Gandhara ; A Forgotten History

One of the most important regions of ancient India was Gandhar. But in modern times, there are many misconceptions surrounding this region. In this video, we will try to clear some of these prevailing myths. When we talk about ancient Gandhar, there is a misconception about the location of the region itself. Most people assume that ancient Gandhar is Kandahar. Even some early scholars like Ris David who wrote the famous book Buddhist India had this misconception. But as we will see in this video, these two places are not related with each other. This association or this misconception of associating modern Kandhar with ancient Gandhar may have had its roots in the phonetic similarities between these two terms, Now when we look at the actual location of ancient Gandhar, based on Indian sources, we can say that ancient Gandhar was roughly comprised of the regions of Peshawar and Rawalpindi. As it happens in history with most of the regions, the boundary of Gandhar too did not remain the same throughout history. It expanded or shrank with time. So if we go by the old Persian inscriptions, the Kabul region was also part of the Gandhar region. And if we look at some of the Jatakas or western sources, even Kashmir appears to be a part of Gandhar. Even though these regions were sometimes included in the Gandhar region, we can argue on the basis of different sources that the regions of Peshawar and Rawalpindi were the core of Gandhar. Having understood the location of ancient Gandhar, now let's look at the history of this region. The term Gandhar itself is very old. We find that in the Rig Veda, we have the term Gandhari, which means the people of Gandhar. Whereas in the other Vedas and in later Indian sources, we find that the term Gandhar appears. The Puranas also tell us about how this region got its name. In the Mats, Vayu and Vishnu Puran, we are told that this region got its name from a certain Gandhar. This Gandhar was the son of Dhruyu. Dhruyu as we know was the son of Yayati. Now you might ask who this Yayati was? Yayati was a Kshatriya king who was from the lunar race. This Yayati was also the progenitor of the Yadavas and the Purus. Now coming back to the region, in the Mahajanapada period, Gandhar was an important Janapada. If we look at the Buddhist source Anguttarnikai, Gandhar was included in the list of 16 great Mahajanapadas. But interestingly, if we look at a Jain source called Bhagwati Sutra, here in the list of 16 great Mahajanapada, there is no mention of Gandhar. The reason behind this exclusion is not clear. But from different sources, we can say that at this time, Gandhar was an important power and its capital was the city of Takshashila. Some scholars have argued that the earliest capital of the Gandhar region was Pushkalavati, which is located in modern Charsadda. During the time of the Buddha, we learn that the Mahajanapada of Gandhar was under the rule of King Pukusati, who had sent an embassy to King Bimbisara of Magadh. At the end of the 4th century BC, when Chandragupta Maurya expanded his empire, this region came under the Mauryan domination. However, it appears that initially, the Mauryans seem to have failed to firmly establish their authority in this region. This can be seen from the fact that during the time of Bindusar, there were rebellions in Takshashila. And if we believe Buddhist sources, it was Ashok who was able to quell these rebellions successfully. On the basis of Ashokan edicts that are found in this region, we can also say that this region used a different script than other places in the Indian subcontinent. In the rest of the subcontinent, the Brahmi script was used to write Ashokan inscriptions. But here in Gandhar, we see the use of the Kharoshti script. Scholars have also pointed out that in this region, the Prakrit that was spoken was called Gandhari. During the last days of the Mauryan empire, the Mauryans had lost control of the Gandhar region and now it had come under the control of the Indo-Greeks. Later when the Indo-Scythians or Shirkas supplanted the Indo-Greeks from Gandhar region, Takshashila became their capital as well. And when the Indo-Scythians made way for the Indo-Parthians or the Pahlavas of the Indian sources, they too under the able leadership of Gondofarys made Takshashila their capital. As we all know, the Indo-Parthians were replaced by the Kushanas and with this shift, the region of Gandhar came under the Kushan control. Interestingly, we find that during the Kushan period, the city of Takshashila lost its prominence and the city of Purushpura or modern Peshawar became the pre-eminent political and cultural centre of Gandhar. The Kushan period also saw the flourishing of Gandharan art and as the name suggests, it was the Gandhar region which was the epicentre of this art production. From the time of Ashok, we see that the region of Gandhar became a significant centre of Buddhist tradition. In Takshashila, Ashok had built a stoop called the Dharmarajika Stoop. And from the end of the Mauryan rule to the time of the Kushanas, we see that broadly in the Gandhar region, there was not a significant shift in the religious landscape of the region. Although the arrival of the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians or the Indo-Parthians and later the Kushanas certainly had an impact on the culture of this region, but the religious landscape has not changed significantly. We can say this because when in the 4th century AD, the Chinese traveller Fai Hen visited the region of Gandhar, he tells us that this region was predominantly Buddhist. In the 7th century, when another Chinese traveller Wen Zang visited Gandhar, the monasteries and shrines were not in good shape. Politically too, the region was declining. As we are told by Wen Zang that the royal family of the region was extinct. But this political decline of Gandhar would not last long because soon this region will become the centre of a power who we know by the name of Hindu Shahis, about whom we will talk in a later video. Now you can watch this playlist to know about how after the Mauryan empire, the political history of the Indian subcontinent changed. If you like this video, do subscribe. Thank you for watching.