Preliminary Note on Some Gandharan Sculptures Depicting Warriors in their Native Costume- Study based on the Museum Collections

Gandharan Sculptures Depicting Warriors

Abstract

This paper treats the observation of various types of military costumes represented in the Buddhist Sculptures of Gandhara. Specimens of the military costumes vary from simple coat made of thick cloth or skin to highly defensive scale armour, helmets, globs, and heavy boots worn by door keepers, soldiers, and princely figures. Although the Buddhist Art of Gandhara is always considered a religious art, yet the depiction of such armed personnel poses iconographic problems since the military costumes worn by most of the figures are not indigenous rather most of these are borrowed from different regions such as Greece, Central Asia and Persia. An attempt is made here to trace the routes of the military costumes exhibited in Gandharan sculptures housed in different museums of Pakistan.