Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Under the Kushan rulers such as the great Kanishka (AD 127-155), Gandhara became a major regional centre of Buddhism and a conduit for the spread of the faith to Central Asia and China. As elsewhere in India, the sacred relics of the Buddha were enshrined in domed stupas or reliquary mounds. By this time, a more devotional and popular form of Buddhism, known as Mahayana or ‘the Great Vehicle’, was developing. It included the cult of Bodhisattvas or future Buddhas, who in their compassion have renounced final enlightenment until every being in the universe attains nirvana also.

Stone sculpture was produced in great quantities for the Buddhist monasteries of Gandhara. Carved in the grey schist of the region, these images (like much other Indian sculpture) would once have been coated with a fine stucco plaster and painted, giving a more colourful appearance. Stucco itself, skilfully modelled around a mud core, was also used as an alternative to stone.

The sculptors’ main subjects were the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, as well as various popular deities. Narrative relief panels, often showing scenes from the life of the Buddha, were also produced to line the outer walls of shrines or stupas.

Reliquary in the form of a stupa (EA1978.127)   Fragment of a model torana, or gateway to a stupa (EA1994.39)

Haft with addorsed figures of the young Buddha (EA1993.23)   Stupa supported by winged lions (EA1993.8)   Standing figure of Maitreya, the future Buddha (EA1996.95)   Standing figure of Maitreya, the future Buddha (EA2013.39)

Lidded reliquary with inscription (EA1995.72)   Lidded reliquary (EA1982.50)

Relief fragment depicting a dancer and three musicians (EA1997.15)   Relief depicting the Buddha’s descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-three gods (EA2000.35)   Relief fragment depicting a female dancer beneath a tree (EA1997.4)

Lidded reliquary (EA2013.112.a)   Ewer with spout in the form of an elephant head and trunk (EA2000.116)

Fragment of a relief with female figure (EA1995.66)   Fragmentary figure of a mourner (EA1999.33)   Figure of Avalokiteshvara in pensive pose (EAOS.26.c)   Relief depicting two deities with a staff, purse, and cornucopia (EA1962.42)

Fragmentary bust figure of the goddess Hariti (EA1997.3)   Head of an ascetic (EA1993.22)   Stucco head of a man (EA1958.2)   Figure of the Buddha or an attendant (EA1970.154)

Head of a bodhisattva (EA1996.60)   Fragmentary figure of a warrior (EA1996.58)   Head of a worshipper (EA1970.155)

Relief fragment depicting Prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, cutting his hair in renunciation (EA1997.246)   Relief depicting The Dream of Queen Maya (EA1997.198)   Relief fragment depicting a female warrior guarding the Buddha's relics (EA1997.14)

Wall-mounted sculpture

Relief depicting the birth of the Buddha (EAOS.3)   Standing figure of the Buddha Sakyamuni (EAOS.26)   Relief depicting the death of the Buddha (Mahaparinirvana) (EAOS.10)   Teaching bodhisattva (EAOS.24)