I "Kusana" nella vita del Buddha : per una analisi del rapporto tra potere politico e religione nell'antico Gandhara.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to put together all those Gandharan reliefs (above all the narrative ones) containing figures in “foreign” (i.e. not in Indian”, i.e. in “Kushan”) dress in order to help solve the problem of the ideological-political relations between the Kushan dynasty and the Buddhist religion. At this end, as in the description of the “foreign” personages in Gandharan reliefs, one frequently comes across rather vague and generic statements such as “…Kushan, Central Asian, Scythian, Partho-Scythian and the like, correct procedure demanded, first of all, to base the work on two points constituting its inseparable presuppositions: 1) the definition of the figures presented as “typologically Kushan”; 2) the iconographical comparison of each episode with the available Buddhist literary sources. An attempt was thus made to classify the various characteristic items of Kushan dress (caftan, cloak, tunic, belt, trousers and boots, headgear) as they are known from the material sources that can be attributed with certainty to the Kushan dynasty (coins and royal statues included). However, on a total of 135 reliefs in which these “foreign” figures appear, particular attention is devoted to twenty-six narrative reliefs arranged (Chap. II) in “Scenes from Buddha’s life” (II.1) and “Jātaka scenes” (II.2). From the material examined in the work, the “Kushans” are present in most of the more important episodes connected with the historical Buddha but much more significantly they seem to prefer the moments that actually follow upon the earthly existence of Śālyamuni (the distribution, transportation and worship of the relics).