God VISHNU

in
Gandhara during Kushana
Empire of gurjars
By
Adesh katariya
(plast.adesh@gmail.com)

Kushana Empire
In 176 BC, the Yuezhi were driven from Tarim Besin to
westward by the Xiongnu, a fierce people of Magnolia.
The Yuezhi under the leadership of the Kushanas came down
from Central Asia and swept away all earlier dynasties of the
Northwest in a great campaign of conquest. They established
an empire which extended from Central Asia right down to
the eastern Gangetic basin.
Originally, they were aryans and follow Hinduism, but
Emperor Kanishka become Buddhist
Peshawar and Mathura were two capitals of Kushana
kingdom, now Kushana found in majority near both places
known as Gujjar tribe and Kushana is a sub-tribe of Gujjars.

Kushana in Gandhara
The Kuaas started their ruling under Kujula
Kadphises in central asia and centre of power was
Gandhara .
The Kuaas apparently introduced the very first
anthropomorphic representations of Indian gods for
their coins in Gandhara, even before an iconographical
canon for these deities became standardised.

Religion of Kushana
When the Kuaas entered Gandhara, they encountered
Brahmanism, Iranian and Greek cults beside a dominant
popular Buddhism. This fact is supported by their coins that
show images of these cults simultaneously.

God Vishnu

Vishnu is one of three main Gods, called Tridev.

In ancient Vedic time, he was not a main God but he occupied a central
position in classical Hinduism.
Viu is a protector of the universe and appears in several incarnations to
protect both the devotees and the society against adharma disorder,
chaos.
Viu consequently acts only as the main deity of Hinduismthat comprises
different gods and their respective ritual-mythological systems.
Whenever lawlessness prevailed on earth and evil forces became strong
Viu assumed various forms to reestablishing law and order. There are
numerous incarnations of Viu but the most important and classic ones are
the ten discussed in the Mahbhrata.
Viu appeared as a fish (matsya), a turtle (krma), a boar (varha), a
composite creature of a man and a lion (narasiha), a dwarf (vmana),
Paraurma, Rma, the Buddha and as kalkin.

The beginnings: Agathokles coins from Ai-Khanum

The earliest visual evidence for early Hindu gods is found on six
coins from the Hellenistic city of Ai-Khanum, Afghanistan. These
coins date to the Indo-Greek ruler Agathokles, circa 185 BCE .
These rectangular
bronze coins
illustrate the
earliest forms of
Sakaraa and
Vasudeva engraved
on the obverse and
reverse of the same
coin.
The name of the
king appears both
in Greek and in
Brahm script.

The Garua Pillar of Besnagar

The Garua pillar in Besnagar in Madhya Pradesh, which dates to
the 2nd century BCE, suggests that a Vasudeva temple may have
existed in the vicinity.
The inscription states that Heliodorus son of Dion erected the
Garua pillar.
He was a bhagavata resident of Taxila and ambassador of the Greek
king Antialkidas. The term bhagavata characterizes Heliodorus as a
follower of a bhagavant and in this context most probably to be
understood as adorer of Vasudeva (Hrtel 1987: 577).
The inscription on the Besnagar Garua pillar is an indirect, but
rather important piece of evidence in understanding the religious
situation in the 2nd century BCE Gandhara region.
It clearly confirms the existence of Vasudeva and Garua cults and
indicates that the Indo-Greek rulers of Taxila supported this
religious movement.

Huvika coins with representations

of Vaiava deities
The representations of Vaiava gods on Kuaa
coins appear during the reign of Huvika.

Rama
A copper coin, which is now kept in the British
Museum, was published in the Gandharan exhibition
catalogue (Cribb 2008: 125, and 152, catalogue number
97).
The obverse of this coin shows the king riding on an
elephant facing to the right, while the reverse shows a
figure standing frontally, holding a bow and an arrow in
his hands.
Cribb identified this figure with later images of the
Hindu god Rama.
An inscription in Kharoh can be read as yodhavade.

Vasudeva
One copper coin of Huvika appeared in the same
catalogue under number 98.
Its obverse is identical with that of number 97, but
the reverse shows an eight-armed deity standing
frontally.
The deity holds a wheel, a club, a lotus, a conch
and other unidentified objects.
Cribb identifies this god as Viu in his VasudevaKa incarnation (Cribb 2008: 125).
The coin bears the Kharoh inscription,
yodhavade.

Vasudeva coinage
Vasudeva-Ka appears on a copper coin of the
Kuaa king Vasudeva .
In this coin type the deity Vasudeva is standing
frontally, wearing a short dress with long hair falling
over his shoulders.
He holds a club in his lower right hand, a
thunderbolt in the upper right hand, a wheel
(cakra) in his upper left hand and a conch in his
lower left hand.
The god is labeled in Bactrian script as BAZODHO
Vasudeva (Cribb 2008: 124).

Vasudeva I coin with deity Vasudeva depicted on reverse

Garua
In classical Hindu mythology, Viu
rides a bird called Garua, which is
half man, half eagle. He is the son of a
Si and Vinata, a daughter of Daka.
Garua first appeared in the
Gandharan Buddhist art as a huge
eagle with expansive wings wearing
ear ornaments .

Garua
According to Hindu religious text (e.g. Mbh 1.31) he was born the
king of birds (as Indra was king of the gods) in order to rescue his
mother who was captured by nagas.
The Gandharan iconography is obviously based on this legend,
and Garua is occasionally shown fighting snakes and carrying a
female figure in his beak.
His enmity with snakes is also referenced in some Buddhist
Jatakas (e.g. Uragajataka, cf. Nagar 1992: 53).
The prominence of the figure of Garua in various religious and
cultural contexts illustrates its popularity in the centuries before
and after the beginning of our era.

Varha
One of the earliest and most popular of Vishnu incarnations is that
of the boar (varha).
According to the legend the earth was submerged by a sea-demon
(asura). Viu took the form of a boar and dived into the sea to
recover the earth.
There is only one Gandhran Varha figure known so far. It was
discovered at Waa Shahab Khel, Bannu .
The muscular human body of the figure has a left-facing boar-head.
The fourhanded figure is depicted standing on the coils of the
mythical serpent ea.
Varhas upper right hand holds the tail of the snake, his lower right
hand is resting on a wheel (cakra), the upper left hand carries a
conch-shell, while the lower left hand rests on the figures knee .
The earth, personified as a female (Vasundhar), appears to have
been raised by his snout and is supported by his elbow.

The icon of Varha from

Waa Shahab Khel is
made from light grey
limestone and now
housed in the National
Museum, Karachi,
Pakistan.
An interesting feature of
the statue is that the
boars face is bearded.

Krishna fighting with Kein

One unpublished panel at the Taxila Museum depicts a male
fighting a horse. There is good reason to believe that this figure
represents Kiha fighting the horse-demon Kein.
Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw tentatively identified two other reliefs from
Mathura dating from the Kua period as representations of the
same event (Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw 1972: 26-43).
According to Hindu mythology Kansa, the evil king of Mathura,
instructed Kein to kill Ka and Balarma (Banerjee 1978: 28).
Kein assumed the form of a terrible horse (Bhgavata Pura 10,
ch. 37, cf. Banerjee 1978) and assaulted Kiha with his gaping
mouth and struck him with his legs. Kiha caught hold of Kein by
the legs and threw him a distance of one hundred dhanus

Krishna fighting with horse demon,

Taxila Museum

Vishnu statue from the Julian Sherrier

Collection
The development beginning with Agathokless coins,
reaching to the late Kua sculptures defines the
period when the iconographic tradition of Viu and
his different aspects and incarnations began to emerge.
Many of these early examples must be described as
expressions of an experimental spirit.
They are not a continuation of any earlier
iconographical traditions. Each sculpture is unique and
none constitutes a fixed iconographic precedent which
is later copied.
Each sculpture appears to be an original attempt to
express complex abstract concepts in visual terms.

Vishnu statue from the Julian Sherrier Collection

Thanks
The motive of this this presentation is, to attract good scholers to discuss and research on
the great contribution of Kushana of Yuezhi/Gurjar Tribes.
-Adesh Katariya