Cultural Formation and Transformation: Shahi Buddhist Art and Architecture

The project goal is to define a narrative cultural history of the Shahi kingdom (7 th to 10th century). Due to its extensive temporal and geographic parametersextending from Afghanistan to the borders of Tibetan empire the kingdom played a pivotal role in the history of Inner and South Asia. Despite its importance for the history of later Buddhist art and the formation of Islamic art, the cultural history of this almost 300-year period has never been the focus of dedicated research. We aim to clarify the corpus of Shahi material culture and its transmission by comparing known portable objects, principally sculptures and coins, with available visual material from extant cultic sites. The Shahi kingdom is marked by crucial transformationsthe advent of Islam, expansion of Hindu cults in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and beginnings of the Buddhist Tantric tradition. As the first study of Buddhist and Hindu religious arts within the context of the expanding Islamic culture, this project will make significant contributions to understanding the history of Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu art. Our focus on the mobility of religious objects and iconographies clarifies the convergence of aspects of different cult practices, as well as the evolution of later Mahayana ideas that accompanied the transfer of Buddhist visual culture to Tibet. Additional questions: how do changes in Shahi visual culture reflect the increasing presence of Islamic, Chinese, and Tibetan forces on the kingdoms borders; what is the impact of Shahi visual culture on the earliest Indo-Tibetan temple plans and visual programs founded during this period; and particularly how can we define Tantric cults and iconographies across the kingdom? Fieldwork in India and Pakistan and collection research at museums housing significant Shahi artworks will provide the primary data that enable us to expand the research tools housed at CIRDIS/University of Vienna (WHAV/HAV; BibDB; Numismatic Database) in order to create a Shahi Kingdom Database. The primary data will be studied using methods of mapping and network analysis. A diachronic analysis of the mobility and transmission of objects across the geographic and temporal extent of the kingdom will result in a narrative cultural history for the Shahi period. The convergent patterns formed by mapping selected material artifacts will permit the empirical study of political, economic, and social networks. These networks reveal the mobility of materials, objects, and ideas, that in turn allows us to understand possible patterns of production, consumption, distribution and diffusion.

The goal of the project was to define a narrative cultural history of the Shahi Dynasties (c. 7th to 10th century CE). The Shahi kingdom extended from Afghanistan to the borders of the Tibetan empire (the modern states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India). The Shahi Dynasties played a pivotal role in the history of Inner and South Asia. Despite its importance for the history of later Buddhist art and the formation of Islamic art, the cultural history of this almost 300-year period has never been the focus of dedicated research. Multidisciplinary scholars aimed to clarify the corpus of Shahi material culture and its transmission by comparing known portable objects, principally sculptures and coins, with available material from extant cultic sites. This data was then documented and systemized so that it is possible to cross-reference the entire corpus of the material culture of the vast Shahi kingdom. Thus, it has been possible to propose updated geographical, chronological, cultural, and political frameworks for understanding the Shahi Dynasties. Primary evidence has been obtained from the analysis of the material and technical properties of coins and artifacts, both stationary and portable. The data analysis allowed us to understand the relationships among the categories of primary sources for the study of Shahi cultural history. The Shahi Dynasties patronized a monetary/economic system and political structures that enabled unique and impressive monumental public architecture such as both Bamiyan and the Hindu temples of the Salt Range. The co-existence of Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic communities enabled a long period of affluence and creativity. Evolving research is disseminated through workshops, conference presentations, publications, and an interactive database. The digital research platform is the first of its kind, publishing comprehensive primary source material-artworks, coins, inscriptions, archaeological sites-together with the research by a global team of prominent and emerging scholars from across Asia, Europe, and North America. The Shahi Kingdoms Digital Research Platform is an indispensable research tool, offering an open-source portal for documentation, digital preservation, research, and education. The digital platform features multiple core relational components: (1) The corpus of the material culture of the Shahi kingdom is cross-referenced with (2) an interactive geo-referenced map containing scientifically annotated entries for archaeological sites, (3) bibliographic references, and (4) peer-reviewed articles (Sourcebook for the Shahi Kingdoms). digital publication (to be published in parallel with a traditional print volume) will be linked to the different components of this digital platform. This work is realized in cooperation with experts at the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH).