Hadda is a Greco-Buddhist archeological site located in the ancient area of Gandhara, inside the Khyber Pass, ten kilometers south of the city of Jalalabad in today's eastern Afghanistan.
Contents |
Background
Some 23,000 Greco-Buddhist sculptures, both clay and plaster, were excavated in Hadda during the 1930s and the 1970s. The findings combine elements of Buddhism and Hellenism in an almost perfect Hellenistic style.
Although the style of the artifacts is typical of the late Hellenistic 2nd or 1st century BCE, the Hadda sculptures are usually dated (although with some uncertainty), to the 1st century CE or later (i.e. one or two centuries afterward). This discrepancy might be explained by a preservation of late Hellenistic styles for a few centuries in this part of the world, or may indicate that the artifcats actually were produced in the BCE timeframe.
Given the antiquity of these sculptures and a technical refinement indicative of artists fully conversant with all the aspects of Greek sculpture, it has been suggested that Greek communities were directly involved in these realizations, and that "the area might be the cradle of incipient Buddhist sculpture in Indo-Greek style".[1]
The style of many of the works at Hadda is highly Hellenistic, and can be compared to sculptures found at the Temple of Apollo in Bassae, Greece.
Works of art
A sculptural group excavated at the Hadda site of Tapa-i-Shotor represents Buddha surrounded by perfectly Hellenistic Herakles and Tyche holding a cornucopia.[2] The only adaptation of the Greek iconography is that Herakles holds the thunderbolt of Vajrapani rather than his usual club.
Other attendants to the Buddha have been excavated which display manifest Hellenistic styles, such as the "Genie au Fleur", today in Paris at the Guimet Museum.[3]
Buddhist scriptures
It is believed the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts-indeed the oldest surviving Indian manuscripts of any kind-were recovered around Hadda. Probably dating from around the 1st century CE, they were written in Gandhari language and Kharoṣṭhī script on bark, and were unearthed in a clay pot bearing an inscription in the same language. They are part of the long-lost canon of the Sarvastivadin Sect that dominated Gandhara and was instrumental in Buddhism's spread into central and east Asia. The manuscripts are now in possession of the British Library.
See also: Gandharan Buddhist texts
Destruction
Hadda is said to have been almost entirely destroyed in the fighting during the Civil war in Afghanistan.
Gallery
 Head of the Buddha, Hadda. |
 Greek clothes, amphoras, wine and music, Hadda, 1st century CE. |
 Portraits from Hadda, 3rd century CE. |
 Decorative scrolls from Hadda. |
 The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda. |
 Polychrome Hadda Buddha, 2nd century CE. |
 Young Hadda woman, 3-4th century. |
 A sculpture from Hadda, 3rd century CE |
See also
- Greco-Buddhism
- History of Buddhism
- Chakhil-i-Ghoundi Stupa
- Hadda may refer to a relaxed pronunciation of had to, indicating obligation, compulsion
References
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hadda |
|
|||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
