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The ancient kingdom of Gandhara existed for more than 15 centuries stretching across parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Starting from early 1st millennium BC Kingdom of Gandhara was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the time of the Supreme Buddha. Its main cities were Purushapura (Peshawar) meaning City of Man and Takshashila (Taxila). For a time, Gandhara was a jewel of Buddhist civilization. During the centuries it expanded and shrank and its borders changed many times until it was no more.

The Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great (558–530 BC) built his empire, stretching from Greece to the Indus River. Both Gandhara and Kamboja soon came under the rule of Persia during the reign of his successor, Darius I. By about 380 BC Persian hold on the region weakened. In 333 BCE Alexander the Great defeated Darius III and gained control of Persia, and by 327 BCE Alexander conquered Gandhara. Chandragupta, the creator of Mauryan dynasty lived in Taxila when Alexander captured this city. One of Alexander’s successors, Seleucus, became ruler of Persia and Mesopotamia. After a battle with Seleucus in 305 BC, the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta acquired Gandhara from the Greeks and extended his area including Southern Afghanistan.

Ashoka, 304–232 BC the grandson of Chandragupta, was one of the greatest Indian rulers. Like his grandfather, Ashoka also started his career from Gandhara as a governor. Ashoka’s empire included almost all of 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. King Ashoka made Buddhism one of the most prominent religions of Asia. He built 84,000 monasteries, stupas enshrining the sacred Relics of the Gauthama Buddha that were securely enshrined in Walasanghata stupa by King Ajasatta. The stupa he built in Gandhara was called Dhammarajika stupa. King Ashoka took the dharma into Asia and Gandhara’s western neighbor, Bactria- now northwestern Afghanistan.

The Mauryan Empire declined after Ashoka’s death. The Greek-Bactrian King Demetrius I conquered Gandhara around about 185 BC, but later it became an Indo-Greek kingdom independent of Bactria. One of the most famous of the Indo-Greek kings of Gandhara was Menander, also called Melinda, who ruled from about 160 to 130 BCE. He rebuilt Taxila and Pushkalavati. He became a Buddhist and is remembered in Buddhists records due to his discussions with a great Buddhist philosopher, Nāgasena, in the book Milinda Panha.

By 90 BC the Parthians took control of eastern Iran and in around 50 BC they put an end to the Greek rule in Afghanistan and took control of Gandhara. However, the Parthians continued to support Greek artistic traditions. The start of the Gandharan Greco-Buddhist art is dated to about 75–50 BC.

In the 1st century BC the Kushans, Indo-Europeans, took control of Gandhara away from the Parthians and eventually extended their territory to include part of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The kingdom extended into northern India as far east as Benares with two capitals –Peshawar and Mathura in northern India. The Kushans controlled a strategic part of the Silk Road and a busy port on the Arab Sea near Karachi, Pakistan. They became wealthy, and their wealth supported a flourishing civilization.

The Kushan period is considered the Golden Period of Gandhara which peaked during the rule of the great king Kanishka (128–151). Gandharan art flourished and produced some of the best pieces of Indian sculpture. Kanishka was a great patron of the Buddhist faith. Buddhist art spread from Gandhara to other parts of Asia. Under Kanishka, Gandhara became a holy land of Buddhism. The first depictions of the Buddha in human form were made by artists of Kushan Gandhara, as were the first depictions of bodhisattvas. In a style influenced by Greek and Roman art, Gandharan artists sculpted and painted the Buddha in realistic detail. The art of Gandhara included the earliest oil paintings known in human history. A stupa with a diameter of 286 feet was discovered which suggests to have been as tall as 690 feet (210 meters) covered with jewels. The statue of the fasting Buddha sculpted around 2nd century BC is one of the best sculptures preserved.

Buddhist monasteries established during the Kushan continued era to grow and flourish for few more centuries. Among these was Bamiyan. By the 4th century Bamiyan was home to one of the largest monastic communities in all Central Asia. The two great Buddhas of Bamiyan – one nearly 175 and other 120 feet tall, may have been carved as early as the 3rd century or as late as the 7th century.

After Kanishka, the empire started losing territories in the east. The Hepthalite Huns captured Gandhara around 450, and did not adopt Buddhism. During their rule, Hinduism was revived but the Gandharan Civilization declined.  By 644 Taxila was in ruins and Buddhist monasteries were deserted and Hinduism was popular.  In 1021 it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni, the name Gandhara disappeared

Today the sacred Relics of the Buddha and wonderful art of Gandhara, that depict once successful empire, are safe in the world’s museums, away from war zones.

Prajapathi Wijesinghe