PESHAWAR, June 22: Emperor Kanishka — who made Peshawar his capital — was responsible for the development of the Buddhist art of Gandhara, of which he was the patron.

Former director of Peshawar Museum Prof Fidaullah Sehrai stated this in his lecture delivered to a group of Japanese tourists at the Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Peshawar, here on Friday.

Prof Sehrai — considered an expert on the Buddhist civilisation of Gandhara — said that one reason for the progress of Buddhist art was prosperity, which the region achieved due to foreign trade and commerce via the Silk Route.

Affluence among the residents of the area, he said, attracted the sculptors from Greece and Rome who produced thousands of Buddha’s images, which were purchased by members of the royal families and businessmen who in turn presented them to monasteries.

“It is for this reason that the Gandhara art is a hybrid art,” said the professor. He said the gods, goddesses and books of Buddhism were “born and written in Gandhara”, which were collected by the Chinese pilgrims, Fa-hien, Sung-yun and Hiuen Tsang, who translated them.

Their translations reached Tibet, Korea, Japan and Mongolia, besides some Central Asian and the Far Eastern countries.

Prof Sehrai said the Gandhara art remained alive in the NWFP for about 900 years — that is, from the first century BC to the eight century AD.—APP