Located in the rugged foothills of the Himalayas, straddling the border of what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gandhara was one of the principle ancient centres for interaction between the Eastern and Western worlds. Emerging perhaps as early as 1200 BC, the Gandharan culture only emerged as a unified political entity around 500 BC. But, strategically located on the frontier between the Mediterranean-Near Eastern sphere and the Asian sphere, Gandharan independence was short-lived. The great Empires of the region saw their own interests play out in this area, subjecting Gandhara to waves of invasion throughout its history. The Achaemenids ruled Gandhara for a little over a century, but it was Alexander the Great’s invasion that left the most indelible mark. Following Alexander, the Mauryans dominated Gandhara, but it was not long before the Greeks were back. An invasion by the Bactrian Greeks, from Central Asia, installed a new Indo-Greek Kingdom (yavanaraja) in Gandhara. Essentially a client-state of the Mauryan Empire, it was subject to important Indian influences, the most important of which was the introduction of Buddhism under Ashoka the Great (reigned 268 BC – 232 BC). As his famous Edict reported: ‘here in the king’s domain, the Greeks […] are following Beloved-of-the-Gods’ [the Buddha’s] instructions in the dharma.’ Buddhism survived waves of invasion, from the Parthians and Skythians, and eventually flourished under the Kushans and their great Fifth-Century AD king Kanishka. It took an invasion by the Huns, in the Sixth Century AD, to suppress Buddhism in the area, after some 800 years.

Gandharan art flourished in the first three centuries AD, when the rich sculptural tradition incorporating both Hellenistic and Indian models first originated. Traditionally, scholars have lamented that no painting survives from this period. They have assumed that the vibrant sculptural output must have been mirrored by an equally dynamic painted corpus. This was certainly the case, for example, in Ancient Greece, where we know from the literary sources that painting achieved unparalleled heights – apparently Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes so realistic that the birds pecked at them (Pliny Naturalis Historia 35.36) – even though no panel painting from Classical Greece survives. However, recent scholarship has challenged the prevailing view that First to Third Century AD Gandharan painting is simply lost. Instead, it is now argued that painting, frescoes in particular, was an innovation of the Fourth Century AD in Gandhara. For the Gandharans, painting was largely designed to complement architecture, rather than to stand alone as an art form. Early Gandharan painting was less influenced by Classical Greece, and more by elements from the Hunnish and Central Asian traditions, with figures depicted with their faces in profile, and their torsos at three-quarter view. Gradually, the Indian influence prevailed, with faces more commonly represented straight ahead or in three-quarter view, giving a clearer view of the facial features.

This exceptionally delicate fragment depicts two figures, both shown with halos (pabha). The larger figure bears a number of the features associated with the Buddha himself: the ushnisha (topknot), symbolic of the Buddha’s wisdom; the elongated earlobes, stretched out by the heavy gold earrings which were characteristic of the princely class; the serene expression, with eyes half closed, and lips pursed together; and the pabha itself. Unlike in the Christian tradition, where halos are universally depicted as clear light, the Buddhist pabha is deliberately colourful, with the colour sometimes indicating the rank or the identity of the people represented. Specifically, the Buddha was depicted with a green halo, symbolic of balance and harmony. It can also denote youth, vigour and action. In this depiction, the Buddha is depicted with a blue halo, for reasons which are unknown. It could simply be that at the early date of this piece, the colour system of Buddhist halos was not yet set in stone. Alternatively, blue is associated in Buddhism with purity and healing, and is the colour of meditation. The presence of a blue halo could therefore indicate the Buddha’s journey towards enlightenment. A second, much smaller, figure is depicted at an angle to the Buddha. It is unclear who this represents, but one attractive theory is that this is the Buddha as an infant. He does not yet display the ushnisha of wisdom, nor are his ears stretched. He is wrapped tightly in a garment which may represent swaddling clothes. He is perhaps at an odd angle because, rather than supporting himself, he is being held by another figure, perhaps the Buddha’s mother, Maya Devi. This remarkable fresco is so delicately painted that one must imagine that it was designed for an intimate setting, perhaps the interior of a stupa, where the devotees would come up close to it.