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Description: | Photograph of some Buddhistic images taken by Alexander.E Caddy in 1896. These images are cut directly into a large stone in the foreground and a smaller one close by, with a figure standing in the shade of the larger rock to give an idea of scale. The ancient kingdoms of Udyana (Swat) and Gandhara (Peshawar) corresponded fairly closely with the northern part of the North West Frontier Province. These kingdoms were formed by the Kushans, who were of Chinese origin and took over the area in the first century BC. Under the king Kanishka, who ruled both Gandhara and Udyana from around 100 AD, Buddhism flourished; at one point there were 1400 monasteries in the lower Swat Valley alone. The Buddhist sculpture produced by the Kushans in the Swat Valley was referred to as Gandharan, and was influenced by Graeco-Roman elements. The carvings depicted here are clearly Buddhist yet although they show a few affinities with Gandharan sculptural traditions; it could not be said that they were typical examples of the idiom. | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | Caddy, Alexander E. | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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