Gandhara

A crossroads of Greek, Persian, and Indian culture. Birthplace of Panini and of the Gandhara school of Buddhist art, which depicted the Buddha in Greek sculptural style.

Gandhara occupied the valleys around the Kabul and Indus rivers, on the road between India, Persia, and Central Asia. Alexander's successors ruled here, then Indo-Greek kings, then the Kushans, and the mixing shows. Its sculptors gave the Buddha a face modeled partly on Greek gods and produced the first images of him in human form. It was a center of Buddhist scholarship as well as art. Vasubandhu came from Purushapura in this region and compiled the Abhidharmakosha, the great summary of the Sarvastivada system.