ImportMaster at 21:22, 10 January 2023

2023-01-10T21:22:55Z

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{{Short description|Afghanistani statue of the Hindu god Ganesha}}
{{Infobox artefact
| name = Gardez Ganesha
| image = Ganesha from Gardez.jpg
| image_caption = The [[Ganesha]] from [[Gardez]], [[Afghanistan]].
| material = Marble
| size = 24 inches high x 14 inches wide<ref name="MKD"/>
| writing =
| created = mid-8th century CE
| discovered = [[Gardez]] {{coord|34.525278|N|69.178333|E|display=inline, title}}
| location = Dargha Pir Rattan Nath temple, [[Kabul]]
| id =
| registration =
| map =
{{Location map|Afghanistan#South_Asia#West Asia
|width =
|float = center
|border =
|caption =
|alt =
|relief = yes
|AlternativeMap=
|overlay_image =
|label = [[Gardez]]
|label_size =
|position = right
|background =
|mark =
|marksize =
|link =
|lat_deg = 33
|lat_min = 36
|lat_sec = 0
|lat_dir = N
|lon_deg = 69
|lon_min = 13
|lon_sec = 1
|lon_dir = E
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}}
The '''Gardez Ganesha''' is a statue of the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] god [[Ganesha]], discovered in [[Gardez]], near [[Kabul]] in [[Afghanistan]]. It is considered as "a typical product of the Indo-Afghan school".<ref name="MKD"/> It was dedicated by a king named [[Khingal]].

==Temporality==
[[Dineshchandra Sircar|D.C. Sircar]] has dated the statue to the 6th-7th century CE, and more precisely 7th century CE based on the paleography of the inscription on its base.<ref name="MKD"/> Some authors have attributed the statue to the transitional period between [[Kushan art]] to [[Gupta art]], to the 5th or even 4th century CE.<ref name="MKD"/> The statue of Ganesha from Gardez is now attributed to the period of [[Turk Shahis]] in the 7-8th century CE, rather than to their successors the [[Hindu Shahis]] (9th-10th century) as formerly suggested.<ref name="SKSK">"It is not therefore possible to attribute these pieces to the Hindu Shahi period. They should be attributed to the Shahi period before the Hindu Shahis originated by the Brahman wazir Kallar, that is, the Turki Shahis." p.405 " According to the above sources, Brahmanism and Buddhism are properly supposed to have coexisted especially during the 7th-8th centuries A.D. just before the Muslim hegemony. The marble sculptures from eastern Afghanistan should not be attributed to the period of the Hindu Shahis but to that of the Turki Shahis." p.407 in {{cite journal |last1=Kuwayama |first1=Shoshin |title=The Turki Śāhis and Relevant Brahmanical Sculptures in Afghanistan |journal=East and West |date=1976 |volume=26 |issue=3/4 |pages=375–407 |jstor=29756318 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29756318 |issn=0012-8376}}</ref> The datation is essentially based on stylistic analysis, as the displays great iconographical and stylistic similarities with the works of the Buddhist monastery of [[Fondukistan]], which is also dated to the same period.<ref name="SKSK"/>

The statue of Ganesha is also considered as contemporary to the famous [[Brahmanical]] statue of [[Surya]] in tunic and boots discovered in [[Khair Khaneh]] near Kabul, also attributed to the Turk Shahis in the 7-8th century CE.<ref name="SKSK"/><ref>Images of the sculptures of [[Khair Khaneh]] in {{cite web |title=Afghanistan Significant Site 120. Khair Khana |url=https://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh05-120.html |website=www.cemml.colostate.edu}}</ref> Archaeologically, the construction of the [[Khair Khaneh]] temple itself is now dated to 608-630 CE, at the beginning of the Turk Shahis period.<ref name="KS407">{{cite journal |last1=Kuwayama |first1=Shoshin |title=The Turki Śāhis and Relevant Brahmanical Sculptures in Afghanistan |journal=East and West |date=1976 |volume=26 |issue=3/4 |page=407 |jstor=29756318 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29756318 |issn=0012-8376}}</ref> [[Brahmanism]] seems to have flourished to some extent under the Turk Shahis, who were primarily supporters of Buddhism, with various works of art also attributed to their period of the 7-8th century CE.<ref name="SKSK"/>

After its discovery in Gardez, the statue was transferred to the Hindu temple of [[Hindu Temples of Kabul|Dargah Pir Rattan Nath]] in Kabul, near the Pamir Cinema.<ref name="MKD">{{cite journal |last1=Dhavalikar |first1=M. K. |title=A Note on Two Gaṇeśa Statues from Afghanistan |journal=East and West |date=1971 |volume=21 |issue=3/4 |pages=331–336 |jstor=29755703 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/29755703.pdf |issn=0012-8376}}</ref>

==Inscription==
The inscription appears on the base of the statue. It is written in the [[Siddhamatrika]] script, a development of the [[Brahmi script]],<ref name="DCS">{{cite book |last1=Sircar |first1=D.C. |title=Epigraphia-indica 35 |date=1966 |publisher=Archeological Survey of India |pages=44–60 |url=https://archive.org/details/epigraphia-indica/epigraphia-indica-vol-35/page/n85/mode/2up}}</ref> or in proto-[[Sharada script]]:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=M. Nasim |title=A Proto-Sharada Inscription from Hund - Pakistan |journal=Indo-Koko-Kenkyu |issue=20 |date=1 January 1999 |pages=81–82 |url=https://www.academia.edu/38885759}}</ref> An analysis of the writing suggests a date from the 6th or 8th century CE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=KUWAYAMA |first1=Shoshin |title=Historical Notes on Kapisl and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries |journal=ZINBUN |date=1999 |volume=34 |pages=69–72 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39183379.pdf}}</ref>

{{blockquote|[[File:Gardez Ganesha inscription.jpg|center|600px]]
1. ''sarṃvatsare aṣṭatame saṃ 8 jyeṣṭha-māsa-śukla-pakṣa-tithau ttrayodaśyāṃ śu di 10-3 rikṣe viśākhe śubhe siṃhe[citra-]'' 
2. ''[-ke] mahat pratiṣṭhāpitam idaṃ māha-vināyaka paramabhaṭṭeraka mahārājādhirāja-śri-ṣāhi-khiṃgālauḍyāna-ṣāhi-pādaiḥ.''

On the thirteenth day of the bright half of the month of yestha, the [lunar] mansion being the Visakha, at the auspicious time when the zodiacal sign Lion was bright on the horizon (lagna), in the year eight, this great [image] of the Mahavinayaka was consecrated by the supreme lord, the great king, the king of the kings, the Sri Shahi Khiṃgāla, the king of Odyana..|Inscription of the Ganesh Ganesha (Translation: Hideaki Nakatani).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=KUWAYAMA |first1=Shoshin |title=Historical Notes on Kapisl and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries |journal=ZINBUN |date=1999 |volume=34 |page=71 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39183379.pdf}}</ref><ref name="MKD"/><ref name="DCS"/>}}

[[File:Devashahi Khingila.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A coin of [[Khingila I|Khingila]] with the title ''Deva Shahi Kinghila'' ([[File:Gupta ashoka de.svg|10px]][[File:Gupta ashoka v.svg|10px]][[File:Gupta ashoka ss.svg|14px]][[File:Gupta ashoka hi.jpg|16px]][[File:Khi-nngi-la Name of Alchon ruler Khingila in the Brahmi script 430-490 CE.jpg|47px]] "God-King Khingila"), 440-490 CE]]
The identity of this Khingala is uncertain.<ref name="MKD"/> A famous [[Khingila I|Khingila]] is known from the dynasty of the [[Alchon Huns]], and one of his coins has the legend "''Deva Shahi Khingila''" ([[File:Gupta ashoka de.svg|10px]][[File:Gupta ashoka v.svg|10px]][[File:Gupta ashoka ss.svg|14px]][[File:Gupta ashoka hi.jpg|16px]][[File:Khi-nngi-la Name of Alchon ruler Khingila in the Brahmi script 430-490 CE.jpg|47px]] "God-King Khingila"), but he is dated quite earlier, to the 5th century CE.<ref name="MKD"/>

===8th century Turk Shahi ruler Khingala===
{{main|Khingala}}
Given the stylistically probable mid-8th century date for the Ganesha, the ''Śrī Ṣāhi Khiṃgāla'' of the inscription may have been identical with the [[Turk Shahi]] ruler of Kabul known in Arab sources as Khinkhil or [[Khingala]], who, according to [[Ya'qubi|Al-Yakubhi]], gave his submission to [[Al-Mahdi]] in 775–785.<ref name="SK44"/> The Khinkhil of the Arabs may also be identical with the Turk Shahi Bo Fuzhun (勃匐準) of the Chinese sources, which mention that he was the son of [[Fromo Kesaro]] and acceded to the throne precisely in 745 CE.<ref name="SK44">{{cite journal |last1=KUWAYAMA |first1=Shoshin |title=Historical Notes on Kapisl and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries |journal=ZINBUN |date=1999 |volume=34 |page=44 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39183379.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase15?language=en |title= The Countenance of the other (The Coins of the Huns and Western Turks in Central Asia and India) 2012-2013 exhibit: 15. The Rutbils of Zabulistan and the "Emperor of Rome" |newspaper=Pro.geo.univie.ac.at |publisher=Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |access-date= July 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Inaba |first1=Minoru |title=From Kesar the Kābulšāh and Central Asia |page=446 |url=https://www.academia.edu/7838558 |language=en}}</ref><ref>天寶四年,又冊其子勃匐準為襲罽賓及烏萇國王,仍授左驍衞將軍。"Kesar's son Bo Fuzhun succeed him on the throne as the king of Jibin and Wuchang. He was conferred the title General of the Left Stalwart Guard" in {{cite book |last1=Balogh |first1=Dániel |title=Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History |date=12 March 2020 |publisher=Barkhuis |isbn=978-94-93194-01-4 |page=104 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frnVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
[[File:White marble Ganesha, excavated in Sakar Darah near Kabul, circa 7th century CE.jpg|thumb|A similar white marble Ganesha, excavated in Sakar Darah near Kabul, circa 7th century CE.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Turki Śāhis and Relevant Brahmanical Sculptures in Afghanistan|author=桑山正進|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29756318|journal=East and West|issue=3/4|year=1976|volume=26|page=378|language=en|issn=0012-8376|jstor=29756318}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Siudmak |first1=John |title=The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and Its Influences |date=15 April 2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-24832-8 |page=189 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yVft0FqSxc0C&pg=PA189 |language=en}}</ref>]]
* [[Khair Khaneh]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Gandhara}}

[[Category:Ganesha]]
[[Category:Paktia Province]]
[[Category:Hinduism in Afghanistan]]

Gardez Ganesha - Revision history

ImportMaster at 21:22, 10 January 2023