2017 - Peterson Sara, An Account of The Dionysiac Presence in Indian Art and Culture

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An Account of the Dionysiac Presence in Indian Art and Culture
Abstract
The Greek god Dionysos, known as Bacchus by the Romans, was one of the most popular
deities to be found beyond the boundaries of the Graeco-Roman world. His attributes
appeared in many contexts east of the Roman Empire in the first centuries AD, including in
both Bactria and further south, in India, where Dionysiac imagery even featured in Buddhist
contexts.
This study explores Dionysos’s multiple identities and associations in order to understand
how and why the god found a special place in Indian culture. It looks beyond his most
familiar role as god of wine and viticulture, and considers his association with water, sacred
liquids, fertility, snakes, death and the afterlife. The origins of theatrical performances and
episodic narrative are also touched upon, revealing a different aspect of Dionysiac influence
in India. Finally, there is a comparison of the characteristics of Dionysos with both the
anthropomorphised Soma and Hindu god Shiva.
This broader interpretation of Dionysos demonstrates that within the Indian cultural
environment there was more than the usual syncretism, revealing an evolving relationship
which resulted in a degree of cultic assimilation, bringing aspects of this complex deity into
the sub-pantheon of Buddhist religion.
Sara Peterson, 2011 - 2012

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Table of Contents
Page 3 General Introduction
Page 4 Introduction to Dionysos in India
Page 6 The Cult of Dionysos in the Ancient World
Page 7 Dionysiac Art in Central Asia and the Kushan Journey to India
Page 10 Dionysos the Water God
Page 12 Dionysos, Vegetation and Tree God
Page 13 Dionysos Imagery and Yashka
Page 19 Outdoor Shrines
Page 19 Symbolic Liquids and Soma
Page 23 Snakes, Water and Fertility
Page 24 Nagas and Buddhism
Page 26 Snakes, Ivy and the Chthonic in Dionysiac and Indian Cults
Page 27 Dionysos, Rebirth and the Heavenly Afterlife
Page 29 Viticulture in north-west India
Page 32 Dionysos, the Theatre and Buddhist Visual Narrative
Page 35 Gandharan Reliefs
Page 37 Dionysos and Shiva: a Digest of the Commonalities and Differences of the
two Gods
Page 40 Conclusion
Page 42 Postscript
Page 43 Bibliography
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General Introduction
The substantial and enduring impact of Classical culture in antiquity meant that many
Graeco-Roman deities were borrowed and incorporated syncretically into other religions.1
The two divinities who translated most readily into foreign cultures were Dionysos and
Herakles. This was particularly evident in India, where both gods featured in a number of
artistic contexts, including on sculptural reliefs which were displayed in religious buildings.2
This study will attempt to discover why Dionysos had such a particular resonance in India. It
will explore how the prolific imagery associated with Dionysos extended beyond its Greek
pagan origins and permeated Indian art, even featuring within Buddhist contexts. In order to
understand the cultural circumstances in which this phenomenon developed, it’s first
necessary to define the general character of the Dionysiac cult. Then emphasis will be given
to the role of Dionysos in the period contemporary with the rise of the Kushans in India,
using Plutarch (ca AD 50 - 120)3 as the prime literary source, and with reference to
contemporary Roman rituals. It will become apparent that the significance of a Dionysiac
presence goes far beyond his familiar characterisation as a revelling wine god accompanied
by his drunken entourage. Dionysos’s origins and evolution were complex, as he developed
over the centuries into a multifaceted deity with many identities. These varied incarnations
often render him as both appealing and familiar. But at other times, he was the most elusive
of gods.
1
Particular gods from the Classical pantheon recurred in Semitic, Iranian and Indian contexts, where they were
often absorbed into the worship of local deities. Typically these imported Classical divinities would feature in
both art and coinage.
2
Other divinities were absorbed into Indian art, but to a lesser degree. Aphrodite (Venus) and Eros (Cupid)
were popular in jewellery; Poseidon (Neptune) and Hermes (Mercury) featured far less frequentlh. Minor deities
such as Nike (Victory), Tyche and Atlantes also appeared on a range of objects. For an exploration of their roles
in Indian art, see: John Boardman, The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, 1994, pp.109-145.
3
All dates taken from The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Eds. N.G.L. Hammond and H.H Scullard, 1984.
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Introduction to Dionysos in India
Some literary accounts cite Nysa in India as Dionysos’s birthplace.4 Significantly, he is

credited with naming the nearby mountain ‘Meros’, perhaps a reference to the metaphysical
mount Meru.5 However, such suggestions are challenged by an alternative assertion, that
India was only invaded by two military leaders, Dionysos and Herakles.6 Aside from the
contradictory details providing by these various mythologies, it appears that both gods
retained a special status in India. It’s worth noting, however, that Strabo was sceptical about
all such beliefs and proposed that these stories were invented to pander to Alexander the
Great’s obsession with both deities.
Roman historian Arrian (ca. AD 86-160) recounted the tale that when Alexander invaded
India, he spared the residents of Nysa because of their connection with Dionysos.7
Alexander’s soldiers celebrated at Dionysos’s shrine on Mount Meros, and as they donned
ivy wreaths, the god was invoked and they were possessed by his spirit.8 However, although
there was reference to Dionysos, there is no real evidence of more profound Classical
influences or the actual presence of Dionysos by this time, although both grapes and wine
were already present in India before Alexander’s arrival.
Many Graeco-Roman authors have linked Dionysos with India, but there were no references
to him in Indian literature. However, it should be noted too that the name of the Kushans
‘was not preserved in the Indian historical tradition’9 and so evidence for both must be sought
from other sources.
4
Philostratus (ca 170-247), Life of Apollonius of Tyana 2. 2, 2.6-10.
5
Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, books V-VI, Penguin, 1976, p256.
6
Allan Dahlquist, Megasthenes and Indian Religion, 1977, p.182. Arrian stated that Dionysos founded the city
following his conquest of India.
7
Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, p.255-6.
8
Ibidem, p.257-8.
9
Joe Cribb, ‘Rediscovering the Kushans’ in Errington and Curtis, From Persepolis. p.179. He remarks that three
Kushan rulers were preserved in an Indian chronicle from Kashmir, and that Kanishka also appears in a
Khotanese chronicle, preserved in a Tibetan text..
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The Dionysiac presence in Indian art is readily demonstrated by the god’s distinctive
attributes. These included the bunches of grapes and spiralling stems of vine leaves which
often featured in scrolling decoration; the paraphernalia of wine drinking, such as the footed
kantharos (wine jar); and more generally, vintaging and drinking scenes. He was also
distinguished by the presence of his colourful and varied fellow revellers: his Maenads (or
Bacchantes in Latin parlance), the dancing women presented in varying degrees of joyful
abandon; and the sinewy, goat-horned and pointy-eared satyrs, who included among their
number the ageing, drunken Silenus and the flute-playing Pan. In Graceo-Roman depictions,
these revellers often wore animal pelts, like Dionysos himself, especially panther-, leopard-
and goat-skins. Both Dionysos and his companions frequently brandished pine-topped and
ivy-twined thyrsus. Other important but less familiar emblems of Dionysiac iconography
included snakes, ivy plants, and the cista mystica and liknon (a box or basket containing
either a snake or a phallus). Dionysos’s mode of travel was generally the panther,
heightening, from a classical perspective, his Indian and eastern credentials. However,
despite his strong showing in art, Dionysos rarely appeared on coins.
In order to understand more clearly the status of Dionysos in India, there follows a summary
of his role in the ancient world, succeeded by a review of his context in the East at the
beginning of the Kushan era.
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The Cult of Dionysos in the Ancient World
‘No other god of the Greeks is as widely present in the monuments and nature of Greece and
Italy, in the ‘sensuous’ tradition of antiquity, as Dionysos’, so wrote Carl Kerenyi, the scholar
who appears most able to understand the nature of Dionysiac identity and worship.10
Dionysos’s universal presence in the Classical world was mirrored by his widespread
appearances in the East. Several characteristics were fundamental to the spread of the
Dionysiac cult:
Dionysos was not restricted by geography to any single place, since his cult was not closely
associated with a single religious centre. Furthermore, his worship was regarded as inclusive
and was not restricted by family, clan or class; in fact, his cult was particularly favoured by
female followers.11 It was often regarded as a personal religion, associated with individual
freedom. Finally, the god manifested multiple identities, many of could be readily
incorporated into other religions.12
With origins reaching back as least as far as the Bronze Age in Minoan Crete, his early
worship focussed on primal nature relating to fertility and water, concerns which were central
to the lives of all pastoral and agricultural communities. These earliest incarnations embodied
a visionary and transcendental view of nature, as well as a practical dimension which entailed
propitiating the elements. Over time, Dionysos absorbed the characteristics of various local
cults and tribal divinities as he evolved into a full-blown deity in the Greek pantheon.
The ancient origin of his worship was attested by the central role played by the Mysteries,
rituals which involved drinking, music and dance. During these sessions adherents could
hope to commune directly with Dionysos himself. This was all part of a pagan search for
release from reality, reflecting aspirations to a ‘higher spirituality’.13 Initiation ceremonies
were intended to bringing about revelatory changes within the minds of individual
worshippers, but they remained secretive and nocturnal.14 Mysteries also preserved a close
10
Carl Kerenyi, Dionysos, Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, Princeton University Press, 1996, page xxiv.
11
Walter Burkert Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard University Press, 1987, p.11.
12
This is attested by the extensive number of titles and epithets he acquired throughout the centuries, many
originating in the pre- and early Classical period. Cf www.theoi.com/Cult/DionysosTitles.html
13
Burkert, Mystery Cults, p.2
14
Ibidem p.8
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relationship with votive religions, involving pledges to the deity, requesting protection and
divine intervention in decision-making and important events.15
In the early centuries Dionysiac rituals were based in rural shrines, with many sanctuaries
based in woods and mountains. His cult then expanded with the rise of Mediterranean city
states, as his worship stretched beyond the Greek mainland and across the Hellenistic world.
Dionysiac festivals marking spring and the rebirth of plant and animal life were widely
celebrated. It was in this context that the first dramatic performances emerged, developing
into actual theatres in the sixth century BC. From the fifth century BC, urban stone temples
were erected in his name, and his association with wine and revelry guaranteed the presence
of his imagery in the secular world, especially in the context of feasting and celebrations. The
Dionysiac cult proved a long-lived one and many early rituals continued to be celebrated
under the Roman Empire, when Dionysos became Bacchus and the Maenads became
Bacchantes.16
Dionysiac Art in Central Asia and the Kushan Journey to India
Prior to the arrival of the Kushans, the Hellenistic world had penetrated north India, first with
the invasion of Alexander the Great, and then during the rule of the Greco-Bactrian kings.
Then the rise of maritime trade with the expanding Roman Empire brought a new wave of
Graeco-Roman influences into the Indian subcontinent. From the first century BCE sea-trade
between the Mediterranean world and the Indian ports increased dramatically, making use of
an understanding of the seasonal trade winds. Sea ports expanded along the coasts of India,
south and east Arabia and the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. Goods travelled up and down the
network of inland routes from these major ports in these lands. 17
However, with the arrival of Kushans into Gandhara in the first century AD, there were
significant material changes in the arts. During their two to three hundred years journey from
15
Ibidem p.12
16
In the early period of Roman Empire the state authorities made strenuous efforts to regularise the festivals.
However, mystical cults thrived from the first to third centuries AD. Many aspects of the religion persisted into
the Christian era Martin P. Nilsson ‘The Bacchic Mysteries of the Roman Age’, The Harvard Theological
Review, Vol. 46, No. 4,Oct 1953, pp.175-202 .
17
See The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, ca AD50 gives many gives details of Indian and foreign ports and
goods.
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north Central Asia into Bactria and then India, the Yuezhi-Kushans (later Kushans)18 had
extensive contact with the Graeco-Bactrians and Indo-Parthians. Although the exact nature
and history of their migration is still unclear, a number of sites in Central Asia have been
identified which provide evidence of their settlement.19 There is extensive scope for research
on the influences exchanged between Central Asia and India in both the pre-Kushan era and
under Kushan rule as the picture is presently fragmentary, with complicated evidence and
conflicting interpretations.20
The area around the Oxus River in north-west Bactria was important since it was the region
in which the Yuezhi-Kushans progressed from a status of nomadic migrants and conquerors
to that of settled peoples, around the second century BC.21 Bactria had long been subject to
direct influences from the classical world, not only during the invasion of Alexander, but
subsequently under the Seleucids, and for the duration of its role as an independent Greek
kingdom which extended south into India.22 Its strategic position on trade routes between the
Indian, Iranian and Sino-Mongolian worlds, along with an amenable climate and well-
watered valleys, made it a desirable location to conquer and settle in. So Bactria was subject
to the ebb and flow of different peoples and its history is often unclear, often making it
difficult to identify exactly which dynasties of peoples dominated specific areas at any given
moment. However, unsurprisingly, Dionysos features widely in this post-Hellenistic
environment and without doubt the Kushans would have encountered his imagery in a
number of contexts.
Ai Khanum was a Greek-style polis with all the essential buildings which an urban
community might require:23 an agora and marketplace, a palace which served royal and
18
The Yuezhi were originally a confederation of five tribes which united under single leadership of the
Guishuang tribe, thereafter known as the Kushans. For an account of their migrations, see Craig Benjamin, The
Yuezhi, origin, migration and conquest of Northern Bactria, 2007.
19
The principal sites were: Sakhrinao , Termez , Khalchyan , Takht-i-Sangin , Kara Tepe , Zar Tepe, Dalverzin
Tepe, Garav Tepe, Airtam ,Surkh Kotal, cf B J Staviskij, La Bactriane sous les Kushans, Libr. d'Amérique et
d'Orient, 1986.
20
See John Rosenfield in The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans, 1993, where he considers evidence from coins,
literary sources (mainly Chinese) and archaeology, p.9ff and passim.
21
Ibidem, p.10.
22
Ibidem, page 44.
23
Paul Bernard, ‘Ai Khanum ’ in Afghanistan: hidden treasures from the National Museum, eds. Fredrik
Hiebert and Pierre Cambon, Kabul, 2008.
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administrative roles, a theatre and a gymnasium dedicated to Hermes and Herakles. Next to
this gymnasium was found a fountain spout in the shape of a Silenus-type mask (see Figure
Ia). A bronze bowl or cup with a pair of horned Maenads busts emerging from a vine leaf was
also excavated there. However, the site was sacked in 145 BCE and it’s unclear what might
have survived for the Yuezhi-Kushans.24 Elsewhere, in the treasure house at Begram, another
bronze handle with a horned satyr was found; also a delicately tooled and highly expressive
face of a Silenus or ageing Dionysos.25
Khalchayan, a palace complex dated to the first century BC, was considered an early phase in
the development of Yuezhi-Kushan art.26 The reception hall was decorated with a lavish
sculptural programme, including an extensive frieze incorporating Dionysiac themes with
vine scrolls, satyrs and musicians.27 Images of Dionysos in a rather more Bactrian style were
found in graves at Tillya Tepe, believed by its excavator, Viktor Sarianidi, to be a Kushan
site.28 The site has been dated to the second quarter of first century AD, though may be some
years later.29
Another significant source is the extensive collection of rhyta found at the Parthian settlement
of Nisa, an important city sited on the Iran /Turkmenistan border in Central Asia. Most of the
rhyta depicted Classical subject-matter, and Dionysiac rituals and feasting were a dominant
theme. These rhyta display a wide range of artistic styles, from Greek to a modified version
of classicism with a distinctive west Asian and Central Asian imprint. Some of the faces of
24
In ‘Dionysus and drama in Buddhist art of Gandhara’ Journal of Global History, 2009, page 221 Pia
Brancaccio suggests of Ai Khanoum: ‘The coming of the nomads did not... seriously disturb the well-rooted
Hellenistic culture there’.
25
Pierre Cambon, ‘Begram: Alexandria of the Caucasus, Capital of the Kushan Empire’, in Afghanistan, Hidden
treasure of the National Museum, Kabul, 2008, cat 177, p.178 and cat 221, p.205.
26
Lolita Nehru, Origins of the Gandhāran Art,1989, pp.32ff.
27
Rekha Morris, ‘Some Observations on Recent Soviet Excavations in Soviet Central Asia and the Problem of
Gandhāran Art’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 103, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1983), p.558.
28
Victor Sarianidi, The golden hoard of Bactria : from the Tillya-tepe excavations in northern Afghanistan,
Aurora, 1985. However, this is disputed, and Tillya Tepe has been connected with the Sarmatians, while many
of the objects also exhibit Parthian characteristics.
29
Elizabeth Rosen Stone, ‘Die adaption westlicher Motive in der Kunst von Gandhara’ in Philipp von Zabern,
Gandhara, Das buddhistische Erbe Pakistans, 2008, p.80ff.
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Dionysos, with their plump contours, lowish foreheads and almond eyes resemble Gandharan
features and styles; while several naked figures exhibit a non-Classical aesthetic, closer in
mood to Indian imagery.30 Another example was the shared use of a lute-like instrument
which features in Dionysiac scenes, and is also found in sculpture in Termez and Gandhara.31
It is apparent that the Dionysos who entered India in the first century AD had passed through
a Bactrian filter. Even though dating is imprecise, it seems that some ‘Asian’ influences were
already evident in north Indian art in what Marshall describes as the Indo-Saka-Parthian
layers at Taxila, and also in the early Gandharan palettes. This modified classicism was
given weight and momentum by the arrival of the Kushans, in an era which brought a notable
rise in the variety and quantity of Dionysiac references in art. These artistic exchanges arose
not only through conquest, but also by means of the close commercial network. As Pierre
Cambon writes of Begram, Tillya Tepe and Taxila: all three: ‘point to an Iranian culture with
32
strong Hellenistic and Indian traditions. On this culture, the Kushan Empire was built’.
Therefore Gandharan sculpture should not only be compared directly with Hellenistic or
Roman art, but should rather be seen in the context of this Asian milieu.
Dionysos the Water God
Dionysos manifested a number of identities, and within these were woven others of a more
subtle and visionary quality. Therefore, in order to understand why Dionysos was persistently
associated with India and to observe how he permeated Indian culture, it is necessarily first to
survey these external characteristics, and to then look beyond them.
One of his primary roles was as a Guardian of water – in terms of rivers, lakes, springs and
fountains.33 Water was seen as the origin of all things and ‘the element in which Dionysos is
at home’.34 Two objects which possibly exemplify this particular persona have been found in
30
For an interesting analysis of the band of masks found on many of these rhyta, see Niccolo Manassero, ‘Tetes
coupees on the cornices of the Nisa rhyta. Nothing to do with Dionysus ?’, in Parthica 10, 2008, pp.81-96.
31
M.E.Masson, G.A.Pugacenkova, The Parthian rhytons of Nisa, 1982, p.126.
32
Pierre Cambon, ‘Begram’, p.159.
33
Sven-Tage Teodorrson, A commentary of Plutarch’s Table Talks, ca1989-1996, p.165. These associations
differentiate Dionysos from that other Greek god of water, Poseidon (Neptune), whose realms were the seas and
oceans.
34
Walter Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult, 1965, p.162.
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Central Asia. In the Palace of the Oxus in Takht-i-Sangin there was found an altar dedicated
in Greek to the local water god of the Oxus river (Figure Ib).35 A domed-head Silenus-figure
stands atop it, playing the aulos.36 There was also the Silenus waterspout uncovered at Ai
Khanoum, as mentioned above (Figure Ia).37 In both cases, the Silenus/satyr figure stands in
place of Dionysos, symbolising his association with local water deities in his role of Guardian
of the Waters. Takht-i Sangin survived into the first century AD and served as a Kushan
Palace. It’s unclear whether Ai Khanoum was still extant when the Kushans were in the
region. However, both objects give an idea of the artistic and religious character of the
period. The Takht-i Sangin altar is particularly significant as it is an explicit example of
Dionysos’s syncretic relationship with a non-Classical river deity. It seems plausible that this
identity of Dionysos as a water divinity influenced the Kushan perception of the god as they
made their way southwards through Afghanistan to India.
Figure I
a. Waterspout for fountain, Ai Khanoum b. Altar from the Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i
Sangin
35
Dated to the mid-second century BCE .A. Litvinskiy and I. R.Pichikiyan, ‘The Temple of the Oxus’, Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1981), pp.133-167.
36
The double flute was associated with cult and orgiastic activity, especially animal sacrifice, and was also
found on rhyta from Nisa, Parthian Rhytons, p.126.
37
Installed in first half of the second century BCE. Bernard, ‘Ai Khanoum’, cat. 33, p.128.
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Dionysos, Vegetation and Tree God
Plutarch wrote extensively about Dionysos and considered him: ‘the lord and bearer of all
moist nature’.38 Most cultures in antiquity had some type of water deity. These connections
with water derived from its life-giving qualities and essential relationship with fertility.39
Thus, by extension, Dionysos was also recognised as a Nature deity: he was associated with
vegetation and all manner of plant life.40 In this regard, during the Roman Empire, he was
equated with the Egyptian divinity Osiris, who introduced grapes, viniculture and fruit trees
to Egypt.41 In his Indica, Megasthenes credits Dionysos with bringing these gifts, and more,
to India.42
Within his role as Nature god, Dionysos was worshipped universally in the ancient world as
the tree god, Dionysos Dendrites (Figure II).43
Figure II.
38
Plutarch, Moralia, Vol III, 365A.
40
See: Otto, Dionysos, p.162ff, in which contrasting aspects of water are discussed in relation to Dionysos: its
bright, joyous and vital qualities, and its mysterious and dangerous aspects. Water is an essential feature of
many episodes in Dionysos’s mythology.
40
Otto, Dionysos, p.50.
41
Osiris had a specific relationship with the rising water of the Nile, which dwindles away and yet comes back
each year with its gift to the land. Most relevantly, Osiris was credited with the introduction of cultivation to his
people. Frazer, The Golden Bough, Chapter 11, pp.366ff; Walter F. Otto, Dionysos, p.50
42
Dahlquist, Megasthenes, p.227ff.
43
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This association was celebrated by Plutarch:

‘May Dionysos, rich in joy, make the trees prosper with holy splendour of ripe fruit’.44
As Plutarch implies, Dionysos was not only seen as a generalised tree deity. He was
specifically associated with those trees which were fruitful and productive for human society:
grapevines, figs, olives, pine and fruit trees.45 For example, Plutarch cited his connection with
pine trees:
‘The pine is dedicated to Dionysos because it is thought to sweeten wine’.46
Most of these trees require cultivation to flourish and are more closely associated with settled
societies than nomadic peoples.
These Dionysiac connections between water, fertility and tree cultivation inevitably bring to
mind the non-Brahminical deities worshipped throughout India, notably the Yakshas and
Nagas. The Yakshas were associated with fertility and tree worship, whilst the serpent deities,
the Nagas, were closely concerned with the protection and beneficence of water.
Dionysiac Imagery and Yaksha
Yakshas featured in early Buddhist art at Sanchi and Bharhut, as playful demigods generating
and inhabiting vegetation. Later, in Kushan Gandhara, they appear more frequently with
grapevines in place of the lotus-vines, and on the many occasions when they are shown
wielding goblets, one might speculate that these perhaps contain wine. At Mathura, both lotus
and vines are depicted. Yaksha imagery featured in many Buddhist contexts. At Amaravati,
the baby Buddha received the adoration of the Yaksha at his shrine, who clasps his hands
together in obeisance to his new master, symbolising the abandonment of his previous wild
life in order that he might be embraced into the Buddhist fold. The swaying hips of the
female yaksha-type featured not only on the gateways at Sanchi, but also in many Buddhist
reliefs, most significantly in the shalabanjika pose of Maya during the birth of the Buddha.
44
Plutarch, Moralia Vol VIII, ‘Symposia’5.3.1, 675F.
45
Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Arrian and Polyainos each offered a slightly differing lists of trees. The most
comprehensive assemblage is provided by Strabo who also included the evergreens trees/shrubs of laurel, myrtle
and box. See Dahlquist, Megasthenes, p.227ff for an itemised review.
46
Plutarch, Moralia, ‘Symposia’5.3.1, 676 (p. 393).
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In Mathura, there were a number of Dionysiac scenes, including the so-called Stacy and
Palikhera Silenus groups.47 These blocks depict figures attending a plump yaksha-type figure
clasping a goblet in the mode of the personage of King Kubera,48 seated on a mound
representing sacred Mount Kailasa. Such blocks were considered to have been bases for large
bowls, in the case of the Palikhera example, a support for a bowl with a ‘running vine motive
of asoka flowers, grapes and other fruit above a design of schematized lotus petals’.49 Vines
issue from the mouth of a squatting yaksha. There is a dedication to the Buddhist
Mahasamghika sect on the Palikhera bowl. Such details suggest that these bases, and the
bowls they supported, originally stood in Buddhist shrines, acting as water-holders for
ablutions or flower offerings.
Pancika, general of the yaksha army, was the Gandharan counterpart to Mathuran Kubera,
and was regularly shown in drinking mode with his wife, Hariti, in a pose recalling mithuna
pairs, the so-called ‘loving couples’. To reinforce the Dionysiac association, there is a playful
scene of a procession with Dionysos seated on an ass, on the base of the Pancika and Hariti
group found at Sahri Bahlol. These images of an obese drinker and a connoisseur of worldly
pleasure, whether Kubera or Pancika, recall Silenus and the characterisation of Dionysos in
his later years.50
All stages of wine consumption are shown in sculpture, and some images manifest a more
intimate mood, such as a statue base depicting two couples, one pair comprising a Dionysos-
like character with vine-leaves in his hair offering a drink to his lover (Figure III). Festive
drinking of this type was also a feature of mithuna couples enjoying lovers’ toasts on pillar
railings, suggesting it was an ‘indigenous theme’,51 and related subjects were even found on
gateways at Sanchi.
47
Rosenfield, in Dynastic Arts, has identified five such scenes, p.315, footnote 159.
48
In ‘Dionysiac Aspects of Kushān Art’, Ars Orientalis, Vol. 7, 1968, Martha Carter cites various Kubera-type
figures, often accompanied by females and usually holding some sort of cup. In some cases, grapes and vine-
leaves appear in the image.
49
Ibidem p,125.
50
Ingolt, Gandharan art in Pakistan, figure 342, Peshawar Museum. Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts, p.248 identifies
the ‘sub-religious’ pre-occupations of these types as: ‘fecundity, wealth, luxury, victory, control of chthonic
forces of nature, defence of faith’.
51
Carter, ‘Dionysiac Aspects’, pp.128-129.
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Figure III
Dionysiac scene from a statue base, Lahore Museum
A range of relatively stately scenes appear on stair-risers, which were a major feature in the
decoration of early stupas. (Figure IV). They usually show processional scenes of drinking,
dancing and music-making, entirely secular subjects, often with a bacchanalian air. They may
originally have had some connection to the Dionysiac spring celebrations, such as the
Liberalia, marking the maturing of the previous season’s wine and the regeneration of crops.
In such celebrations, the principal iconographical elements were defined as trumpeters,
wineskins, wine cups and grapes.
Figure IV
Stair risers from a Gandharan Stupa, Cleveland Museum of Art

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It’s likely that there would been Indian equivalents of these festivals, and there is even a hint
in Ovid’s account of the Liberalia that such traditions began after Dionysos’s conquest of
India and the East.
‘Before your birth, altars lacked suitable respect,

Liber, any grass could be found on cold hearths.
In memory of when Ganges and the whole east were crushed,
You reserved the first fruits for great Jove’52
The universality of such customs meant that the celebrants were interchangeable, either
Classical Maenads, sometimes figures clad in Asiatic costumes, or very commonly
personages presented in Yaksha-guise. The variety of races and types of people mirrored the
heterogenous character of society and reinforced the image of inclusiveness which Buddhism
cultivated. The Buddhist embrace meant that they might appear within the religious precinct,
but their position below the feet of worshippers would be regarded as a subordinate location,
as the steps marked the migration of the devotee from the secular to the sacred space.
Another particularly fine example of the merging of two cultural influences in the service of
another religion is seen in a second century AD carved pillar in sikri sandstone, from Mathura
(Figure V). It was created as a corner post for railings which surrounded a stupa, and presents
a procession of female yakshas in the role of maenads, circling the post in dance mode. 53 The
scene includes several vessels resembling Greek kantharoi, musicians with Indian and
foreign instruments, and twining vine foliage. The scene very clearly demonstrates the
Buddhist assimilation of the dramatis personae of ancient folk religion, coloured by
Dionysiac influences. This would again have been intended to appeal to the lay worshipper.54
52
Liber refers to Dionysos; Ovid, Fasti (Calendar of Rituals) III, 726-730, translated and edited by A.J.Boyle
and R.D.Woodward, Penguin 2000.
53
Martha L Carter, The Bacchants of Mathura: New Evidence of Dionysiac Yaksha Imagery from Kushan The
Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 69, No. 8 (Oct., 1982), p.247.
54
Carter, ‘Bacchants’, p.250. Minor deities in the Yakshas entourage included Nagas, Gandharvas (heavenly
musicians), Kinnaras (heavenley singers), Guyhas (earth gnomes) and Raksasas (malevolent spirits).
P a g e | 17
Figure V
Detail of stupa railing from Mathura, Cleveland Museum of Art
A surprising number of sculptures depicted not only drinking, but also tipsiness, and even
outright drunkenness.55 Figure VI is a particularly expressive example. The plant to the left
withers in dehydrated sympathy with the faltering figure of the drunken Dionysos as he
collapses into the supporting arms of a maenad and Silenus. To the right, a maenad plays her
flute and frolics with a smirking, moustachioed yaksha-type male figure, while a vine sways
its way across the backdrop to this display of human folly and excess. (This is one of my
favourite pieces).
55
Early examples were found on Gandharan palettes, with figures often redolent of a drunken Silenus or
Dionysos, in the Indo-Saka-Parthian layers at Sirkap-Taxila.
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Figure VI
Dionysiac Scene, Tokyo National Museum
Another example of the way in which Dionysos and his entourage were translated from their
Graeco-Roman origins and reinvented in the Indian idiom is seen in Figure VII, in which the
Yaksha-Maenad stands in the definitive shalabanjika pose. The image of an inebriated
Dionysiac figure slumped on an ass was one of the most common motifs of this genre in
Roman art. This sort of hybridity hints at a possible convergence of the two belief systems -
Yaksha and Dionysiac - during the rule of the Kushans. In order to explore this further, other
categories of evidence will now be considered.
Figure VII
Silenus/Dionysos attended by Maenads, Ancient Orient Museum

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Outdoor Shrines
Worship of Dionysos often took place in rural shrines, and Philostratus recounts the story of
Apollonius of Tyana, who visited an open-air tree shrine on Mount Nysa in India, dedicated
to Dionysos.56 He stated it was planted with laurels by Bacchus (Dionysos) himself, into
which plants were trained ivy and grapevine to create a natural roof covering for the
sanctuary. Within the shrine stood a statue of the god in Indian guise, while implements
related to viticulture lay around outside: sickles, baskets, and silver and gold wine vats. The
cities below would overhear and join in with his orgies, while Nysa itself would shake. Since
yaksha worship also took place in outdoor shrines, Martha Carter has suggested this might
actually have been a yaksha shrine.57
She suggests an analogy with bhakti worship in the Yaksha cult, in which the practices are
similar in spirit to Dionysiac rites, both comprising of adoration expressed in music and
dance.58 Arrian notes that: ‘Indians are an extremely musical race and have loved dancing
ever since the days when Dionysos came with his wild revellers to their country’. 59 He was
reputed to have introduced introduced drums and cymbals into Indian music, and the ‘satyr’
dance’.60
Symbolic liquids and the God Soma
It is evident from early sculpture at Sanchi that yakshas in north-west India were acquainted
with wine and wine-making in the pre-Kushan era.61 Wine offerings to Kubera and other
Yaksha continued under aegis of Buddhism, part of this process of assimilation of folk cults.
There were even suggestions that there was some relationship between these sacred liquids
56
Circa mid-first century, Philostratus, Indian Travels of Apolloinius of Tyana.
57
Carter, ‘Dionysiac Aspects’, p.140
58
Ibidem p.140
59
Arrian, Book VI, p.305
60
Dahlquist, Megasthenes, p.53
61
Carter, ‘Dionysiac Aspects’, p.140
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carried in their cups by the yaksha, and the ‘spiritual elixir of immortality’, the amrita kalasa,
which the Buddha Maitreya carries in his kalasa.62
Considerable symbolic virtues were attributed to these various liquids and a close connection
has been proposed between a range of elixirs with their connotations of fertility and
sacredness:63 amrita, the liquid essence of fecundity; rasa, the essence of nature, which was
controlled by the Yakshas and found in plant sap, milk, rain, dew, mead, semen and sura
(alcoholic spirit); and Soma, a juice produced by crushing the Soma plant.64
It’s possible to define analogies between wine and these liquids, Soma in particular. Soma
was the sacred drink with magical and life-enhancing properties which was said to bring
divine ecstasy to the imbiber.65 This may be correlated with the renowned ecstasy generated
by wine-drinking and Dionysiac rituals performed as part of the ritual of his Mysteries. This
rapturous state of mind released individuals from the burden of their responsibilities. Indeed,
it was not just wine which provided release. The whole experience was enhanced by music,
singing and dancing as portrayed in the art of both cultures, with both deserving of the
description ‘Dionysiac’.
Like wine, Soma was thought to destroy sin and promote truth.66 In addition to this, both
drinks were associated with some sort of aspiration to immortality,67 although in the Indian
case, this may more be a case of repeated rejuvenation. ‘All the life charms…. are directed to
restoration of health, or to longer, fuller life, never to immortality in the literal sense…..as it
was clearly realized that whatever comes into being must again disintegrate…’68
There is a remarkable resemblance between Dionysos the Greek God, and Soma the ancient
Indian deity. Although religious works recorded complex rituals in relation to the production
62
Carter , ‘Bacchants’, 252
63
Ibidem, p.252.
64
Coomaraswamy, Yaksha, 1971, Part II, pp.13-14. ‘Amrta in the Rigveda denotes beyond doubt the Soma
drink’. Keith, Upanishads, p.624.
65
Ibidem, p.275.
66
Keith,Upanishads, p.168.
67
Ibidem, p.275.
68
Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, Part II, p.19.
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and consumption of Soma in the Rig Veda,69 it was always more than a sacred drink. Soma
was also the name of the god who embodied the drink, although, unlike Dionysos, he was
never fully anthropomorphized, and his individual god status diminished over time.70
In his Bacchae, Euripides describes the Maenads at large:

‘Someone took a thyrsus and struck it against a cliff, and out leapt a dewy spring of water!
Another sunk her fennel wand into the ground and the god at that spot put forth a fountain of
wine. All who desired a drink of milk dug with their fingertips in the ground and the white
liquid bubbled up. From their ivy-coloured thyrsi dripped streams of honey.’71
The Maenads invoked the spirit of the god in their drunken revelry, and the god entered them,
thus giving them the elemental powers of the nature god himself. But Dionysos was not there
in visible form.72 That great interpreter of the evolution of religion, Frazer describes
Dionysos as ‘the personification of the vine and of the exhilaration produced by the juice of
the grape’.73 Conversely, Otto describes wine itself as ’principal symbol of the god and best
guarantee of his presence’.74 i.e. the god is (in) the wine and for this reason, Dionysos might
be present in Dionysiac scenes, but not in human form. So, with both Soma the god and
Dionysos there is an ambiguity concerning the presence of the drink and the actual
manifestation of the deity. 75
Returning to the specific characters of the two gods, Soma possessed primal qualities and was
considered not only to have been born of the waters, but also to be the producer of the waters.
Within this embodiment seems to be a similar generative aspect to Dionysos, and like
Dionysos, he can be represented as a horned bull. When he is in bull-form, his waters are
considered to be in the same role as the cows he fertilises.76
69
Keith, Upanishads, pp.166ff.
70
Ibidem, p.60.
71
Euripides, Bacchae, 704, translated by David Kovacs, 2002, p.79.
72
Dionysos’s epiphany in nature causes wine and other liquids to flow. Otto, Dionysos, p.146.
73
Frazer, Golden Bough, p.396.
74
75
It is impossible here not to think of Christian substantiation and the strange ritual of the Eucharist.
76
Keith, Upanishads, p.168.
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As might be expected, both cults celebrated festivals and rituals in relation to newly-
fermented wine, with dedications made to their respective gods.77
There are also some interesting coincidences in their rituals and mythologies of the two gods.
Soma retained a strong connection to the moon,78 at whose waxing and waning the Soma
plant flourished. Dionysos retained lunar associations as his mother was the moon goddess,
Semele. However, it’s possible that this concordance may just arise from a general
association between the growth of plants and the lunar phases. Both gods preserved a
connection with lightning: Soma as the wielder of lightening which he used to bring down the
rain to nourish plants,79 while, one of Dionysos’s primary epithets was ‘Bromios’ a reflection
of the fact that his birth was precipitated by thunder and lightning.80
Two final correspondences are worth noting although they are of lesser significance than the
foregoing points. Soma was said in the Rigveda to grow on mountains, the very place that
grapes were thought to grow in India and the centres of Dionysiac worship. And finally, the
preferred sacrificial animal for both gods was the goat.81 The Dionysiac sacrifice of the goat
occurred in March, in part to prevent their depradations of vine shoots, and the goat’s blood
would poured into the earth as nourishment for the plants.82 This may be a shared reflection
of the pastoral societies in which the cult of the gods first flourished.
So both the cults and the mythologies of these gods exhibit similarities, although there were
differences too. Perhaps both gods fulfilled similar roles within their societies and certain
ancient characteristics coincided. Although Dionysos’s reception in India may not have
entailed an explicit comprehension of the precise nature of this rather complex series of
parallels, some nuances may have been understood, and his close connection with the god
Soma, the yaksha and other cults may have fostered this assimilation.
77
Ibidem pp.319-329; and Kerenyi, Dionysos, p.291.
78
79
Ibidem, p.169.
80
81
Keith p.324 and 353; Frazer, Golden Bough, p.401.
82
Kerenyi, Dionysos, p.320. There is a charming Gandharan relief depicting a goat tucking into grapes on a vine,
while a mother and child attend an enthroned man with a lion, Zwalf, Gandharan Sculpture, fig. 309, p.320.
P a g e | 23
Therefore yakshas took on Dionysiac colouring because aspects of the Dionysiac worship
were close in character and spriritual content to the Yaksha cult. There were no contemporary
written texts exploring this overlapping relationship because Greeks were preoccupied with
their own deities and took no discernible interest in their syncretic roles abroad, while Yaksha
folkloric mythology is not comprehensively documented as it was non-Brahmanical. So in
effect, the sculpture itself must to some considerable degree serve as documentation. The
syncretism was a natural fit: the affinities were manifest firstly at cult level; and then at both
visceral and emblematic levels, rather than in the context of formal mythology. It was not
just a convergence found in imagery, it was a meaningful syncretism.
Snakes, Water and Fertility
Snakes played a part in the daily lives and rituals of both Greeks and Indians, and thus a
serpentine presence inevitably informs the customs and mythologies of both countries. At a
domestic level, both cultures saw snakes in two ways. On the one hand, they were both feared
and vilified, while at the same time snakes were seen as auspicious and as protectors of the
household. In India, Nagas were a personification of a force of nature, they were deities of
water, which was symbolised by the waving form of the snake. 83 They provided the waters
which nourished the crops and kept man and beast alive. Consequently they were worshipped
in relation to water-courses, cisterns, irrigation systems and wells. This was particularly the
case in Gandhara where there was a prevalence of snake worship, and a cistern was
constructed in honour of all snakes.84 However, Nagas were also capricious in their use of
power; they might be either beneficial or destructive. They might also hurl down flood-waters
and wreak destruction on mankind.
During such heavy rains, snakes were driven out of their holes in the ground and sought
refuge in houses.85 The solution in both India and Greece was to feed the snake, and
undertake the ‘direct worship of the terrible snake, which is thus propitiated and honoured in
the hope that it will stay away from the houses of those who show it respect’.86 However, in
83
J.Ph.Vogel, Indian Serpent-lore, 1926, p.5.
84
Ibidem p.94, given by a donor of Greek descent.
85
Ibidem p.11 No doubt this came about since snakes prefer to reside in a cool damp environment.
86
P a g e | 24
India, in addition to the Naga shrine, there was an annual rite to honour and ward off
snakes.87 Thus in both Greece and India they played a role in folkloric ritual. Furthermore, in
both communities this gesture was not solely an example of appeasement, as there was also a
shared belief that snakes represented the souls of deceased ancestors which had taken up
residence there.88
One aspect of Naga ritual seems close to Dionysiac ceremonies. When rain was needed,
worshippers would go to the Naga shrine, and a disciple (rather than the formal priest) would
perform the ceremony. He would work himself into a state of ecstasy with clamorous sounds
and frenzied dancing, sometimes even accompanied by the sacrifice of a goat. In this manner
he would become possessed by the spirit of the Naga god, who would prophesize through his
mouth.89 This has a parallel with Dionysiac practice of wine-drinking, music-making and
frenetic dancing to provoke a state of ecstasy conducive to prophecy, as these practices had
the miraculous power to lead the common man (or woman) to the divine.90
Nagas and Buddhism
Buddhists would probably have shared this traditional belief in the Nagas and their control
over water, including the irrigation tanks.91 The provision and maintenance of these irrigation
facilities were one of the areas in which lay peoples and monks would collaborate for their
mutual benefit. Buddhism incorporated these local deities to harness their powers over water
and increase the acceptance of Buddhism itself within communities. However, these non-
Brahmanical figures always retained a subordinate position, as indicated by the Nagas and
87
Vogel, Serpent-Lore, p.11.
88
Ibidem p.20; Keith, Upanishads, p.194.
89
This was recorded in modern times but with an assumption that the custom an ancient one. Vogel, Serpent-
Lore, p.248-9.
90
Otto, Dionysos, pp.144.
91
There was an ambiguity about what snakes and the Nagas signified in Indian society. Fergusson believed that
the Nagas were not originally serpents, but were serpent worshippers. Conversely, Vogel notes that although the
Nagas seemed to be men, they were really snakes. He believed that although Nagas sometimes manifest human
form, they do not belong to the human world, but to Nagalokas. A more recent assertion that there is a
conflation between the Naga clan the Naga snake seems to explain their presence in some parts of India . Nagas
also preserved a close relationship with the Hindu agricultural deity, Balarama, usually depicted in Naga guise
and, in Mathura, often bearing a wine cup, which was one of his attributes. Julia Shaw, ‘Naga Sculptures in
Sanchi’s Archaeological Landscape’, Artibus Asiae, Vl 64, No. 1, 2004, pp.5-59.
P a g e | 25
their reverential role in relation to the Buddha. Two Nagarajas attended the Buddha’s birth
and bathed him with streams of water.92 Nagas appear in Gandharan Buddhist reliefs as men
with hooded cobra heads behind them, often as protectors of the Buddha. They also feature in
art was being converted to Buddhism, usually issuing halfway out of a fountain shrine, 93
reflecting their abandonment of their naturally savage tendencies under the gentle guidance of
the Buddha.94 As an illustration of their conjunction with Dionysiac imagery they are often
shown with drinks in hand. Figure VIII shows a royal Naga couple with arched canopies of
seven snakes, and attendant Nagas drinking while one figure empties his wineskin into a
krater.
Figure VIII
Drinking Nagas from Kafir Kot, British Museum, London
The Nagas’ benign but subservient role mirrors that of the Yakshas in relation to Buddhism,
again reflecting the religion’s strategy of adopting personae from traditional cults as part of a
‘supporting cast’.
92
Vogel, Serpent-Lore, p.95.
93
Ibidem, p.41.
94
However, there was a degree of wariness of the power of snakes found in Buddhist literature: with references to
‘dangers from the disturbance of the Nagas’. Ibidem p.8 And some images of the Bodhisattvas pay homage to the
snake with the inclusion of Garuda within their jewellery as a prophylactic against snake bites. Ibidem p.19.
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Snakes , Ivy and the Chthonic in Dionysiac95 and Indian Cults
Dionysos’s connection with fertility drew him close to Yasksha cults in India, and in this
respect, he also had resonance with the Nagas in their role as water guardians. However,
fertility and death were not differentiated as two separate realms. The changes of the seasons,
the annual burst of growth in plants, their flowering and fruiting, and their subsequent decay
were part of the cycle of birth and death in which humans too participated. In conformity
with this conception, both the Nagas and Dionysos also embraced a close association with
death.
As previously noted, in both the Graeco-Roman and Indian worlds it was believed that souls
of the dead were incarnate in the bodies of serpents and in this form they revisited the earth.
Dionysos himself might also appear in snake-form: thus it was the practice of the Maenads to
either wind snakes into ivy wreaths in their hair, or pass them under their clothing and
entwine them around their bodies. However (and in apparent contradiction to such beliefs),
they might also hurl snakes against tree trunks. As the snakes revived, they wound
themselves around the tree and were metamorphosed into ivy plants.96 Another layer of
symbolism was the possible identification of the tree as the ‘tree of life’, with all its
connotations of fertility and immortality. There is a sympathetic engagement between snakes
and ivy, both preferring cold nature, dampness and shade, as they creep and writhe along the
ground and cling their way up trees. It was this common earthbound quality gives them both
chthonic associations with death and the underworld.97
In both cultures, snakes also preserved another association with the afterlife and the
underworld: the shedding of their skin was associated with immortality or reincarnation. In
95
It should be recalled that Dionysos also had a relationship with snakes at the simplest mythological level.
Nonnius’s epic of Dionysos’s life recorded the god’s discovery of grapes and wine. This came from observing a
snake drinking wine juice from grapes. This snake, on sight of Dionysos, coiled his way into the safety of a
fissure in a rock. Dionysos, inspired by this, at once dug a pit into rock to operate as a wine press, bent his sharp
thyrsus into a sickle-shape, then went grape-picking with a throng of Satyrs. The cheery satyrs danced and
shrieked their way upon the grapes until the juices spilled over. Carl Kerenyi, Dionysos, pp.58-60.
96
Otto, Dionysos, p.155; Dodds, The Irrational, p.275.
97
It’s unclear whether ivy still carried this connection with snakes and the afterlife when it appeared in Kushan
imagery. Pliny noted that ivy was only found in India on Mount Nysa. Pliny: 16.44.
P a g e | 27
India, snakes often inhabited anthills and these anthills were thought to offer access to a
serpent realm below the world of men. This later informed Hindu belief.98
Dionysos, Rebirth and the Heavenly Afterlife
The concept of rebirth was not only part of Indic belief, but was widely found in the ancient
world,99 and may have originated from a shared universal source, perhaps related to
Shamanistic religions.100 There were a number of stories relating to Dionysos’s birth, but
they all included a violent death, usually involving dismemberment and subsequent rebirth.101
However, the Dionysiac, or, more precisely, the Bacchic cult of the Roman world - in the
period contemporary with Kushan rule - became associated not so much with resurrection,
but more with a happy afterlife. From the mid-second century AD, the Bacchic rituals of the
Mysteries featured regularly on sarcophagi. Other Bacchic themes of an idealised nature also
appeared in funerary contexts, such as the marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne, or the Indian
triumph. Adherents of the Mysteries ‘believed that they would lead a life of eternal bliss and
joy in the Other world’.102
Indeed, a cross-identification has been suggested between Indra and Dionysos, drawn on the
basis of the similarity of the wreath crown worn by each.103 Indra was associated with
Trayastrimsa heaven, which may have been considered a more attainable aspiration for the
pious Buddhist who finds Nirvana beyond his grasp. It has even been proposed that the later
Buddhist concept of rebirth in a heavenly realm with living Buddhas and Bodhisattvas had its
98
Vogel, Serpent-Lore, pp.29-3: The world was called Patala, a sort of heavenly abode which was ‘everlastingly
light, with pleasures of music, delicious meats and wine, groves and streams’.
99
For example, Herakles and Dionysos in the Graeco-Roman world; Osiris in Egypt.
100
Dodds, The Irrational, p160, and footnotes 29 and 97.
101
Frazer,,Golden Bough, page 397ff. Kerenyi discusses Dionysos’s connection with the ‘essence’ of life. He
defines this essence as ever-renewing, infinite life ‘zoe’, involving the perpetuation of the soul, in which it is
resurrected, and moves at each rebirth from one time-limited life into the next life.
102
Nilsson ‘Bacchic Mysteries’ p184. Tanabe has broadly proposed the same theory, but he misunderstands the
relationship between fertility and the afterlife, and sees them as mutually exclusive rather than entirely
compatible, as part of the same cycle.
103
Kurt Behrendt, The Art of Gandhara, 2007, pp.29-30.
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origins in this Bacchic/Dionysiac tradition.104 A considerable amount of more research is

required to fully explore these potential connections, which are beyond the scope of art
history.
Figure IX
Museo Nazionale d’Arte, Rome
However, even with this as a feasible explanation for the broad principles of inclusion of
non-Buddhist imagery, it is still hard to reconcile those images in which the virtue embodied
in the Buddha figures is in such pronounced contrast to the worldly (and supposedly
heavenly) figures above him. Figure IX shows a two-tiered panel with Buddha below and a
rather amorous Mithuna couple above. It’s possible that the original positioning of this relief
was high up on a monument, allowing the reading of the iconographic programme to be made
from the bottom up, which would therefore emphasise the Buddha. However, this still seems
an extreme juxtaposition of the sacred and secular. Tanabe explains it as virtue in this world
bringing pleasures in the next, with the Buddha acting as psychopomp.105 Although this may
seem a little unconvincing, it’s difficult to explain this relief in any other way.106
104
Behrendt, Art of Gandhara’, p.30.
105
This offers a parallel to Dionysos, who was a psychopomp in the Graeco-Roman mythologies.
106
Tanabe, ‘Paramita Imagery’, fig. 14, p.92.
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Viticulture in India
When Dionysos left Greece, he brought with him the customs of vine growing and wine
drinking. Therefore, as has been observed it is: ‘difficult to draw a vertical dividing line
setting off the migration of viticulture and that of the Dionysian cult’.107
Alexander the Great was a renowned imbiber of wine, and on his departure after the conquest
of Central Asia and India, he left behind garrisons who would have perpetuated a demand for
wine. So vine growing and wine production continued under his successors, the Seleucids
and Greco-Bactrian kings. Early evidence of a demand for wine in Gandhara is attested by
the presence of flat-bottomed kraters with amphora-type ear handles found in the Indo-
Parthian layers at Sirkap-Taxila.108 There were even locally manufactured wine amphorae,
suggesting a well-established industry in India. Grape-growing itself would have been limited
to the cooler climes around the foothills in the north-west, and parts of Gandhara would
therefore have provided an amenable climate.
By AD 50 India was also importing wine: Italian, Laodicean and Arabian being preferred,109
implying a sophisticated taste for an expensive commodity. There is evidence for the
technique of wine distillation at Taxila, and in a Buddhist shrine at Shaikhan Dheri, near the
Kushan city Pushkalavati, and Bir-kot-ghwandhai in Swat, where it was practised as a means
of preserving the drink, (although arguably this should be described as a spirit rather than
simply fermented wine).110
There were many examples of drinking vessels at Sirkap-Taxila. As we have seen, Dionysiac
subjects, such as drinking vessels, storage, etc were widely depicted on stone reliefs,
including those found in early Buddhist religious centres. Although the Buddha condemned
intoxicants, and monks were not permitted to dance or play music, they were considered
permissible for layfolk.
107
Kerenyi, Dionysos, p.56.
108
Marshall, Taxila, Vol 2, p.406.
109
Wilfred H Schoff, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,1995, 49.
110
Brancaccio and Liu, Drama, pp.225-6.
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Figure X shows a realistic depiction of grape-harvesting and wine-making. A large vine plant
features in the upper register and princely figure seated on a throne with a footstool in receipt of a
goat, an emblem of Dionysos, and the one most closely associated with ritual sacrifice.
Figure X
Vintaging scene in the company of a prince, Peshawar Museum
Figure XI111 presents a range of Dionysiac imagery in an architectural context. It is a door

jamb, or possibly part of a frame for a Buddhist niche,112 decorated with a series of vignettes
enclosed within fleshy vine-scrolls. The scenes consist of: Silenus drinking from a rhyton; a
mithuna-type couple; a figure carrying a basket of grapes; a man treading grapes with a child
on his shoulder; and an archer. This is another example of the coincidence of Dionysiac
themes with a mithuna pair. However, the archer figure only does not correspond to the usual
combinations of subject, and so it may be, as suggested by Rowland, a selection of attractive
images taken from a Roman pattern-book.113 However, there is another relief showing an
inhabited vine-scroll from Sahri Bahlol,114 in which the imagery concerns hunting animals
and rural pursuits. This seems compatible with vintaging and drinking subjects, as they are all
111
Benjamin Rowland Jr, ‘The Vine-Scroll in Gandhāra’, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 19, No. ¾, 1956, fig. 1, p.355.
112
Ibidem, p.359. Frames of a similar type enclosed sepulchral busts at Palmyra.
113
Ibidem, p.354.
114
Ibidem, fig. 4, p.356.
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pre-occupations of the prosperous laity who were sponsors of artworks in monasteries.115

This would explain the presence of the archer in Figure XI.
Figure XI
Door Jamb from Gandhara, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
115
Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts, p.248.
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Dionysus, the Theatre and Buddhist Visual Narrative
Theatrical performances, based on specially written dramatic plays, originated as part of the
Dionysiac festivals, such as the Great Dionysia celebrating the god’s birth.116 The
phenomenon spread eastwards: a performance of Euripides Bacchae was recorded in Nisa in
53 BC;117 and there was a theatre at Ai Khanoum. It has been speculated that theatres may
have reached India in the first century of the Common Era, partly on the basis that
Ashvagosha (ca. AD 80-150) was one of the first Indian playwrights. He was a Buddhist sage
and scholar whose ‘dramatic themes were explicitly Buddhist’.118 He worked in Gandhara
which ‘became a major centre for the development of Indian drama’. 119 It is suggested that
drama, like art, was used to promote Buddhism to beyond Indian frontiers. However, there is
little concrete evidence for the diffusion of theatre culture as there are no extant theatres,
although there are traces of a possible theatre at Nagarjunakonda in Deccan.120
Early drama performances may have taken place at shrines, and such activities would have
formed an extension of ritual at rural yaksha or Dionysiac sanctuaries. Theatres in the form of
temporary structures defined by a curtain backdrop were a more developed phenomenon. An
example of this is illustrated on a silver cup, found in Gandhara and dated to the first century
BC. (Figure XII). The first clue to a theatrical performance here is the presence of the mask.
Masks were more closely connected with Dionysiac cults than that of any other gods, and
were often over life-size.121 In Greece their occurrence was considered to embody the
presence of the god himself.122 The stage-set is implied by the curtain, although it is also
possible this may have had other meanings, as curtains were a regular motif in funerary
sculpture. However, the other iconographic details seem to confirm the idea of an informal
stage. The two trees suggest that the staging was in a rural sanctuary, although the fact that
one is in leaf and the other barren implies an additional symbolic dimension. It should be
116
Kerenyi Archetypal image, p 296.
117
Masson and Pugacenkova, Parthian Rhytons, p.109.
118
Brancaccio and Liu, Drama, p.219.
119
Ibidem, p.220.
120
Ibidem, p.237.
121
122
Ibidem, p.153.
P a g e | 33
noted here that depictions of the Mysteries showed them either within the temple
environment, or in a sanctuary loosely defined by columns, curtain and a tree. 123 The
kantharos and grapes are other Dionsyiac attributes, and the herm-figure bearing the thyrsus
must be an Eastern version of Dionysos, although the iconography is complex and it’s
unclear what the presence of the Tyche-type figure denotes. The cup may have originally
possessed handles, and this, like other examples with Dionysiac imagery combining theatrical
masks and vinicultural themes, were doubtless used for wine drinking.124
Figure XII
Silver cup with theatrical scene, 1st century BC, private collection
Transcription of the above: A fragment of a Gandharan schist vessel showing a scene with a
theatrical performance (indicated by the curtain backdrop), and drinking figures.
123
Burkert , Ancient Mystery Cults, p.99.
124
Errington and Cribb, Crossroads, cat.98, p.95.
P a g e | 34
A similar theme features on the stupa at Sanghol.125
Figure XIII
The Morgan Cup, first half of the 1st century AD, Corning Museum of Glass126
Banqueting was a prestigious entertainment enjoyed by the elite classes, and the rich would
have sought expensive tableware to flaunt their taste and wealth. Luxury vessels
manufactured of both silver and glass were among the range of goods exported to Bactria and
India. Dionysiac themes were of course entirely appropriate for the decoration of such
drinking vessels, and a number of cups illustrating open-air shrine/theatre scenes of this kind
are known from the Roman world of the first century AD onwards (Figure XIII).127 The
importation of such wares would have provided a steady flow of images of Dionysos and his
entourage.
125
Brancaccio and Liu, Drama, p.238.
126
A Roman cameo cup, reputedly from Heraclea Pontea on the Black Sea, from Donald B Harden, Glass of
the Caesars, Olivetti, 1987, pages 81 and 82.
127
Another example is a silver kalathos (straight sided cup), from Jabučje, 1st century AD , (National
Museum, Belgrade). This shows a similar theme with a related mode of expression: theatrical scene with a
stage-set also indicated by tree and suggestive of a rural locale, and a Dionysiac mask (plus a Pan figure).
Balkani : antiche civiltà tra Danubio e l'Adriatico, eds Tatjana Cvjetićanin, Giovanni Gentili, Vera Krstić,
Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2008, p.203
P a g e | 35
Gandharan Reliefs
In the pre-Kushan art of India, sculpted stone reliefs depicted events such as episodes in the
life of the Buddha as continuous narratives. As Lolita Nehru succinctly describes: ‘the events
of a story, told within a single composition, merge into each other without interruption or
chronological sequence’.128 Consequently the protagonists do not inhabit realistic space, and
scenes often included copious elaborations such as jewellery, and an abundance of vegetative
and decorative details, all contributing to a rich pictorial effect but distracting from the chief
message and thrust of the narrative.
In contrast, Gandharan reliefs largely followed the conventions of Graeco-Roman art, which
effectively conformed to the conventions of drama, based on the coherence of the unities of
action and time. This was articulated by Aristotle, and although he did not mention it,
sculptural reliefs and theatrical sets both maintained a third principle, that they should not
occupy more space than what can realistically be arranged on a stage or panel. Since there is
a close relationship between story-telling on stage and in sculptural reliefs, it is possible that
the disciplines and aesthetics of theatrical performance informed the conventions ruling the
depiction of Buddhist visual narratives.
Figure XIV illustrates the main conventions which ensured the clarity and narrative coherence
of the Buddhist message. The stone reliefs are applied in a chronological sequence on the
stupa, and as worshippers circumambulated it, the narrative sequence unfolded, similar in
manner to a theatrical performance. Each scene comprises single tableau dedicated to one
episode of the story, which is framed by columns to define its limits. There is a compositional
emphasis on the main protagonists, and on the Buddha in particular, contrived by the
arrangement of the main figures along a ground-line, or in straightforward planes, in
simplified and unambiguous space. Poses and gestures animate the scene, setting the mood
and reinforcing the focus on the principal character. This Buddha is depicted in hierarchical
scale, a rare deviation from theatrical precedent, but which nevertheless reinforces the theme.
Symbolic content is limited and most ornamental detail is eliminated; peripheral items are
restricted to a few props which help set the scene.
128
Lolita Nehru, Origins of Gandharan Art, p.48.
P a g e | 36
Some reliefs include onlookers gazing down onto the action from balconies. This artistic
conceit creates a psychological bond between the audience depicted in the relief and real-life
spectators, thus drawing them further into the virtual reality of the stage-set as together they
survey and experience the Buddhist stories.
This configuration of images, with its linear narrative, whether in theatrical stage
presentations or in relief sculpture, was a valuable tool for propagating Buddhist beliefs and
ideas. If theatre did indeed provide the impetus, as it appears, then this represents a direct
correlation between Dionysiac practice and Buddhism.
Figure XIV
Narrative reliefs depicting the life of the Buddha from the Sikri Stupa, Lahore Museum
P a g e | 37
Dionysos and Shiva: a digest of the commonalities and differences of the two gods
Returning to a consideration of the distinctive nature of Dionysos himself, it is necessary to

look at comparisons with the Hindu Indian god, Shiva. There are some notable similarities
between the cults and mythologies of Dionysos and Shiva and these have been investigated in
129
some detail by Bruce Long and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. In brief, these common
aspects comprise: an association with bulls, snakes, the phallus and fertility; and nocturnal
rituals, wine, music and frenzied women and mountains. Both gods have composite identities,
as they absorbed local divinities and matured into deities embodying universal qualities. A
brief survey of their mythologies, rituals and emblems will help understand whether the
fundamental character of these gods is merely parallel or actually convergent.
Shiva’s earliest incarnation was in conjunction with the Vedic god Rudra, until he evolved as
an autonomous god.130 In addition to these Vedic roots, his cult incorporated aspects of
indigenous, non-Brahmanical Naga and yaksha worship. His principal identities in literature
were as pasupati (Lord of cattle) smasanavasin, (inhabitant of cemeteries), Mahayogin or
Yogesvara, (Lord of Yogins and Ascetics). Two Shivan titles which particularly recall
Dionsyos were ‘Lord of the vineyard’ and ‘God in the fig tree’.131 He also preserved an
ithyphallic form, and as ardhanarisvara (Lord who is half-female) embodying a hybrid of the
two genders. He also manifested the capacity to create and destroy. Finally, he fulfilled a role
as brave warrior and leader of divine soldiers, with heroic acts on a cosmic scale.132
The primary identity of Dionysos was, as we have seen, as a fertility god with a particular
connection with trees, water and wine. However, this association with fertility extended
beyond vegetative nature. He preserved a deeply-held, age-old association with primal
liquids, which included a connection with the procreative power of sperm.133 In this
generative role he came closer to Shiva, and this is symbolised by an association with the
129
J.Bruce Long, ‘Siva and Dionysos: Visions of Terror and Bliss’, Numen, Vol. 18, Dec. 1971, pp. 180-209.
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty ‘Dionysus and Siva: Parallel Patterns in Two Pairs of Myths’, History of Religions,
Vol. 20, No. 1/2, Twentieth Anniversary Issue (Aug. - Nov. 1980), pp. 81-111, The University of Chicago Press
130
J.Bruce Long, ‘Siva and Dionysos: Visions of Terror and Bliss’, Numen, Vol. 18, Dec. 1971, pp.181-2.
131
Dahlquist, Megasthenes, p.187.
132
Long, ‘Siva and Dionysos’, pp.182-3.
133
The power which not only maintains life, but also of creates it. Otto, Dionysos, p.154.
P a g e | 38
bull, that ancient symbol of fertility, prowess and prolific generation.134 Shiva’s connection
with bulls is more explicit since his vehicle, Nandi, was a bull.
Prominent within the cult of both gods was the veneration of the phallus. In Shiva’s case, the
linga forms a major part of his iconography and was widely found in sacred contexts. In
Dionysiac rituals there were multiple phallic elements, reflecting its status as one of the
oldest symbols of the god. Statues of phalluses were found in both Dionysiac and Shiva
temples. Phallic processions had always formed part of Dionysiac worship,135 and the phallus
was a definitive symbol of the Dionysiac Mysteries.136 One of Dionysos’s epithets was
Liknites, a reference to his winnowing basket, the liknon, in which a figwood phallus nestled
among fruit. The basket was covered by a cloth which would be drawn back during the
climactic revelation of the ritual.137 The thyrsus seeping with honey is another extension of
this fecundating symbolism. Interestingly, linga and liknon are two words which are closely
related etymologically.
There was also some ambiguity and overlap with another important symbol, the snake, which
might be seen on Roman sarcophagi emerging from the cista mystica, although on occasion
this might conceal a phallus instead. Shiva’s connection with snakes is widely manifest, for
example, in his title ‘King of the Nagas’, in which role he is invoked during monsoons to
protect householders from the poisonous venom of snakes, and it also features in various
fertility functions.138 On early coinage and stone sculpture, Shiva appeared wearing snakes
around his body or in his hair, or over his right shoulder. As Nataraja, Shiva danced on the
body of dwarf holding a cobra,139 and he attended snakes guarding Kubera’s divine treasure.
Another area of common ground is that both gods were regarded as non-establishment deities
who migrated over the centuries into the mainstream. Dionysos was a ‘foreign’ god,
imported into Greece from Eastern religions; whereas Shiva’s deviation from the formal
134
Ibidem, p.165.
135
Ibidem p.96.
136
The Mysteries re-enacted the birth, life, death and rebirth of Dionysos, although the full meaning of them is
not yet understood.
137
Nilsson, ‘Bacchic Mysteries’ p.177-178. The liknon was an auspicious emblem, conferring fertility and
purification.
138
Vogel, Serpent-lore, p.11.
139
Long,‘Siva and Dionysos’ p.198-199.
P a g e | 39
pantheon concerned his assimilation of earlier indigenous Indian local gods, and his
connection with the ancient Indus Valley civilisation. And for both gods, mythologies
circulated round their sufferings and marginalisation as outsiders within the religious
establishment,140 and the gods’ responses were vengeful.
Both gods were described as youthful, and certainly within the Graeco-Roman context,
Dionysos was not only youthful, but preserved an almost female plumpness in some
representations. However, based on evidence of Gandharan imagery, the preferred image of
Dionysos in India was in the mould of the mature Silenus.
Furthermore, the worship of both gods preserved a rural and mountain cult dimension, but the
connection was perhaps rather more superficial here.141 Whereas although both were
connected with dancing and music amidst wild animals, and both wore animal pelts, this
played a more fundamental part in Dionysos’s cult than Shiva’s. The animals were different,
as was the nature of each god’s interaction, ecstatic revelry was more central to Dionysiac
worship, as the root of both prophecy and engagement with the divine.
Manifestations of both gods are contradictory and so while it is possible to find common
ground, there were many differences. In particular, Shiva’s attributes were explicitly more
martial: the battle axe, thunderbolt, trident and noose.142 He also had three eyes, representing
the sun, moon and sacrificial fire, also embracing ‘spiritual insight and divine wisdom on the
one hand, and of terrifying destructive power, on the other. These martial and cosmic
dimensions all contrast with the profound earthiness of Dionysos.
However, although both gods exhibit a connection with the dead, the nature of their
involvement differs. Shiva’s presence in cemeteries and his skull iconography indicate a
character which is quite different from that of Dionysos’s chthonic role (discussed above).
Therefore it is clear that there are some resemblances between the two gods in terms of
emblematic and ritual practices concerning: their relationships with fertility, their
unconventional personae, and their capacity to be both creative and destructive. However the
essential personality of the gods themselves, and the character of their mythologies differ
fundamentally.
140
Ibidem p.187-190.
141
Both were connected with Mount Meru, ibidem, p.195.
142
Ibidem, p.192.
P a g e | 40
Conclusion
In order to understand the role of Dionysiac imagery in India art, it has been necessary first to
look briefly at the wider cultural context, including the Kushan experience of art during their
migration through Central Asia.
The cult of Dionysos, viticulture, and wine-drinking were inextricably linked, and they all
pre-dated the arrival of the Kushans in India. Furthermore, non-Brahminical deities, the
Yaksha and Nagas, were already present at the early Buddhist sites of Sanchi and Bharhut
(and indeed their origins were more ancient still), while mithuna couples and the concept of
the ‘loving cup’ were found in the pre-Kushan Buddhist context. As in the case of Dionysiac
imagery, mithuna pairs also appear on palettes of the Indo-Saka-Parthian period, even though
their theme does not correspond directly to Buddhist jataka.
With the advent of the culturally eclectic Kushans, the pluralist element of Buddhism, part of
their deliberate policy of inclusion, became increasingly evident as the religious communities
expanded. However, these characters with non-Buddhist origins were always present in a
supportive, and often subservient, position. During this process, Dionysiac imagery became
more pervasive under the auspices of these local cults. However, the nexus of relationships
between Dionyiac and Indian religions is complex, and it is not possible to define a linear,
narrative flow as there were a number of connections and overlaps at different levels.
Dionysos was accepted because of the universalistic aspect of his cult. Several areas have
been explored: his identity as a primal, nature god, associated with fertility and sacred liquids
(water, wine); and the consonance of the systems of belief and rituals between Greek and
Indian cults. With regard to the presence of Dionysos himself, he was probably sometimes
there in person, in the form of a mature, bearded figure, often in shown drunken disarray.
Alternatively, he may be symbolically present in the goblets of wine or in the guise of a
snake, as part of a more metaphysical manifestation. His entourage was also integrated into
Gandharan and Mathuran imagery, in particular we see the very clear transposition of
yakshas into the place of Maenads. Does Dionysos himself explicitly feature within the
context of his mythology? There are perhaps a few depictions of images of Dionysus and
Ariadne in a car being drawn by putti as part of a procession, such as a possible stair-riser in
the British Museum (Figure XV).
P a g e | 41
Figure XV
Procession with Dionysos and Ariadne, possibly a stair riser from a stupa, British Museum
However, over time, the image of Dionysos, like that of Herakles, was not only appropriated,
but became totally subsumed within the service of Buddhism.143 His imagery was
transformed into one part of the pageantry of the Buddhist sub-pantheon.
Another dimension has been explored, that perhaps the reception of the Dionysiac influences
was not just a case of the integration of imagery, but was ultimately an example of cultic
assimilation. Within this process there was also a potential philosophical or ideological
relationship with Buddhism, in the suggestion that beliefs circulating within the Dionsyiac
cult penetrated and influenced Buddhist beliefs of the afterlife. This is underlined by the fact
that the scenes on Dionysos’s sarcophagi ‘celebrate indestructible life (that) was absolute and
universal’.144 Such concepts, related to rebirth or a happy afterlife, fulfilled society’s needs
for the reassurance of a life after death. This may be part of the zeitgeist, also apparent in the
rise of Christianity.
Another area of influence was the introduction of theatre with its origins in Dionysiac rituals.
This affected depictions of Buddhist relief sculpture, leading to an episodic biography of the
Buddha.
143
Regarding the other Graeco-Roman deities, they too became absorbed into their new characterisations
until they were so totally assimilated that they became totally divorced from their old contexts: Herakles
Vajrapani , Tyche Hariti, Nike conflated with apsaras and Atlantes in the ultimate supporting role.
144
Kerenyi, Dionysos, page 387
P a g e | 42
Therefore the Dionysiac presence not only enriched Buddhist imagery, but was also a
manifestation of a genuine syncretic character. However, as Buddhism matured, Dionysiac
associations faded, just as the folkloric pantheon of Yaksha, Naga and company appeared to
lose their auspicious potency and became less important in religious iconography towards the
end of the Kushan era.
Postscript
This study has explored the ways in which Dionysos permeated India culture largely on the
basis of art historical evidence. Some considerations of the spiritual beliefs and cult ritual in
regard to Soma have been included because they seem to provide helpful insights into the
syncretic role of Dionysos in India.
However, there are limitations to such an approach, and there is great scope for a further
detailed analysis and evaluation of the potential theological, and particularly the
metaphysical, correspondences between Dionysos, and the deities Soma, Shiva and Indra.
A comparison of the evolution of beliefs about the afterlife in the Roman Imperial Era,
including the Dionysiac Mysteries, with the development of Buddhism in these early
centuries of the Common Era, would provide a greater understanding of these ancient
religions.
Such investigations would make a tremendous contribution to our interpretations of the art
since it would provide some understanding of whether there was also a migration of meaning,
or even fragments or nuances of meaning, accompanying the transference to India of
Dionysiac motifs and imagery.
P a g e | 43
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Website:
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Page |1

An Account of the Dionysiac Presence in Indian Art and Culture

anthropomorphised Soma and Hindu god Shiva.

the sub-pantheon of Buddhist religion.

Sara Peterson, 2011 - 2012

An Account of the Dionysiac Presence in Indian Art and Culture

Page 3 General Introduction

Page 4 Introduction to Dionysos in India

Page 6 The Cult of Dionysos in the Ancient World

Page 10 Dionysos the Water God

Page 12 Dionysos, Vegetation and Tree God

Page 13 Dionysos Imagery and Yashka

Page 19 Outdoor Shrines

Page 19 Symbolic Liquids and Soma

Page 23 Snakes, Water and Fertility

Page 24 Nagas and Buddhism

Page 27 Dionysos, Rebirth and the Heavenly Afterlife

Page 29 Viticulture in north-west India

Page 32 Dionysos, the Theatre and Buddhist Visual Narrative

Page 35 Gandharan Reliefs

An Account of the Dionysiac Presence in Indian Art and Culture

Introduction to Dionysos in India

Some literary accounts cite Nysa in India as Dionysos’s birthplace.4 Significantly, he is

The Cult of Dionysos in the Ancient World

Dionysiac Art in Central Asia and the Kushan Journey to India

Dionysos the Water God

Dionysos, Vegetation and Tree God

This association was celebrated by Plutarch:

Dionysiac Imagery and Yaksha

Dionysiac scene from a statue base, Lahore Museum

Stair risers from a Gandharan Stupa, Cleveland Museum of Art

‘Before your birth, altars lacked suitable respect,

Detail of stupa railing from Mathura, Cleveland Museum of Art

Dionysiac Scene, Tokyo National Museum

Silenus/Dionysos attended by Maenads, Ancient Orient Museum

Symbolic liquids and the God Soma

In his Bacchae, Euripides describes the Maenads at large:

Snakes, Water and Fertility

Nagas and Buddhism

Drinking Nagas from Kafir Kot, British Museum, London

Snakes , Ivy and the Chthonic in Dionysiac95 and Indian Cults

Dionysos, Rebirth and the Heavenly Afterlife

origins in this Bacchic/Dionysiac tradition.104 A considerable amount of more research is

Museo Nazionale d’Arte, Rome

Vintaging scene in the company of a prince, Peshawar Museum

Figure XI111 presents a range of Dionysiac imagery in an architectural context. It is a door

pre-occupations of the prosperous laity who were sponsors of artworks in monasteries.115

Door Jamb from Gandhara, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Dionysus, the Theatre and Buddhist Visual Narrative

A similar theme features on the stupa at Sanghol.125

Returning to a consideration of the distinctive nature of Dionysos himself, it is necessary to

Donald B Harden, Glass of the Caesars, Olivetti, 1987

Harald Ingholt, Gandhāran art in Pakistan, Pantheon Books, 1957

Philostratus the Athenian, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Penguin, 1970

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