DefinePK

Abstract

During my research on an Amaravati Panel from Charg Pate in District Lower Dir of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province ( Khattak & Sehrai  2019:61-72) and a Mathuran panel from Shaikhan Dheri in District Charsadda in the Peshawar Valley (Khattak & Sehrai 2021:582-612), I noted that there had been considerable influences on the art of Gandhara from both Amaravati and Mathura, but these influences have not yet been properly explored and documented by any scholar, though we find random references to such instances. I may admit that the influences from Gandhara on the art of Amaravati and Mathura are equally great and prominently noticed by scholars and researchers, but my concern here is to discuss the nature of influences from the two Schools of the Buddhist Art from mainland India on the art of Gandhara.
I am grateful to my Co-Supervisor, Prof. (Dr.) Luca Maria Olivieri and my Supervisor, Prof. (Dr.) Zakirullah Jan for encouraging me to undertake research for my PhD thesis on the topic entitled “Evidences of Amaravati and Mathura Schools in Gandhara”. The greater details on the current topic have been discussed in Chapter-IV of my PhD thesis, but a gist of the influences from Amaravati and Mathura witnessed in the Gandhara art has been reproduced here to give an idea about the nature of interactions between the three Buddhist Schools of Art and the extent of influences recorded by scholars in the Gandhara School of Art that have either been attributed to Amaravati or Mathura.