Vishnu is one of three main Gods, called Tridev. In ancient Vedic time, he was not a main God but he occupied a central position in classical Hinduism. Viṣṇu is a protector of the universe and appears in several incarnations to protect both the devotees and the society against adharma “disorder, chaos”. When the Kuṣāṇas entered Gandhāra, they encountered Brahmanism, Iranian and Greek cults beside a dominant popular Buddhism. This fact is supported by their coins that show images of these cults simultaneously.

1. God VISHNU
in
Gandhara during Kushana
Empire of gurjars
By
Adesh katariya
(plast.adesh@gmail.com)

2. Kushana Empire
• In 176 BC, the Yuezhi were driven from Tarim Besin to
westward by the Xiongnu, a fierce people of Magnolia.
• The Yuezhi under the leadership of the Kushanas came down
from Central Asia and swept away all earlier dynasties of the
Northwest in a great campaign of conquest. They established
an empire which extended from Central Asia right down to
the eastern Gangetic basin.
• Originally, they were aryans and follow Hinduism, but
Emperor Kanishka become Buddhist
• Peshawar and Mathura were two capitals of Kushana
kingdom, now Kushana found in majority near both places
known as Gujjar tribe and Kushana is a sub-tribe of Gujjars.

3. Kushana in Gandhara
• The Kuṣaṇas started their ruling under Kujula
Kadphises in central asia and centre of power was
Gandhara .
• The Kuṣaṇas apparently introduced the very first
anthropomorphic representations of Indian gods for
their coins in Gandhara, even before an iconographical
canon for these deities became standardised.

4. Religion of Kushana
When the Kuṣaṇas entered Gandhara, they encountered
Brahmanism, Iranian and Greek cults beside a dominant
popular Buddhism. This fact is supported by their coins that
show images of these cults simultaneously.

5. God Vishnu
• Vishnu is one of three main Gods, called Tridev.
• In ancient Vedic time, he was not a main God but he occupied a central
position in classical Hinduism.
• Viṣṇu is a protector of the universe and appears in several incarnations to
protect both the devotees and the society against adharma “disorder,
chaos”.
• Viṣṇu consequently acts only as the main deity of Hinduismthat comprises
different gods and their respective ritual-mythological systems.
• Whenever lawlessness prevailed on earth and evil forces became strong
Viṣṇu assumed various forms to reestablishing law and order. There are
numerous incarnations of Viṣṇu but the most important and classic ones are
the ten discussed in the Mahābhārata.
• Viṣṇu appeared as a fish (matsya), a turtle (kūrma), a boar (varāha), a
composite creature of a man and a lion (narasiṃha), a dwarf (vāmana),
Paraśurāma, Rāma, the Buddha and as kalkin.

6. The beginnings: Agathokles coins from Ai-Khanum
• The earliest visual evidence for early Hindu gods is found on six
coins from the Hellenistic city of Ai-Khanum, Afghanistan. These
coins date to the Indo-Greek ruler Agathokles, circa 185 BCE .
• These rectangular
bronze coins
illustrate the
earliest forms of
Saṃkarṣaṇa and
Vasudeva engraved
on the obverse and
reverse of the same
coin.
• The name of the
king appears both
in Greek and in
Brahmī script.

7. The Garuḍa Pillar of Besnagar
• The Garuḍa pillar in Besnagar in Madhya Pradesh, which dates to
the 2nd century BCE, suggests that a Vasudeva temple may have
existed in the vicinity.
• The inscription states that Heliodorus son of Dion erected the
Garuḍa pillar.
• He was a bhagavata resident of Taxila and ambassador of the Greek
king Antialkidas. The term bhagavata characterizes Heliodorus as a
follower of a bhagavant and in this context most probably to be
understood as “adorer of Vasudeva” (Härtel 1987: 577).
• The inscription on the Besnagar Garuḍa pillar is an indirect, but
rather important piece of evidence in understanding the religious
situation in the 2nd century BCE Gandhara region.
• It clearly confirms the existence of Vasudeva and Garuḍa cults and
indicates that the Indo-Greek rulers of Taxila supported this
religious movement.

8. Huviṣka coins with representations
of Vaiṣṇava deities
The representations of Vaiṣṇava gods on Kuṣaṇa
coins appear during the reign of Huviṣka.

9. Rama
• A copper coin, which is now kept in the British
Museum, was published in the Gandharan exhibition
catalogue (Cribb 2008: 125, and 152, catalogue number
97).
• The obverse of this coin shows the king riding on an
elephant facing to the right, while the reverse shows a
figure standing frontally, holding a bow and an arrow in
his hands.
• Cribb identified this figure with later images of the
Hindu god Rama.
• An inscription in Kharoṣṭhī can be read as yodhavade.

10. Vasudeva
• One copper coin of Huviṣka appeared in the same
catalogue under number 98.
• Its obverse is identical with that of number 97, but
the reverse shows an eight-armed deity standing
frontally.
• The deity holds a wheel, a club, a lotus, a conch
and other unidentified objects.
• Cribb identifies this god as Viṣṇu in his Vasudeva-
Kṛṣṇa incarnation (Cribb 2008: 125).
• The coin bears the Kharoṣṭhī inscription,
yodhavade.

11. Vasudeva coinage
• Vasudeva-Kṛṣṇa appears on a copper coin of the
Kuṣaṇa king Vasudeva .
• In this coin type the deity Vasudeva is standing
frontally, wearing a short dress with long hair falling
over his shoulders.
• He holds a club in his lower right hand, a
thunderbolt in the upper right hand, a wheel
(cakra) in his upper left hand and a conch in his
lower left hand.
• The god is labeled in Bactrian script as BAZODHO
“Vasudeva” (Cribb 2008: 124).

12. Vasudeva I coin with deity Vasudeva depicted on reverse

13. Garuḍa
• In classical Hindu mythology, Viṣṇu
rides a bird called Garuḍa, which is
half man, half eagle. He is the son of a
Si and Vinata, a daughter of Dakṣa.
• Garuḍa first appeared in the
Gandharan Buddhist art as a huge
eagle with expansive wings wearing
ear ornaments .

14. Garuḍa
• According to Hindu religious text (e.g. Mbh 1.31) he was born the
king of birds (as Indra was king of the gods) in order to rescue his
mother who was captured by nagas.
• The Gandharan iconography is obviously based on this legend,
and Garuḍa is occasionally shown fighting snakes and carrying a
female figure in his beak.
• His enmity with snakes is also referenced in some Buddhist
Jatakas (e.g. Uragajataka, cf. Nagar 1992: 53).
• The prominence of the figure of Garuḍa in various religious and
cultural contexts illustrates its popularity in the centuries before
and after the beginning of our era.

15. Varāha
• One of the earliest and most popular of Vishnu incarnations is that
of the boar (varāha).
• According to the legend the earth was submerged by a sea-demon
(asura). Viṣṇu took the form of a boar and dived into the sea to
recover the earth.
• There is only one Gandhāran Varāha figure known so far. It was
discovered at Waṇḍa Shahab Khel, Bannu .
• The muscular human body of the figure has a left-facing boar-head.
The fourhanded figure is depicted standing on the coils of the
mythical serpent Śeṣa.
• Varāha’s upper right hand holds the tail of the snake, his lower right
hand is resting on a wheel (cakra), the upper left hand carries a
conch-shell, while the lower left hand rests on the figure’s knee .
• The earth, personified as a female (Vasundharā), appears to have
been raised by his snout and is supported by his elbow.

16. .The icon of Varāha from
Waṇḍa Shahab Khel is
made from light grey
limestone and now
housed in the National
Museum, Karachi,
Pakistan.
An interesting feature of
the statue is that the
boar’s face is bearded.

17. Krishna fighting with Keśin
• One unpublished panel at the Taxila Museum depicts a male
fighting a horse. There is good reason to believe that this figure
represents Kṛiṣhṇa fighting the horse-demon Keśin.
• Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw tentatively identified two other reliefs from
Mathura dating from the Kuṣāṇa period as representations of the
same event (Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw 1972: 26-43).
• According to Hindu mythology “Kansa”, the evil king of Mathura,
instructed Keśin to kill Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma (Banerjee 1978: 28).
Keśin assumed the form of a terrible horse (Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10,
ch. 37, cf. Banerjee 1978) and assaulted Kṛiṣhṇa with his gaping
mouth and struck him with his legs. Kṛiṣhṇa caught hold of Keśin by
the legs and threw him a distance of one hundred dhanus

18. Krishna fighting with horse demon,
Taxila Museum

19. Vishnu statue from the Julian Sherrier
Collection
• The development beginning with Agathokles’s coins,
reaching to the late Kuṣāṇa sculptures defines the
period when the iconographic tradition of Viṣṇu and
his different aspects and incarnations began to emerge.
• Many of these early examples must be described as
expressions of an experimental spirit.
• They are not a continuation of any earlier
iconographical traditions. Each sculpture is unique and
none constitutes a fixed iconographic precedent which
is later copied.
• Each sculpture appears to be an original attempt to
express complex abstract concepts in visual terms.

20. Vishnu statue from the Julian Sherrier Collection

21. Thanks
“The motive of this this presentation is, to attract good scholers to discuss and research on
the great contribution of Kushana of Yuezhi/Gurjar Tribes.”
-Adesh Katariya