ALTHOUGH one of the oldest of the world’s great highways, the Silk Road acquired this evocative name comparatively recently in the last century. But the description is somewhat misleading, for not only did this great caravan route crossing China, Central Asia and the Middle East consist of a number of roads, but it also carried a great deal more than just silk.
Advancing year by year, as the Han emperors pushed China’s frontiers further westward, it was ever at the mercy of marauding Huns, Tibetans and many other barbarian warlords. To ensure free flow of goods on this highway, Chinese kings were obliged to police it with garrisons and watch towers. As a compulsion of their security interest and economic policy of trade, they also built a westward extension to the Great Wall.
An important feeder road to India also left the Southern route at Yarkand, climbed the hazardous Karakoram passes and the “Gates of India” in the towns of Leh and Srinagar. Another offshoot entered Afghanistan from Central Asia to come into the Peshawar valley. This great Trans-Asian highway carried yet another commodity that proved far more significant than just silk. It was to revolutionize art and thought not only in China but throughout the entire Far East.
The gentle creed of Buddhism which preached compassion to all living creatures first reached China over the silk route. It is certain that from about this time onwards, missionaries and pilgrims began to travel between China, Central Asia and India. They also brought with them examples of art and sculpture that astonished the aesthetically-conscious Chinese. Buddhism not only introduced a new religion but also an entirely new style of art known as “Serindian”. It was coined by two words ‘Seres’ (China) and ‘India’. Logically, it should simply have been a fusion of Indian Buddhist art and the art of contemporary Han China.
It almost certainly would have been had it not been for the great Himalayan massif that so effectively isolated China from all direct contact with India. But faced by this impenetrable barrier, the gospel of Buddhism, together with its art, came to China by a roundabout route, gradually absorbing other influences on its way. Its real point of departure was not India proper but the Buddhist kingdom of Gandhara situated in the Peshawar valley. Here, another artistic marriage had already taken place. This was between Indian Buddhist art, imported by the ruling Kushanas (descendants of Yueh-Chih) in the first century A.D. and Greek art, introduced to the region 400 years earlier by the Greek invasion of West Asia.
Going back into history, there was a university at Taxila, probably the oldest in the world. According to Dr A.H. Dani, it had been in existence before the time of Buddha, even before the occupation of Taxila valley by Achaemenian rulers. Scholars and philosophers of every school of thought gathered here. Besides education in medicine, language, religion and political science, training in military science was also imparted. Among its famous products was Jotipala (Commander-in-Chief of a Banaras king). Jivala, a physician of Buddha himself was educated here. Later, many princes such as like that of Kosala, later-day Ayodhya, was a students of Taxila University. Still later, Prince Chandragupta, founder of the Mauryan Empire, received his education at Taxila. Among the teachers there was Panini, the great grammarian of 6th century B.C. Kantilya, the famous writer of Arthsastra, a book on political science and a great physician, Charaka, also came to this university.
Taxila became a part of the Achaemenian empire in the time of Darius (521-486 B.C.) when the last local ruler, Pukkusati, was overthrown. Taxila became a seat of the Achaemenian province of Gandhara. After the death of Cyrus in 529 B.C., his descendants had expanded their empire westward and captured Egypt in 525 B.C. Darius I, who ruled over the empire from 521 to 486 B.C., had conquered a large part of the Thracian coast, along with the shores of Asia Minor and captured most of the adjacent Greek cities and states. The pretext of checking the Scythian incursions carried him too far into Greece. The immediate result was that the Ionian cities revolted and were joined by Athens.
Darius wanted to punish the Athenians, but all the Greek states joined their forces and defeated the Persians. The offensive power of the Persian empire was shattered. The nation slowly sank into decay and defeat. The last century-and-a-half of its existence was marked by uprisings, revolts and assassinations that invited barbarian invasions until finally, in 330 B.C., Persian independence was lost by the attacking armies of Alexander the Great.
Although Alexander stayed in Taxila for only about five days before his eastward move for a battle with Porus, the Greek rule in the Gandhara Valley and the West Asia continued for a much longer period. Around 305 B.C., the Greek had ceded the rule of the province of Gandhara with its seat of power at Taxila to Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryan rule in Taxila was brought to an end by the Greeks of Bactria in about 250 B.C. These Greeks were settled there by Alexander. They continued to rule over Gandhara until 140-130 B.C. by kings such as Evcratids, Plato, Heliocles, Apollodotus and Antialcidas.
The Greeks were followed by Scythians and later by Parthians who continued to rule in Sirkap, city of Taxila. Parthians were succeeded by the Kushanas, the greatest of whom was Kanishka I whose glorious rule began in about 78 A.D. Kanishka I was a great patron of Buddhism who portrayed Buddha figures on coins. Towards the end of the 3rd Century A.D., Sassanian rulers of Iran established their rule over this area.
According to Dr Dani, it was in the time of the great Kushanas that Gandhara art took its final form and a new sect of Buddhism known as Mahayana became common in Gandhara. Figures of Buddha and his life story were beautifully produced in Schist stones. A large number of monasteries were built. Also, big-size Buddha statues began to be created in stucco and engraved in the rocks on the caravan routes such as those in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
