KUSHAN CULTURE

“In India art is not an object but a conception that stands before us”. The history of India and its culture can be drawn from a very long period. Their stylistic sculpture and art can be quiet mesmerizing. Their monuments such as the stupas and other major landmarks deserve the global attention it receives till today. Key findings can be traced from the first century till the third century AD, when the Kusana Empire flourished, from the Gangetic plains to the central Asian regions. The Kusana king Kaniska I, was not only renowned for being a powerful ruler but also, for his interests in arts and sculptures. The Kusana Empire ruled over India for about three hundred years and produced work of arts reflecting indigenous traditions and external influence. Their Empire included trade routes that stretched from the Mediterranean to India till China. This permitted exchange and diplomatic relations between Rome and India. This helped transmit culture and religion in India. Many artistic trends emerged at that time. Two of the influential school of sculpture that was famous at that time was called Mathura and Gandhara.  All this was not done by only one figure; there were many influential figures behind it. Like Kaniska II and Kanisk III, they all contributed to this admittance of fine arts.  

The location of the empire gave the ruler vast advantage of the trade routes. The adoption of Roman coinage and sending emissaries to Roman court helped maintain close ties with the Romans. It was also noticed that, the existence of Buddhism in the Kushan Empire was momentous. Lui’s article states that there was a large amount of Buddhist art and sculptures; this shows the popularity of the religion. It was found in many locations through the Empire. There were many other religions but Buddhism seemed to be the prominent one. It brought many changes to Kushan culture.

Art had a great impact on Gandharan Buddhist art. Retrieving ancient art and sculpture in orderly form is very challenging. Buddha images were found simultaneously in both the Mathura and Gandhara schools, around the beginning of the Kaniska era. If it comes to question that, which school had a bigger impact on creating Buddha image? It would definitely be Mathura, at least from an ideological perspective.  The spread of Buddhist art and culture had a great impact on people during that time.

                                     

                                (TOP: COIN KNOWN AS THE BODDO COIN

BOTTOM LEFT: SCULPTURE OF BUDDHA BOTTOM RIGHT:STATUE OF KANISKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z4Uhsk4W2U

(Video if you are interested to see some of the sculptures)

Riddle of the Desert Mummies

These are some of the pictures from the movie we watched in class. Enjoy!!

Assimilation of Chinese Traditions

             “Myth is a very important tool for constructing ethnicity, especially in traditional societies”. To my understanding the actual meaning of myth is basically a traditional story, concerning early history of people, which have been lead on from one generation to another.  When I was young, my Grandmother used to tell me many myths, which included supernatural beings and events that marked history.

It amuses me how people before our time used to believe things so easily without any solid evidence. Let us start of by talking about; Bret Hinsch’s essay “ Myth and the Construction of Foreign Ethnic Identity”. Here he talks about how early Historians categorized myths into to different version, which are native and Sinicised. His main focus was the manipulation of ethnic identity of the distinctive people of Xiong-nu, Xianbei, and Chaoxian for political and military reasons. The Chinese used this against foreign people to divert their thoughts psychologically and to control others. Using myths they mastered the manipulation of ethnic identities.

Through reading this I figured that Chinese people at that time were really sophisticated. Like, many Chinese would Sinicise the myths for foreign people and endowed them with primitive Chinese identity. This was their attempt to incorporate foreign people into their culture. One of the other reasons was to keep their enemies distant by asserting the scare factor. The cultural differences made China’s enemies seem incomprehensible and threatening.  One reaction to this subject was to tell stories that disparaged their opponents. These myths helped enforce Chinese supremacy. Sometimes they would assert myths that would actually do the opposite. Like they would tell myths that would cancel out the vast cultural difference, which helped to reduce the psychological pressure.

This reading was quite interesting and aroused many questions in my mind. It interests me in knowing, that how Chinese people used several techniques to assimilate their message to their audience. It was quite effective at that time as many people were not educated and sophisticated enough to judge the truthfulness of the message, received.