Concept

Gandhara

Overview

Gandhara (IAST: Gandhāra) was an ancient Indo-Aryan civilisation located in present-day northwestern Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Valley of Peshawar, though the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus River to Taxila and westwards into the Kabul Valley as far as Bamyan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range, including Swat, Bajaur and other valleys.

Gandhara is named after the Gandhara tribe of the Vedic period, who are attested in the Rigveda (c. 1500 – c. 1200 BCE). Indo-Aryans entered the Swat-area sometime between 1900 and 1500 BCE, and mixed with the local opulation. The Gandhara grave culture (c. 1400–800 BCE) has sometimes been taken as a representative of Indo-Aryan migrations, although it has also been regarded as a local development or a combination of the two.

By the 6th century BCE Gandhara was recognised as one of the sixteen mahajanapadas ("great realms"). It was annexated in the late 6th century BCE by the Achaemenid Empire as Gandāra, a satrapy. During its invasion by Alexander the Great in 327–326 BCE, Gandhara was divided among various polities, notably Taxila under king Omphis and the tribes of Aśvaka.

Gandhara became part of the Maurya Empire in 321 BCE. In the succeeding centuries it was ruled by the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythians, and the Indo-Parthians; a regional Gandharan dynasty, known as the Apracharajas, whose rulers bore the title of Lord of Gandhara (gandhārasvāmin), remained autonomous in some parts until the ascent of the Kushan Empire, which saw the zenith of region's cultural and political influence. Gandhara was devastated during the Hunnic invasions, but existed as a core region under the Turk Shahis and Hindu Shahis, before the name Gandhara eventually faded away after the Ghaznavid conquest.

Gandhara was a major centre for Greco-Buddhism (4th c. BCE – 5th c. CE) under the Indo-Greeks and Gandharan Buddhism under later dynasties; Gandhara was also the central location for the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to Central and East Asia, and was famed for its unique Gandharan style of art influenced by the classical Hellenistic styles. Gandhārī, an Indo-Aryan language written in the Kharosthi script, acted as a lingua franca of the region.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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114 124. When therefore Dareios came to the desert region, he ceased from his course and halted his army upon the river Oaros. Having so done he began to build eight large fortifications at equal distances from one another, that is to say about sixty furlongs, of which the ruins still existed down to my time; and while he was occupied in this, the Scythians whom he was pursuing came round by the upper parts and…
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Gandhara is.
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"There is a land which the Greeks have named Hesperia, an ancient land, strong and wealthy, where the Ænotrians dwell; it is said that now their descendants have named the country Italy, from the name of their king. There is our rightful home; from that land did Dardanus come." That Atlas came from Africa, the mountain called by his name, which stands in that continent, bears witness; and Orosius says that it is in…
R. W. Church, Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia.
States what Gandhara is.
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Contiguous to these, in the same regions, dwell those who are called Iyrcæ, who also live by hunting in the following manner: the huntsman, having climbed a tree, lies in ambush (and the whole country is thickly wooded), and each man has a horse ready taught to lie on his belly, that he may not be much above the ground, and a dog besides. When he sees any game from the tree, having let fly an arrow, he mounts his…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
States what Gandhara is.
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Gandhara

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