Kushan Art and Drama

The Greek cultural traditions lingered for many centuries in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent after the retreat of Alexander the Great.  The goal of this paper is to gather the scattered artistic evidence available within the Kushan tradition to show that drama and performance played an important role in the establishment of a Buddhist visual idiom in the Subcontinent.  

In the Hellenized world, theatre and performance have been historically linked to the cult of the god Dionysus. Much like the consumption of wine, drama creates an alternative dimension that does not follow the conventional parameters of reality. It is well know that Greek dramatic performances began with offerings and invocation to the god Dionysus, and the Hellenistic theatres found in Asia surely followed this tradition.

As we move to the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent in Kushan times, we are puzzled by the overwhelming artistic references to Dionysus and to wine drinking whereas theatre and drama are apparently absent. Structures identifiable as theatres have not been found in the Kushan territory. Inhabitation sites dating to the pre-Kushan and Kushan period have been seldom excavated and based on the scarce evidence in our hands they did not reproduce Hellenistic urban models, but rather followed a local, more Indic pattern. The absence of theatres built in the Greek fashion east of Afghanistan does not imply the absence of drama. More temporary structures were probably used for the performance.  Scholars who have explored the art of the Kushan world, have been trying to explain the overwhelming presence of non Buddhist elements decorating the religious monuments. In particular, the appearance of scenes of wine drinking, music, dancing, women in ecstatic state seemed hard to explain within the context of a religion that emphasizes non-secular values.