Gandhara Art How it got influenced by Romans, Greek cultures

"GANDHARA" is an ancient kingdom have cultural roots with Indian sub-continent. That great city is presently part of modern Pakistan. The city covers in places of northern pakistan and eastern afghanistan. The name to the city GANDHARA came from the character "Gandhari" who is wife of Dhritarashtra. 

After the archelogical excavations there are many sites which are excavated and found the relics of "Gautama Buddha". Due to historical influences and people interactions the images of budhha is unique and versatile. One of the famous example of classic Gandhara art is "Budhha of Bamyan". After its destruction by taliban in 2001 recently a restoration project was undertaken.

Gandhara art was developed in north-west India during kushan rulers period. The art was influenced by Central Asian and Greeco Bactrian elements.

Central Asian Elements:

• Curly hair of Buddha also resembles the parthian styles of statues.
• The cloth drapping seen in the gandhara art is similar to the romans which is mediterranean. The depiction of Buddha in Gandhara art is reminiscent of sculptors depicting a young Apollo.
• The legendary interpretation of Buddha is sometimes presented through roman motifs like "Triton".
• Buddha of Gandhara is sometimes presented through roman art techniques using Vine scroll, Cherub wearing Garland. The tradition of representing the buddha in human form is inspired from roman anthropomorphic tradition.

Greek Elements:

• The images of Buddha was seen under the protection of greek god "Hercules".
• Some images are shown under greek architectural environment bearing affinity of cornithian.
• The disc shaped ( Halo) was around the head of buddha was one of the feature taken from the cultures which worship Sun God.
• Some coins found in gandhara region has greek scripts and pictographs of  greek god.

From above details we can say the Gandhara art is also known as Greaco - Roman School of art. This school of art also assimilated Archimedean, Parthian and Bactrian cultures also. The buddha images in greek influence show muscular body with elongated ears and half close eyes. This type of art is different to Mathura art which is very close to present Indian cultures. In greek influence we can observe "Hellenistic features". The material used in Gandhara art are "Grey Sandstone / Blue-grey Mica schist. Very expressive images and mudras can be seen in greeco-roman buddha images.