May
17
Gandharan Buddhism
Archaeology, Art, Texts
Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt, eds, 2006, Introduction, p. 2-5.
Some of the first “excavations” of Gandharan Buddhist sites were undertaken in the 1830s by a handful of military officers with the goal of collecting coins. Already by the late nineteenth century, Buddhist sites such as Takht-ibahi were excavated for their sculpture, and summary archaeological reports started to appear. Alexander Cunningham, and later John Marshall at the beginning of the twentieth century, changed the nature and scope of Buddhist archaeology in Gandhara. Although their work led to a massive collection of sculptural remains, their primary interest was to understand better the Buddhist tradition in the region and beyond.
In most Hindu temples in contemporary India, the statue of the deity to which the cult is offered can be seen undressed, without any ornamentation, only when the deity is awakened in the morning to be washed, beautified by makeup, dressed, and embellished with jewellery and flowers. Such a preparation will sometimes be concealed from the devotees’ sight by drawing the curtains of the sanctum, so that the deity may be “seen” only when completely ready – often almost invisible under cloths, jewellery, and colourful garlands. For instance, during the Rām Sītā cult in the royal temple of Sultanpur in Kullu (Himachal Pradesh), the statue of the goddess Sītā can be seen by devotees only during the morning worship, when the priest has to wash the image before dressing it; once the priest has finished her makeup she is completely wrapped up in her sari and covered by pearl necklaces. Her husband, the god Raghunāth, to whom the temple is dedicated, is also presented to devotees completely submerged under flowers. In fact, nearly every ritual image, even aniconic (such as the diagrams drawn by Brahmin priests at the time of fire oblations), is often completely hidden by cloths or flowers.
