GANDHARA (OPers. GandÄra), a province of the Persian empire under the Achaemenids. The name of GandhÄra or GandhÄrÄ« occurs in ancient Indian texts as the name of a people, obviously the inhabitants of GÄndhÄra, a district traditionally placed in the extreme northwest of the Indian subcontinent. It was located along both banks of the Indus, around the famous cities of TakshaÅ›ilÄ (Taxila) and PushkalÄvatÄ« (modern Charsada, northeast of Peshawar).
The name GandhÄrÄ« first occurs in the Rigveda (I, 126,7; late 2nd millennium B.C.E.) in the phrase GandhÄrÄ«nÄm avikÄ (ewe of the Gandharans), and also in the somewhat later Atharva Veda. The name is used, around 400 B.C.E., by the Indian grammarian PÄnini (Monier-Williams, pp. 346, 353), who himself probably hailed from GÄndhÄra and who listed the land as one of the major provinces of India. The name of GandhÄra was still used in the 11th century C.E. by AbÅ« RayḥÄn BÄ«rÅ«nÄ« (q.v.), who referred to Wayhend (I, p. 206) as the capital of KandhÄra (a place probably to be identified with Und near Attock). The earliest reference to GandÄra in Iranian sources occurs in the Old Persian version of the BÄ«sotÅ«n text of the Achaemenid Darius I (in ca. 520 B.C.E.). In this text the land is listed as one of the “countries” (dahyus, q.v.) in the Persian empire (DB 1.16; Herodotus 3.91). In the Akkadian and Elamite versions of the same text, the name of GandÄra is replaced by that of the Paropamisadae (Akk.: pa-ar-ú-pa-ra-e-sa-an-na; Elam.: [par-ru-ba-ra-e]-sa-na). The latter name is also found in later classical sources and was used to denote the foothills south of the Hindu Kush watershed, near ancient Capisa and the modern city of Kabul. The name of the Paropamisadae can be given an Iranian etymology, “(the land) beyond (the land) above the eagle/falcon,” and would thus indicate an appellation given to the country by (Iranian) people living to the north of the Hindu Kush, namely in or near ancient Bactria (q.v.). The etymology of the Old Persian name of GandÄra is still in doubt, although it has a clearly Indian background. It is likely that in antiquity the people of GÄndhÄra were mainly Indian, as may be deduced from the fact that Indian languages (Pashai) are still being spoken in isolated valleys north and east of modern Kabul. Another indication of the ethnic background of the people of GÄndhÄra in antiquity are the Achaemenid reliefs at Persepolis, where delegates from GandÄra /GÄndhÄra are depicted with bare torso and wearing loincloths. GÄndhÄra has become widely known as the center of the so-called Gandhara Art, which flourished in the early first millennium C.E. This art is characterized by strong influence from the Hellenistic and Roman West. The geographical position of GÄndhÄra as the ancient gateway to India is not only indicated by the Gandhara Art, but also by much earlier finds. In particular it is linked to the so-called Gandhara Grave Culture, which flourished between ca. 1500 and 500 B.C.E. in this area. Relevant finds have been found along the banks of the Swat and Dir rivers to the north, Taxila to the southeast, and the land along the Gomal river to the south. The Gandhara Grave Culture shows unmistakable links with finds from South Central Asia and the Iranian Plateau, also dating to the second and first millennia B.C.E.
See also: ³Ò´¡±·¶Ù±áÄ€¸é´¡N ART.
Bibliography:
V. S. Agrawala, India as Known to PÄnini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the AshtÄdhyÄyÄ«, Lucknow, 1953; 2nd revised ed., Varanasi, 1963.
AbÅ« RayḥÄn BÄ«rÅ«nÄ«, KetÄb taḥqÄ«q mÄ le’l-Hend men maqÅ«la maqbÅ«la fi’l-Ê¿aql aw mará¸Å«la, tr. E. C. Sachau as Albiruni’s India, 2 vols., London, 1910.
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W. Kiessling, “Gandaritis,” in Pauly-Wissowa, VII/1, cols. 696-701.
M. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1899.
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(Willem Vogelsang)
Originally Published: December 15, 2000
Last Updated: February 2, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. X, Fasc. 3, pp. 269-270
