Anthromorphic Image of Lord Buddha and the Greek Contribution

No.I mean that human figures were definitely seen in art before the Greeks, but no one
dared venture into depicting the Budddha in human form..much like Mohommad today. It
was the Greek adulation to our Lord and their background as a race that did not shy from
featuring Greek God's as human shape that they started showing Buddha as a human form in
art such as sculptures, idols etc.making his divinity accessible to his followers and curious
creatures who would be his future follower. Ashoka's edicts state that during his eighth regnal
year (c. 260 BCE), he conquered Kalinga after a brutal war. Ashoka subsequently devoted
himself to the propagation of "dhamma" or righteous conduct, the major theme of the edicts.
Ashoka's edicts suggest that a few years after the Kalinga War, he was gradually drawn
towards Buddhism. Buddhist and other legends from across the subcontinent and beyond
credit Ashoka with establishing a large number of stupas, patronising the Third Buddhist
council, supporting Buddhist missionaries, making generous donations to the sangha, and
possibly even persecuting non-Buddhists.
Ashoka's existence as a historical emperor had almost been forgotten, but since the
decipherment of sources written in Brahmi script in the 19th century, Ashoka holds a
reputation as one of the greatest Indian emperors. The emblem of the modern Republic of
India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka. Ashoka's wheel, the Ashoka Chakra is
adopted at the centre of the National Flag of India.

Edict 13 on the Edicts of Ashoka Rock Inscriptions reflect the great remorse the king felt
after observing the destruction of Kalinga:

His Majesty felt remorse on account of the conquest of Kalinga because, during the
subjugation of a previously unconquered country, slaughter, death, and taking away captive
of the people necessarily occur, whereas His Majesty feels profound sorrow and regret.The
edict goes on to address the even greater degree of sorrow and regret resulting from Ashoka’s
understanding that the friends and families of deceased would suffer greatly too.

Legend says that one day after the war was over, Ashoka ventured out to roam the city and all
he could see were burnt houses and scattered corpses. The lethal war with Kalinga
transformed the vengeful Emperor Ashoka into a stable and peaceful emperor, and he became
a patron of Buddhism. According to the prominent Indologist, A. L. Basham, Ashoka’s
personal religion became Buddhism, if not before, then certainly after the Kalinga War.
However, according to Basham, the Dharma officially propagated by Ashoka was not
Buddhism at all. Nevertheless, his patronage led to the expansion of Buddhism in the
Mauryan empire and other kingdoms during his rule, and worldwide from about 250 BCE.

After the Kalinga War and Ashoka’s conversion, the Empire experienced nearly half a
century of peace and security. Mauryan India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious
transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. Chandragupta Maurya’s
embrace of Jainism increased social and religious renewal and reform across his society,
while Ashoka’s embrace of Buddhism has been said to have been the foundation of the reign
of social and political peace and non-violence across all of India.

Buddhist Kingship

1
One of the more enduring legacies of Ashoka Maurya was the model that he provided for the
relationship between Buddhism and the state. Throughout Theravada Southeastern Asia, the
model of rulership embodied by Ashoka replaced the notion of divine kingship that had
previously dominated (in the Angkor kingdom, for instance). Under this model of “Buddhist
kingship,” the king sought to legitimize his rule, not through descent from a divine source,
but by supporting and earning the approval of the Buddhist sangha. Following Ashoka’s
example, kings established monasteries, funded the construction of stupas, and supported the
ordination of monks in their kingdom. Many rulers also took an active role in resolving
disputes over the status and regulation of the sangha, as Ashoka had by calling a conclave to
settle a number of contentious issues during his reign. This development ultimately led to a
close association in many Southeast Asian countries between the monarchy and the religious
hierarchy, an association that can still be seen today in the state-supported Buddhism of
Thailand, and the traditional role of the Thai king as both a religious and secular leader.
Ashoka also said that his courtiers always governed the people in a moral manner.

As a Buddhist emperor, Ashoka believed that Buddhism is beneficial for all human beings, as
well as animals and plants, so he built a number of stupas, Sangharama, viharas, chaitya, and
residences for Buddhist monks all over South Asia and Central Asia. According to the
Ashokavadana, he ordered the construction of 84,000 stupas to house the Buddhas relics. In
the Aryamanjusrimulakalpa, Ashoka takes offerings to each of these stupas, traveling in a
chariot adorned with precious metals. He gave donations to viharas and mathas. He sent his
only daughter, Sanghamitra, and son, Mahindra, to spread Buddhism in Sri Lanka (then
known as Tamraparni).

Stupa. Great Stupa (3rd century BC), Sanchi, India. Ashoka ordered the construction
of 84,000 stupas to house the Buddhas relics.

Debate About Ashoka’s Conversion And Rule

The use of Buddhist sources in reconstructing the life of Ashoka has had a strong influence
on perceptions of Ashoka, as well as the interpretations of his Edicts. Building on traditional
accounts, early scholars regarded Ashoka as a primarily Buddhist monarch who underwent a
conversion to Buddhism and was actively engaged in sponsoring and supporting the Buddhist
monastic institution. Some scholars have tended to question this assessment. The only source
of information not attributable to Buddhist sources are the Ashokan Edicts, and these do not

2
explicitly state that Ashoka was a Buddhist. In his edicts, Ashoka expresses support for all
the major religions of his time: Buddhism, Brahmanism, Jainism, and Ajivikaism. His edicts
addressed to the population at large (there are some addressed specifically to Buddhists,
which is not the case for the other religions) generally focus on moral themes that members
of all the religions would accept.

However, the edicts alone strongly indicate that he was a Buddhist. In one edict he belittles
rituals, and he banned Vedic animal sacrifices; these strongly suggest that he at least did not
look to the Vedic tradition for guidance. Furthermore, many edicts are expressed to Buddhists
alone; in one, Ashoka declares himself to be an “upasaka,” and in another he demonstrates a
close familiarity with Buddhist texts. He erected rock pillars at Buddhist holy sites, but did
not do so for the sites of other religions. He also used the word “dhamma” to refer to qualities
of the heart that underlie moral action; this was an exclusively Buddhist use of the word.
Finally, he promoted ideals that correspond to the first three steps of the Buddha’s graduated
discourse.

Interestingly, the Ashokavadana, presents an alternate view of the familiar Ashoka. In this
source, his conversion has nothing to do with the Kalinga War or his descent from the
Maurya dynasty. Instead, Ashoka’s reason for adopting non-violence appears much more
personal. The Ashokavadana shows that the main source of Ashoka’s conversion, and the
acts of welfare that followed, are rooted instead in intense personal anguish, from a
wellspring inside himself rather than spurred by a specific event. It thereby illuminates
Ashoka as more humanly ambitious and passionate, with both greatness and
flaws. This Ashoka is very different from the “shadowy do-gooder” of later Pali chronicles.

Ashoka, (died 238? bce, India), last major emperor of the Mauryan dynasty of India. His
vigorous patronage of Buddhism during his reign (c. 265–238 bce; also given as c. 273–232
bce) furthered the expansion of that religion throughout India.

Gautama Buddha in Greco-Buddhist style, 1st–2nd century

AD, Gandhara (Peshawar basin, modern day Pakistan).

3
 Buddhist
expansion in Asia: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese Empire (Han dynasty)
through Silk Road during the Kushan Era. The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were
interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of
Buddhism. Greco-Buddhism, or Graeco-Buddhism, is the
cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the
4th century BC and the 5th century AD in Gandharain present-day north-
western Pakistan and parts of north-east Afghanistan. (70 years after ASHOKA app)
It was a cultural consequence of a long chain of interactions begun by Greek forays into
the Indian subcontinent from the time of Alexander the Great. A few years after Alexander's
death, the Easternmost fringes of the empire of his general Seleucus were lost in a war with
the Mauryan Empire, under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryan Emperor
Ashoka would convert to Buddhism and spread the religious philosophy throughout his
domain, as recorded in the Edicts of Ashoka. This spread to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom,
which itself seceded from the Seleucid empire. Within its borders, the Greek fondness
for statuary produced the first statues of the Buddha, leading ultimately to the modern
tradition.Following the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, Greco-Buddhism continued to
flourish under the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Indo-Greek Kingdoms, and Kushan
Empire. Mahayana Buddhism was spread from the Gangetic plains in India
into Gandhara and then Central Asia during the Mauryan Era, where it became the most
prevalent branch of Buddhism in Central Asia. Mahayana Buddhism was later transmitted
through the Silk Road into the Han Dynasty during the Kushan era under the reign of
Emperor Kanishka. Buddhist tradition details the monk, Majjhantika of Varanasi, was made
responsible for spreading Buddhism in the region by Emperor Ashoka.

4
 The Indo-Greek Kingdoms in 100–150 BC.
The introduction of Hellenistic Greece to central Asia started after the conquest of that region
by Darius the Great and his Persian Achaemenid Empire. He and his successors also
conquered the Anatolian peninsula, which at the time was inhabited by many Greek cultures.
When they rebelled, those Greeks were often ethnically cleansed by being relocated to the far
end of the Persian Empire, those central Asian provinces. When Alexander the
Great conquered Achaemenid Empire and further regions of Central Asia in 334 BC, he thus
encountered many Greeks already established in the easternmost stretches of its empire. He
then ventured into Punjab (land of five rivers). Alexander crossed the Indus and Jhelum
River when defeating Porus and appointing him as a satrap following the Battle of the
Hydaspes. Alexander's army would mutiny and retreat along the Beas River when confronted
by the Nanda Empire, thus wouldn't conquer Punjab entirely.
Thanks to relocation by the Persian Empire, there was established Greek culture in the far
east of Alexander's empire. He founded several cities in his new territories in the areas of
the Amu Darya and Bactria, and Greek settlements further extended to the Khyber
Pass, Gandhara (see Taxila), and the Punjab. Following Alexander's death on June 10,
323 BC, the Diadochi or "successors" founded their own kingdoms. General Seleucus set up
the Seleucid Empire in Anatolia and Central Asia and extended as far as India.
The Mauryan Empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya, would first conquer the Nanda
Empire. Chandragupta would then defeat the Seleucid Empire during the Seleucid-Mauryan
War. This resulted in the transfer of the Macedonian satraps in the Indus
Valley and Gandhara to the Mauryan Empire. Furthermore, a marriage alliance was enacted
which granted Seleucus's daughter as Chandragupta's wife for diplomatic relations. The
conflict additionally led to the transfer of 500 war elephants to the Seleucid Empire from the
Mauryan Empire, presumably as reparations for lives lost and damages sustained.
The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka established the largest Indian empire. Following the
destructive Kalinga War, Ashoka converted to Buddhism. Abandoning an expansionist
agenda, Ashoka would adopt humanitarian reformation in place. [16] As ascribed in the Edicts
of Ashoka, the Emperor spread Dharma as Buddhism throughout his empire. Ashoka claims
to have converted many, including the Greek populations within his realm to Buddhism:
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the
Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras, and the Palidas, everywhere people are
following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma.[17]

5
The decline and overthrow of the Mauryans by the Shunga Empire, and of the revolt
of Bactria in the Seleucid Empire led to the formation of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250–
125 BC). To their north, the Greco-Bactrians were followed by the secession of the Indo-
Greek Kingdom (180 BC – AD 10). Even when, centuries later, these Hellenized regions
were conquered first by the Yuezhi, then by the Indo-Scythians and the Kushan Empire (1st–
3rd centuries AD), Buddhism continued to thrive there.
Buddhism in India was a major religion for centuries until a major Hindu revival from around
the 5th century, with remaining strongholds such as Bengal largely ended during the Islamic
invasions of India.
The length of the Greek presence in Central Asia and northern India provided opportunities
for interaction, not only on the artistic but also on the religious plane.
Alexander the Great in Bactria and India (331–325 BC)

The Hellenistic Pataliputra capital, discovered

in Pataliputra, capital of the Maurya Empire, dated to the 3rd century BC.// "Victory coin" of Alexander
the Great, minted in Babylon 322 BC, following his campaigns in India.
Obverse: Alexander being crowned by Nike.
Reverse: Alexander attacking King Porus on his elephant. Silver. British Museum.
When Alexander invaded Bactria and Gandhara, these areas may already have been
under Sramanic influence, likely Buddhist and Jain. According to a legend preserved in
the Pali Canon, two merchant brothers from Kamsabhoga in Bactria, Tapassu and Bhallika,
visited Gautama Buddha and became his disciples. The legend states that they then returned
home and spread the Buddha's teaching.[18] n 326 BC, Alexander conquered the Northern
region of India. King Ambhi of Taxila, known as Taxiles, surrendered his city, a notable
Buddhist center, to Alexander. Alexander fought an epic battle against King
Porus of Pauravas in Punjab, the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC.

Mauryan empire (322–183 BC) and Greco-Buddhist monasticism

The Mauryan Empire would later defeat the successor Seleucid Empire, during the Seleucid-
Mauryan War. Resulting in the transfer of the satraps in the Indus Valley and Gandhara, that
had been part of the Achaemenid, Macedonian and Seleucidian, to the Mauryan Empire.
However, contacts were kept with his Greco-Iranian neighbors in the Seleucid Empire.
Emperor Seleucus I Nicator came to a marital agreement as part of a peace treaty, and several
Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes, resided at the Mauryan court.

6
Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka embraced the Buddhist faith and became a great
proselytizer in the line of the traditional Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism, insisting on non-
violence to humans and animals (ahimsa), and general precepts regulating the life of
laypeople.
According to the Edicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in Greek and some
in Aramaic, the official language of the Achaemenids, he sent Buddhist emissaries to the
Greek lands in Asia and as far as the Mediterranean. The edicts name each of the rulers of
the Hellenistic period:
The conquest by Dharma has been won here, on the borders, and even six hundred yojanas
[4,000 miles] away, where the Greek king Antiochos (Antiyoga) rules, and beyond there
where the four kings named Ptolemy (Turamaya), Antigonos (Antikini), Magas (Maka)
and Alexander (Alikasu[n]dara) rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas, the Pandyas,
and as far as Tamraparni. Ashoka also claims he converted to Buddhism Greek populations
within his realm:
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the
Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are
following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma.
Finally, some of the emissaries of Ashoka, such as the famous Dharmaraksita, are described
in Pali sources as leading Greek ("Yona") Buddhist monks active in Buddhist proselytism
(the Mahavamsa, XII[22]), founding the eponymous Dharmaguptaka school of Buddhism
Greek presence in Bactria (325–125 BC)

The Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-

Khanoum (c. 300–145 BCE) was located at the doorstep of India.

7
Alexander had established in Bactria several cities (Ai-Khanoum, Bagram) and an
administration that were to last more than two centuries under the Seleucid Empire and
the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, all the time in direct contact with Indian territory. The Greeks
sent ambassadors to the court of the Maurya Empire, such as the
historian Megasthenes under Chandragupta Maurya, and later Deimachus under his
son Bindusara, who reported extensively on the civilization of the Indians. Megasthenes sent
detailed reports on Indian religions, which were circulated and quoted throughout the
Classical world for centuries.
Megasthenes makes a different division of the philosophers, saying that they are of two kinds,
one of which he calls the Brachmanes, and the other the Sarmanes..." Strabo XV. 1. 58-60[25]
The Greco-Bactrians maintained a strong Hellenistic culture at the door of India during the
rule of the Maurya Empire in India, as exemplified by the archaeological site of Ai-
Khanoum. When the Maurya Empire was toppled by the Shunga Empire around 180 BC, the
Greco-Bactrians expanded into India, where they established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, under
which Buddhism was able to flourish.
Indo-Greek Kingdom and Buddhism (180 BCE – CE 10)

Greek Gods and the "Wheel of the

Law" or Dharmachakra: Left: Zeus holding Nike, who hands a victory wreath over a
Dharmachakra (coin of Menander II). Right: Divinity wearing chlamys and petasus pushing
a Dharmachakra, with legend "He who sets in motion the Wheel of the Law" (Tillya Tepe
Buddhist coin).
North of Bactria was the Indo-Greek Kingdom, centered approximately around Alexandria
Eschate. They controlled various areas of the northern Indian territory until AD 10.
Buddhism prospered under the Indo-Greek kings, and it has been suggested that their
invasion of India was intended to protect the Buddhist faith from the religious persecutions of
the Shungas (185–73 BC), who had overthrown the Mauryans. Zarmanochegas was a
śramana (possibly, but not necessarily a Buddhist) who, according to ancient historians such
as Strabo, Cassius Dio, and Nicolaus of Damascus traveled
to Antioch and Athens while Augustus (died AD 14) was ruling the Roman Empire.
Coinage
The coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander I (reigned 160–135 BCE), found
from Afghanistan to central India, bear the inscription "Saviour King Menander" in Greek on
the front. Several Indo-Greek kings after Menander, such as Zoilos I, Strato I, Heliokles
II, Theophilos, Peukolaos, Menander II and Archebius display on their coins the title
"Maharajasa Dharmika" (lit. "King of the Dharma") in Prakrit written in Kharoshthi.
Some of the coins of Menander I and Menander II incorporate the Buddhist symbol of the
eight-spoked wheel, associated with the Greek symbols of victory, either the palm of victory,
or the victory wreath handed over by the goddess Nike. According to the Milinda Pañha, at

8
the end of his reign Menander I became a Buddhist arhat,[28] a fact also echoed by Plutarch,
who explains that his relics were shared and enshrined.

A coin of Menander I (r.160–135 BCE) with

a dharmacakra and a palm.
The ubiquitous symbol of the elephant in Indo-Greek coinage may also have been associated
with Buddhism, as suggested by the parallel between coins of Antialcidas and Menander II,
where the elephant in the coins of Antialcidas holds the same relationship to Zeus and Nike
as the Buddhist wheel on the coins of Menander II. When the Zoroastrian Indo-Parthian
Kingdom invaded North India in the 1st century AD, they adopted a large part of the
symbolism of Indo-Greek coinage, but refrained from ever using the elephant, suggesting that
its meaning was not merely geographical.

Vitarka Mudra gestures on Indo-Greek coinage. Top:

Divinities Tyche and Zeus. Bottom: Depiction of the Indo-Greek kings Nicias and Menander II.
Finally, after the reign of Menander I, several Indo-Greek rulers, such as Amyntas
Nikator, Nicias, Peukolaos, Hermaeus, Hippostratos and Menander II, depicted themselves or
their Greek deities forming with the right hand a benediction gesture identical to the Buddhist
vitarka mudra (thumb and index joined together, with other fingers extended), which in
Buddhism signifies the transmission of Buddha's teaching.
Cities
According to Ptolemy, Greek cities were founded by the Greco-Bactrians in northern India.
Menander established his capital in Sagala (modern Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan) one of the
centers of the blossoming Buddhist culture.[30] A large Greek city built by Demetrius and
rebuilt by Menander has been excavated at the archaeological site of Sirkap near Taxila,
where Buddhist stupas were standing side-by-side with Hindu and Greek temples, indicating
religious tolerance and syncretism.
Scriptures
Evidence of direct religious interaction between Greek and Buddhist thought during the
period include the Milinda Pañha or "Questions of Menander", a Pali-language discourse in
the Platonic style held between Menander I and the Buddhist monk Nagasena.

9
 According to the Mahavamsa,
the Ruwanwelisaya in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, was dedicated by a 30,000-
strong Yona delegation from Alexandria on the Caucasus around 130 BC.
The Mahavamsa, chapter 29, records that during Menander's reign, a Greek thera (elder
monk) named Mahadharmaraksita led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of
Alexandria" (possibly Alexandria on the Caucasus, around 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of
today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of a stupa, indicating that
Buddhism flourished in Menander's territory and that Greeks took a very active part in it.
Several Buddhist dedications by Greeks in India are recorded, such as that of the
Greek meridarch (civil governor of a province) named Theodorus, describing in Kharosthi
how he enshrined relics of the Buddha. The inscriptions were found on a vase inside a stupa,
dated to the reign of Menander or one of his successors in the 1st century BC. Finally,
Buddhist tradition recognizes Menander as one of the great benefactors of the faith, together
with Ashoka and Kanishka the Great.
Buddhist manuscripts in cursive Greek have been found in Afghanistan, praising various
Buddhas and including mentions of the Mahayana figure of "Lokesvararaja Buddha"
(λωγοασφαροραζοβοδδο). These manuscripts have been dated later than the 2nd century AD.
Kushan empire (1st–3rd century AD)
The Kushan Empire, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi, settled in Bactria around 125 BC,
displacing the Greco-Bactrians and invading the northern parts of Pakistan and India from
around AD 1. By that time they had already been in contact with Greek culture and the Indo-
Greek kingdoms for more than a century. They used the Greek script to write their language,
as exemplified by their coins and their adoption of the Greek alphabet.

Hellenistic culture in the Indian subcontinent: Greek

clothes, amphoras, wine and music. Detail from Chakhil-i-Ghoundi Stupa, Hadda, Gandhara, 1st century
AD.
The Kushan King Kanishka, who honored Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanic deities as well
as the Buddha and was famous for his religious syncretism, convened the Fourth Buddhist
council around 100 in Kashmir in order to redact the Sarvastivadin canon. Some of
Kanishka's coins bear the earliest representations of the Buddha on a coin (around 120), in
Hellenistic style and with the word "Boddo" in Greek script.

10
Kanishka also had the original Gandhari Prakrit Mahāyāna sūtras translated into Sanskrit, "a
turning point in the evolution of the Buddhist literary canon"
The Kanishka casket, dated to the first year of Kanishka's reign in 127, was signed by a
Greek artist named Agesilas, who oversaw work at Kanishka's stupas (cetiya), confirming the
direct involvement of Greeks with Buddhist realizations at such a late date.
Several Greek philosophers, including Pyrrho, Anaxarchus, and Onesicritus accompanied
Alexander in his eastern campaigns. During the 18 months they were in India, they were able
to interact with Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism, generally described
as gymnosophists ("naked philosophers").
Similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism
Pyrrho returned to Greece and founded Pyrrhonism, considered by modern scholars as the
first Western school of skepticism.[36] The Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius explained that
Pyrrho's equanimity and detachment from the world were acquired in India.
Pyrrho was directly influenced by Buddhism in developing his philosophy, which is based on
Pyrrho's interpretation of the Buddhist three marks of existence.
Cynicism
Another of these philosophers, Onesicritus, a Cynic, is said by Strabo to have learnt in India
the following precepts: "That nothing that happens to a man is bad or good, opinions being
merely dreams. ... That the best philosophy [is] that which liberates the mind from [both]
pleasure and grief" Cynicism, particularly the Cynic Peregrinus Proteus was further
influenced by the tales of the gymnosophists, particularly the examples set
by Kalanos, Dandamis, and Zarmanochegas
Cyrenaicism
The Cyrenaic philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene, from the city of Cyrene where Magas of
Cyrene ruled, is thought by some to have been influenced by the teachings of Ashoka's
Buddhist missionaries
Greco-Buddhist art
Numerous works of Greco-Buddhist art display the intermixing of Greek and Buddhist
influences in such creation centers as Gandhara. The subject matter of Gandharan art was
definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of Western Asiatic or Hellenistic origin.
Anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha

11
 An aniconic representation of Mara's assault on the Buddha, 2nd
century AD, Amaravathi village, Guntur district, India.
Although there is still some debate, the first anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha
himself are often considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist interaction. Before this
innovation, Buddhist art was "aniconic": the Buddha was only represented through his
symbols (an empty throne, the Bodhi Tree, Buddha footprints, the Dharmachakra).
This reluctance towards anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, and the
sophisticated development of aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative scenes where
other human figures would appear), seem to be connected to one of the Buddha's sayings
reported in the Digha Nikaya that discouraged representations of himself after the extinction
of his body.
Probably not feeling bound by these restrictions, and because of "their cult of form, the
Greeks were the first to attempt a sculptural representation of the Buddha". In many parts of
the Ancient World, the Greeks did develop syncretic divinities, that could become a common
religious focus for populations with different traditions: a well-known example is Serapis,
introduced by Ptolemy I Soter in Egypt, who combined aspects of Greek and Egyptian Gods.
In India as well, it was only natural for the Greeks to create a single common divinity by
combining the image of a Greek god-king (Apollo, or possibly the deified founder of
the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Demetrius I of Bactria), with the traditional physical characteristics
of the Buddha.

Standing Buddha, Gandhara, 1st century AD./Herculean depiction of Vajrapani (right), as the protector
of the Buddha, 2nd century AD Gandhara, British Museum

12
Many of the stylistic elements in the representations of the Buddha point to Greek
influence: himation, the contrapposto stance of the upright figures, such as the 1st–2nd
century Gandhara standing Buddhas, the stylized curly hair and ushnisha apparently derived
from the style of the Apollo Belvedere (330 BC) and the measured quality of the faces, all
rendered with strong artistic realism. A large quantity of sculptures combining Buddhist and
purely Hellenistic styles and iconography were excavated at the modern site of Hadda,
Afghanistan. The curly hair of Buddha is described in the famous list of the physical
characteristics of the Buddha in the Buddhist sutras. The hair with curls turning to the right is
first described in the Pāli canon; we find the same description in the Dāsāṣṭasāhasrikā
prajñāpāramitā.
Greek artists were most probably the authors of these early representations of the Buddha, in
particular the standing statues, which display "a realistic treatment of the folds and on some
even a hint of modelled volume that characterizes the best Greek work. This is Classical or
Hellenistic Greek, not archaizing Greek transmitted by Persia or Bactria, nor
distinctively Roman."
The Greek stylistic influence on the representation of the Buddha, through its idealistic
realism, also permitted a very accessible, understandable and attractive visualization of the
ultimate state of enlightenment described by Buddhism, allowing it to reach a wider
audience:
One of the distinguishing features of the Gandharan school of art that emerged in north-west
India is that it has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the Classical Greek style.
Thus, while these images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's
doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc.
and slept much as we do. I feel this is very important. These figures are inspiring because
they do not only depict the goal, but also the sense that people like us can achieve it if we try.

— 14th Dalai Lama

During the following centuries, this anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha defined
the canon of Buddhist art, but progressively evolved to incorporate more Indian and Asian
elements.
Hellenized Buddhist pantheon- Buddhist art and Greco-Buddhist art

A Buddhist coin of Kanishka I, with legend ΒΟΔΔΟ

"Boddo" (=the Buddha) in Greek script on the reverse.
Several other Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For
example, Heracles with a lion-skin, the protector deity of Demetrius I of Bactria, "served as
an artistic model for Vajrapani, a protector of the Buddha".In Japan, this expression further
translated into the wrath-filled and muscular Niō guardian gods of the Buddha, standing
today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples.
According to Katsumi Tanabe, professor at Chūō University, Japan, besides Vajrapani, Greek
influence also appears in several other gods of the Mahayana pantheon such as the
Japanese Fūjin, inspired from the Greek divinity Boreas through the Greco-Buddhist Wardo,
or the mother deity Hariti inspired by Tyche.

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In addition, forms such as garland-bearing cherubs, vine scrolls, and such semihuman
creatures as the centaur and triton, are part of the repertory of Hellenistic art introduced by
Greco-Roman artists in the service of the Kushan court.
: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, Greco-Buddhist monasticism, and Dayuan

Central Asian monk teaching East-Asian monk. A fresco from

the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, dated to the 9th or 10th century (Kara-Khoja
Kingdom).
Greek monks played a direct role in the upper hierarchy of Buddhism, and in its early
dissemination. During the rule (165–135 BC) of the Greco-Bactrian King Menander I (Pali:
"Milinda"), Mahadharmaraksita (literally translated as 'Great Teacher/Preserver of the
Dharma') was "a Greek (Pali: Yona, lit. Ionian) Buddhist head monk," according to
the Mahavamsa (Chap. XXIX), who led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of
Alasandra" (Alexandria of the Caucasus, around 150 km north of
today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of the Great
Stupa in Anuradhapura. Dharmaraksita (Sanskrit), or Dhammarakkhita (Pali)
(translation: Protected by the Dharma), was one of the missionaries sent by
the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to proselytize the Buddhist faith. He is described as being a
Greek (Pali: "Yona", lit. "Ionian") in the Mahavamsa, and his activities are indicative of the
strength of the Hellenistic Greek involvement during the formative centuries of Buddhism.
Indeed, Menander I was famously converted to Buddhism by Nagasena, who was a student of
the Greek Buddhist monk Dharmaraksita. Menander is said to have reached enlightenment as
an arhat under Nagasena's guidance and is recorded as a great patron of Buddhism. The
dialogue of the Greek King Menander I (Pali "Milinda") with the monk Nagasena comprises
the Pali Buddhist work known as the Milinda Panha.
Buddhist monks from the region of Gandhara, where Greco-Buddhism was most influential,
later played a key role in the development and the transmission of Buddhist ideas in the
direction of northern Asia. Greco-Buddhist Kushan monks such as Lokaksema (c. AD 178)
travelled to the Chinese capital of Loyang, where they became the first translators of
Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Central Asian and East Asian Buddhist monks appear to
have maintained strong exchanges until around the 10th century, as indicated by the Bezeklik
Thousand Buddha Caves frescos from the Tarim Basin. In legend too Bodhidharma, the
founder of Chán-Buddhism, which later became Zen, and the legendary originator of the
physical training of the Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolin Kung Fu, is
described as a Buddhist monk from Central Asia in the first Chinese references to him (Yan
Xuan-Zhi in 547). Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-
tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian, and he is referred as "The Blue-
Eyed Barbarian" (Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan texts. In 485, according to the 7th century
Chinese historical treatise Liang Shu, five monks from Gandhara travelled to the country
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of Fusang ("The country of the extreme East" beyond the sea, probably eastern Japan), where
they introduced Buddhism:
"Fusang is located to the east of China, 20,000 li [1,500 km] east of the state of Da
Han (itself east of the state of Wa in modern Kyūshū, Japan). (...) In former times, the people
of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but in the second year of Da Ming of
the Song dynasty [AD 485], five monks from Kipin (Kabul region of Gandhara) travelled by
ship to Fusang. They propagated Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and
advised the people to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result the customs of Fusang
changed."
Two half-brothers from Gandhara, Asanga and Vasubandhu (4th century), created
the Yogacara or "Mind-only" school of Mahayana Buddhism, which through one of its major
texts, the Lankavatara Sutra, became a founding block of Mahayana, and particularly Zen,
philosophy.
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