Kanishka Reliquary, found at Shah-ji-ki Dheri, a mound at the southest [sic] corner of Peshawar City
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Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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Ghandara was one of two major artistic regions under the Kushan dynasty, The second was Mathura, whose connection to the origin of the Buddha image has been suggested earlier, The King Kanishka ruled the Kushans over the later part of the 1st and the earlier portion of the 2nd centuries A.D. so that it is during his reign that most of the important Ghandaran art was created: the Mathuran being contemporaneous to it, A very beautiful reliquary casket dates to Kanishka's time, It is very much in the cylindrical shape of Early Christian types but probably not connected to them stylistically beyond mere similarity, The cover bears three figures: Buddha seated on the 'lotus seat' and two attendant Bodhisattvas, Forming the lid proper is a large open lotus flower, On the lower portion of the casket are figures of native deities, possibly Negas [sic], for a serpent, chief animal attributed to water spirits, winds its way over the surface and is held by many smaller human figures, Treatment is quite excellent in this example, The relief is rich and the overall pattern well distributed in rhythmical movements, -- Inscribed in Karoshti script dated first regnal year of King Kanishka, 2nd Century A.D. Peshawar, Museum,
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Basham Collection
Date created
circa 1970s
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This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.
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