautama Buddha . According to Damrong Rajanubhab , four kinds are distinguished in

2160-538: The Nanda Empire . Chandragupta would then defeat the Seleucid Empire during the Seleucid-Mauryan War . This resulted in the transfer of the Macedonian satraps in the Indus Valley and Gandhara to the Mauryan Empire. Furthermore, a marriage alliance was enacted which granted Seleucus's daughter as Chandragupta's wife for diplomatic relations. The conflict additionally led to the transfer of 500 war elephants to

2220-542: The Seleucid Empire from the Mauryan Empire, presumably as reparations for lives lost and damages sustained. The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka established the largest Indian empire. Following the destructive Kalinga War , Ashoka converted to Buddhism. Abandoning an expansionist agenda, Ashoka would adopt humanitarian reformation in place. As ascribed in the Edicts of Ashoka , the Emperor spread Dharma as Buddhism throughout his empire. Ashoka claims to have converted many, including

2280-530: The archaeological site of Sirkap near Taxila , where Buddhist stupas were standing side-by-side with Hindu and Greek temples , indicating religious tolerance and syncretism. Evidence of direct religious interaction between Greek and Buddhist thought during the period include the Milinda Pañha or "Questions of Menander", a Pali-language discourse in the Platonic style held between Menander I and

2340-723: The areas of the Amu Darya and Bactria , and Greek settlements further extended to the Khyber Pass , Gandhara (see Taxila ), and the Punjab . Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BC, the Diadochi or "successors" founded their own kingdoms. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Empire in Anatolia and Central Asia and extended as far as India. The Mauryan Empire , founded by Chandragupta Maurya , would first conquer

2400-408: The best Greek work. This is Classical or Hellenistic Greek, not archaizing Greek transmitted by Persia or Bactria, nor distinctively Roman ." The Greek stylistic influence on the representation of the Buddha, through its idealistic realism, also permitted a very accessible, understandable and attractive visualization of the ultimate state of enlightenment described by Buddhism, allowing it to reach

2460-511: The best philosophy [is] that which liberates the mind from [both] pleasure and grief". Cynicism, particularly the Cynic Peregrinus Proteus was further influenced by the tales of the gymnosophists , particularly the examples set by Kalanos , Dandamis , and Zarmanochegas . The Cyrenaic philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene , from the city of Cyrene where Magas of Cyrene ruled, is thought by some to have been influenced by

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2520-489: The body of the Buddha was cremated) The relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka is the most notable site where a relic is visibly preserved, but hundreds of such sites were created, in the architectural form now called a stupa . In Thai, these stupas are called chedī , retaining the second half of the phrase dhātu cetiya ; in Lao, they are called that after the first half. Beyond the stupa itself, sārīraka are used across

2580-625: The civilization of the Indians. Megasthenes sent detailed reports on Indian religions, which were circulated and quoted throughout the Classical world for centuries: Megasthenes makes a different division of the philosophers, saying that they are of two kinds, one of which he calls the Brachmanes , and the other the Sarmanes ... The Greco-Bactrians maintained a strong Hellenistic culture at

2640-456: The discovery of Buddhist understanding ( pañña ). Whether these scenes contained substitutes for the image of Buddha himself is currently under debate. Greco-Buddhism Greco-Buddhism or Graeco-Buddhism denotes a supposed cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism developed between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD in Gandhara , in present-day Pakistan and parts of north-east Afghanistan . While

2700-461: The door of India during the rule of the Maurya Empire in India, as exemplified by the archaeological site of Ai-Khanoum . When the Maurya Empire was toppled by the Shunga Empire around 180 BC, the Greco-Bactrians expanded into India, where they established the Indo-Greek Kingdom , under which Buddhism was able to flourish. Northern India was the Indo-Greek Kingdom, centered approximately around Alexandria Eschate . They controlled various areas of

2760-404: The elephant in Indo-Greek coinage may also have been associated with Buddhism, as suggested by the parallel between coins of Antialcidas and Menander II , where the elephant in the coins of Antialcidas holds the same relationship to Zeus and Nike as the Buddhist wheel on the coins of Menander II. When the Zoroastrian Indo-Parthian Kingdom invaded North India in the 1st century AD, they adopted

2820-527: The eponymous Dharmaguptaka school of Buddhism. Alexander had established in Bactria several cities (such as Ai-Khanoum and Bagram ) and an administration that were to last more than two centuries under the Seleucid Empire and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom , all the time in direct contact with Indian territory. The Greeks sent ambassadors to the court of the Maurya Empire , such as the historian Megasthenes under Chandragupta Maurya , and later Deimachus under his son Bindusara , who reported extensively on

2880-449: The evolution of the Buddhist literary canon" The Kanishka casket , dated to the first year of Kanishka's reign in 127, was signed by a Greek artist named Agesilas , who oversaw work at Kanishka's stupas ( cetiya ), confirming the direct involvement of Greeks with Buddhist realizations at such a late date. Several Greek philosophers , including Pyrrho , Anaxarchus , and Onesicritus accompanied Alexander in his eastern campaigns. During

2940-407: The faces, all rendered with strong artistic realism . A large quantity of sculptures combining Buddhist and purely Hellenistic styles and iconography were excavated at the modern site of Hadda, Afghanistan . The curly hair of Buddha is described in the famous list of the physical characteristics of the Buddha in the Buddhist sutras. The hair with curls turning to the right is first described in

3000-399: The formation of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250–125 BC). To their north, the Greco-Bactrians were followed by the secession of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC – 10 AD). Even when, centuries later, these Hellenized regions were conquered first by the Yuezhi , then by the Indo-Scythians and the Kushan Empire (1st–3rd centuries AD), Buddhism continued to thrive there. Buddhism in India

3060-457: The great benefactors of the faith, together with Ashoka and Kanishka the Great . Buddhist manuscripts in cursive Greek have been found in Afghanistan, praising various Buddhas and including mentions of the Mahayana figure of " Lokesvararaja Buddha" ( λωγοασφαροραζοβοδδο ). These manuscripts have been dated later than the 2nd century CE. The Kushan Empire , one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi , settled in Bactria around 125 BC, displacing

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3120-442: The life of laypeople. According to the Edicts of Ashoka , set in stone, some of them written in Greek and some in Aramaic , the official language of the Achaemenids , he sent Buddhist emissaries to the Greek lands in Asia and as far as the Mediterranean. The edicts name each of the rulers of the Hellenistic period : The conquest by Dharma has been won here, on the borders, and even six hundred yojanas [4,000 miles] away, where

3180-462: The monk, Majjhantika of Varanasi , was made responsible for spreading Buddhism in the region by Emperor Ashoka. Later on, the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek king Menander I , who may have converted to Buddhism, stimulated the spread of the religion as well. The introduction of Hellenistic Greece to central Asia started after the conquest of that region by Darius the Great and his Persian Achaemenid Empire . He and his successors also conquered

3240-517: The northern Indian territory until 10 AD. Buddhism prospered under the Indo-Greek kings, and it has been suggested that their invasion of India was intended to protect the Buddhist faith from the religious persecutions of the Shungas (185–73 BC), who had overthrown the Mauryans. Zarmanochegas was a śramana (possibly, but not necessarily a Buddhist) who, according to ancient historians such as Strabo , Cassius Dio , and Nicolaus of Damascus traveled to Antioch and Athens while Augustus (died 14 AD)

3300-405: The remains of Gautama Buddha's body, are the category commonly considered "relics" today by Western observers, and were responsible for major forms of Buddhist art and symbolism, although they only constitute one of the three categories of reminders. Most frequently preserved parts of Buddha's body are tooth and bone, because these parts would remain after the rest of the body decayed. (But note that

3360-401: The teachings of Ashoka's Buddhist missionaries. Numerous works of Greco-Buddhist art display the intermixing of Greek and Buddhist influences in such creation centers as Gandhara . The subject matter of Gandharan art was definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of Western Asiatic or Hellenistic origin. Although there is still some debate, the first anthropomorphic representations of

3420-406: The traditional physical characteristics of the Buddha . Many of the stylistic elements in the representations of the Buddha point to Greek influence: himation , the contrapposto stance of the upright figures, such as the 1st–2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas, the stylized curly hair and ushnisha apparently derived from the style of the Apollo Belvedere (330 BC) and the measured quality of

3480-414: The world were acquired in India. Pyrrho was directly influenced by Buddhism in developing his philosophy, which is based on Pyrrho's interpretation of the Buddhist three marks of existence . Another of these philosophers, Onesicritus, a Cynic , is said by Strabo to have learnt in India the following precepts: "That nothing that happens to a man is bad or good, opinions being merely dreams. ... That

3540-510: Was a major religion for centuries until a major Hindu revival from around the 5th century, with remaining strongholds such as Bengal largely ended during the Islamic invasions of India . The length of the Greek presence in Central Asia and northern India provided opportunities for interaction, not only on the artistic but also on the religious plane. When Alexander invaded Bactria and Gandhara, these areas may already have been under Sramanic influence, likely Buddhist and Jain . According to

3600-425: Was ruling the Roman Empire . The coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander I (r. 160–135 BC), found from Afghanistan to central India, bear the inscription "Saviour King Menander" in Greek on the front. Several Indo-Greek kings after Menander, such as Zoilos I , Strato I , Heliokles II , Theophilos , Peukolaos , Menander II , and Archebius display on their coins the title "Maharajasa Dharmika" (lit. "King of

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