Understanding The Enigmatic Aura Of Lotus In Gandhara Art: A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

The eastern part of Afghanistan and northwestern parts of Pakistan including Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan were once a center of a flourishing civilization called Gandhara civilization and its magnificent art. Earlier the term Greater Gandhāra was used for the larger cultural boundary that included parts of Afghanistan i.e., Lamgham and Jalalabad, Kashmir, the valleys of Swat and Buner and the Peshawar basin (Behrendt 2004: 2). The celebrated Chinese monk, Xuanzang has recorded Gandhāra as Kien-t'o-lo with its capital as Po-lu-sha-pu-lo identified with the present-day Peshawar (Beal 2004: 97-98). Gandhāra had the privilege to be amongst 16 Mahajanapadas (Great Kingdoms) of North India thrived at the beginning of the sixth century BCE in India (Majumdar 1960: 2). According to Warraich (2015: 18,19), the Aryans (authors of Rigveda) named this country Gandhara after ‘observing its most striking physical, topographical as well as geographical feature i.e., Gand or Kand or Kund, means pond, or water reservoir… Gandhara or Kandhar or Kundhara—the land marked by reservoir’. This whole region was a renowned and busy center of Buddhist missionary as well as artistic activities.