Gandhara
/ɡænˈdɑːrə/noun
An ancient cultural and historical region centered in parts of present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.
Did you know?Gandhara’s art famously fused Buddhist imagery with Greco-Roman styles after Alexander’s campaigns, helping create some of the earliest human-form representations of the Buddha.
Etymological Timeline
Late 1st millennium BCE
Old Persian
Gandāra
“The name of an eastern Iranian imperial province or region in Achaemenid records.”
5th–4th century BCE
Sanskrit
Gandhāra
“A northwestern South Asian kingdom or region, also known in later tradition as a center of learning and culture.”
4th century BCE
Ancient Greek
Gandaritis
“The region of Gandhara, as recorded in Greek accounts connected with Alexander’s campaigns.”
1st–5th century CE
Gāndhārī Prakrit
Gandhāra
“The regional name used in the language associated with Gandhara and preserved in inscriptions and Buddhist manuscripts.”
19th century
English
Gandhara
“The conventional English scholarly name for the ancient region and its distinctive Buddhist-Greco-Roman artistic tradition.”