|
This is a Gandhara standing
sculpture of Hariti, a fertility
goddess and the benevolent patroness
of children.Together with her
husband Panchika, she is also
associated with the embodiment of
prosperity. Sculpted in schist,
Hariti is portrayed standing on a
lotus pedestal, wearing a long
pleated skirt, her hair beautifully
kept in order by a simple diadem
leaving a row of snail-like curls to
frame her front, one of her hands
holding a baby child, while the
other should have been clasping a
cornucopia at the height of her
shoulder if not damaged. The
rendition of the pleats and the
posture of the person is undoubtedly
drawn from the classical repertoire,
once again bespeaking of the intense
cultural interchange between that
geographic region and the ancient
Greek culture.
The Gandhara region had long been a
crossroads of cultural influences.
Geographically it included roughly
northwestern India between the
Khyber Pass and the Indus River and
the region of the Kabul Valley in
Afghanistan. During the reign of the
Indian emperor Ashoka around 3rd
century B.C., the region became the
scene of intensive Buddhist
missionary activity; and, in the 1st
century AD, rulers of the Kushan
empire such as Kanishka (AD 129-160)
maintained contacts with Rome and
employed foreign artists from the
eastern centres of the Roman Empire
to create numerous sculptural works.
The many archaeological discoveries
of Alexandrian and Syrian
workmanship at Taxila in the Punjab
and Begram in the Kabul valley
testify to the cultural and
diplomatic connections with the
Graeco- Roman West. The choice of a
soft indigenous schist -the
preferred medium of the early
Gandharan artists- would indicate a
date between the 2nd and the 5th
centuries AD. During that period
local artists were able to establish
a strong tradition and produced
works of art reflecting both
indigenous traditions and external
influences. The detection of Greek
and Roman elements in the Gandharan
School testifies to the active
exchange of ideals among all the
civilizations of the Classical and
Central Asian worlds. While the
Gandhara artistic tradition reached
its climax toward the end of the 2nd
century AD with the production of
the most significant large Buddha
statues, the style continued to
flourish well into the 3rd century,
and continued thriving until and
after the Sasanian invasion.
- (FF.056)
|
