Avadānas Seen and Unseen, Heard and Unheard

• In Event: Localization and Transmission of Buddhist Narratives in Gandharan Written and Visual Media - Sponsored by the ACLS/Ho Family Foundation for Buddhist

Abstract

A little over 100 years ago, Alfred Foucher wrote in regard to the Jātaka representations at Bharhut: “Ancient India has bequeathed to us a considerable mass of texts and a very restricted number of sculptures. This means that for our instruction concerning its civilization, we possess many more written documents than carved monuments.” But if we restrict ourselves solely to ancient Gandhara, we can turn Foucher’s observation on its head, asserting that ancient Gandhara has bequeathed to us a wealth of artistic remains and a most unfortunate paucity of texts. ‘Paucity,’ however, is a relative term, which for those interested in Gandharan Buddhism translates as ‘extraordinary collection of early manuscripts.’ For until recently, there were virtually no Gandharan texts that would allow us to even consider discussing artistic and textual associations in an exclusively Gandharan light. Unfortunately, even with the texts that we now possess, we are still unable to rely solely on Gandharan documents to elucidate the purport of artistic representations preserved in the archaeological remains of ancient Gandhara. Nevertheless, our new-found textual wealth can be used profitably to shed some interesting light on and to explore previously uncharted waters in connection with the Gandharan visual corpus.

Author

• Timothy Lenz, University of Washington