Gandhara Art And The Western Demand For Buddhist Artifacts

About two thousand years ago, during Kushan rule, a type of figurative art mainly associated with Buddhism developed in the ancient Gandhara region of what is today Pakistan. Today, that style is known as Gandhara art. Due to its geographic setting, Gandhara was a meeting place of various cultures, e.g. Greco-Roman, Persian, Scythian, Parthian and Indian, the depiction of which can be noticed in the Gandhara art which, owing to its direct relationship with Buddhism, is also called “Buddhist art.” According to Professor Osmund Bopearachchi, it “is characterised by a unique style, the use of schist [stone] readily available in the region, a naturalism reminiscent of Greek Classical art, and an iconographic preference for episodes of the historical Buddha’s life.” Apart from the rock reliefs depicting the life stories of Buddha, Gandhara art is particularly known for Buddha’s colossal statues of schist and gigantic images carved in huge rocks.

The schist stone sculptures and reliefs depicting Buddhist deities and the historical Buddha and his life stories, typical of Gandhara, can be seen in a number of museums across the world, particularly in Europe. All of them were extracted from the stupas and monasteries where they were originally housed for worship. Given the ongoing discourse about the authenticity and ownership of antiquities, no less than intriguing are the questions as to when, how and why they were taken to other places from their actual spaces where they originally belonged.

Thanks to the scholars working in this field and archaeological heritage managers, we now know a great deal about the extraction, acquisition and trafficking of historically and culturally important objects. Through this writing, I would like to draw your attention to a recent study by Dr. Rafiullah Khan, who is a professor of Ancient History at the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations, Quaid-i-Azam University, in which he has discussed in detail an archaeological expedition to the princely state of Swat in 1938.

The expedition was led by Evert Hugh Barger, who was a lecturer of medieval history at the Department of History, Bristol University, and he was accompanied by “Philip Wright, who worked as an assistant keeper of the Indian Section at the Victoria and Albert Museum[,] […] T.D. Weatherhead, surveyor and photographer, and W.V. Emanuel, whose role was to take care of transport, equipment, and so on (p. 3).” Sponsored by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Indian Research Committee, the primary objective of the “Barger expedition” was to acquire Gandharan antiquities for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (see pp. 19–25), although, as Dr. Khan highlights (p. 4), “It was claimed that the expedition […] was concerned mainly with promoting scholarship about India and addressing the wider interest in Indian art and history.”

Thanks to the scholars working in this field and archaeological heritage managers, we now know a great deal about the extraction, acquisition and trafficking of historically and culturally important objects

In their quest for Gandharan objects, Barger proposed to the authorities, i.e. the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) government and the princely state of Swat, “the systematic excavation of one or more sites in Swat” (p. 9), as only the surface exploration was carried out previously in the area. According to Dr. Khan, trial digs were done on more than six sites in Barikot, including Kanjar Kote, Gumbat, Amluk, Jampura Dherai and others. From these sites, Barger and his team obtained a good number of Gandharan objects for their sponsors, comprising of Buddhist sculptures, architectural fragments, pottery and a number of small objects. Among them, the heads of Buddha and Bodhisattvas, Buddhist reliefs, terracotta figurines, the head of a lion and a cylindrical bell are worth mentioning here owing to their value to the sponsors, being worthy of museum display.

We know that during the British Raj in India when the Gandhara Civilisation was discovered, Western antiquity collectors and museums became interested in acquiring Gandharan pieces, showing, at large, the Western demand for Gandhara art. Overall, the Barger expedition to Swat which was aimed at obtaining Gandharan objects for the Victoria and Albert Museum is its best example.

Dr. Rafiullah Khan’s article on Barger’s expedition to the princely state of Swat can be downloaded and/or read here.