As a small boy in Tokyo; the Song Gandhara by Godaigo intrigued me ----it was the opening song of
The ancient kingdom of Gandhara stretched across parts of present-day
Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was a vital commercial center of the Middle
East many centuries before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
For a time, Gandhara also was a jewel of Buddhist civilization. Scholars
of Gandhara traveled east to India and China and were influential in
the development of early Mahayana Buddhism. The art of Gandhara included
the earliest oil paintings known in human history and the first -- and
some of the most beautiful -- depictions of bodhisattvas and the Buddha
in human form.
Where Was Gandhara?
The Kingdom of Gandhara existed, in one form or another, for more
than 15 centuries. It began as a province of the Persian Empire in 530
BCE and ended in 1021 CE, when its last king was assassinated by his own
troops. During those centuries it expanded and shrank, and its borders
changed many times.
You can find the general area of Gandhara on this map of present-day Afghanistan and part of Pakistan.
The old kingdom included what is now Kabul, Afghanistan and Islamabad,
Pakistan. Find Bamiyan (spelled Bamian) west and slightly north of
Kabul. The area marked "Hindu Kush" also was part of Gandhara. This map of Pakistan
shows the location of the historic city of Peshawar. The Swat Valley,
not marked, is just west of Peshawar and is important to the history of
Gandhara.
How Buddhism Came to Gandhara
Although this part of the Middle East has supported human
civilization for at least 6,000 years, our story begins in 530 BCE. That
year the Persian Emperor Darius I conquered Gandhara and made it part
of his empire. Then in 333 BCE Alexander the Great defeated the armies
of Darius III and gained control of Persia, and by 327 BCE Alexander
controlled Gandhara also.
One of Alexander's successors, Seleucus, became ruler of Persia and
Mesopotamia. The Seleucid Empire officially lasted from 312 to 63 BCE.
However, Seleucus made the mistake of challenging his neighbor to the
east, the Emperor Chandragupta Maurya of India. The confrontation did
not go well for Seleucus, who ceded much territory, including Gandhara,
to Chandragupta.
Chandragupta left the Mauryan Empire, which included the territory of
Gandhara, to his son, Bindusara. When Bindusara died, probably in 272
BCE, he left the empire to his son, Ashoka.
Ashoka the Great
Ashoka (ca. 304–232 BCE; sometimes spelled Asoka) originally
was a warrior prince known for his ruthlessness and cruelty. According
to legend he was first exposed to Buddhist teaching when monks cared for
his wounds after a battle. However, his brutality continued until the
day he walked into a city he had just conquered and saw the devastation.
"What have I done?" he cried, and vowed to observe the Buddhist path
for himself and for his kingdom.
Ashoka's empire included almost all of present-day India and
Bangladesh as well as most of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was his
patronage of Buddhism that left the greater mark on world history,
however. Ashoka was instrumental in making Buddhism one of the most
prominent religions of Asia. He built monasteries, erected stupas, and
supported the work of Buddhist missionaries, who took the dharma into
Gandhara and Gandhara's western neighbor, Bactria.
King Menander
The Mauryan Empire declined after Ashoka's death. The Greek-Bactrian
King Demetrius I conquered Gandhara about 185 BCE, but subsequent wars
made Gandhara an Indo-Greek kingdom independent of Bactria.
One of the most prominent of the Indo-Greek kings of Gandhara was
Menander, also called Melinda, who ruled from about 160 to 130 BCE.
Menander is said to have been a devout Buddhist. The Pali Canon contains a dialogue, called The Milindapañha, alleged to be between King Menander and a Buddhist scholar named Nagasena.
After Menander's death Gandhara was invaded again, first by Scythians
and then Parthians. The invasions wiped out the Indo-Greek kingdom.
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