Gandharan Buddhism in the context of "Parthian art"

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, commonly abbreviated KP or KPK and formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by Balochistan to the south; Punjab, Islamabad Capital Territory, and Azad Kashmir to the east; and Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and northeast. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied geography of rugged mountain ranges, valleys, rolling foothills, and dense agricultural farms.

The history of the present province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is characterized by frequent invasions by various empires, largely due to its geographical proximity to the historically important Khyber Pass. It was the site of the ancient Gandhara, and was historically a stronghold of Buddhism. Islam became dominant in the region after the 11th-century conquest of the Hindu Shahi kingdom by the Ghaznavids. The predecessor of the present province was constituted in 1901, under the British Raj, when the North-West Frontier Province was created by bifurcating the northwestern districts of the erstwhile Punjab Province.

Swat District (Pashto: سوات اولسوالۍ, Urdu: ضلع سوات), also known as the Swat Valley, is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Known for its natural sites, the district is a popular tourist destination. With a population of 2,687,384 per the 2023 national census, Swat is the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Swat District is centred on the Valley of Swat, usually referred to simply as Swat, which is a natural geographic region surrounding the Swat River. The valley was a major centre of early Buddhism of the ancient civilisation of Gandhara, mainly Gandharan Buddhism, with pockets of Buddhism persisting in the valley until the 16th century conquest of Swat by the Yousafzais, after which the area became largely Muslim, along with the Pashtunization of Swat and its neighbouring regions.In the early 19th century, Swat emerged as an independent state under Saidu Baba. The State of Swat became a princely state under British suzerainty as part of the British Raj in 1918.

The Gandhāran Buddhist texts are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE and found in the northwestern outskirts of Pakistan. They represent the literature of Gandharan Buddhism and are written in the Gāndhārī language which has been grouped by many scholars in the Dardic language family. The texts constitute the largest collection of Gāndhārī manuscripts known to date and are now housed at the Islamabad Museum in Pakistan.

They were sold to European and Japanese institutions and individuals, and are currently being recovered and studied by several universities. The Gandhāran texts are in a considerably deteriorated form (their survival alone is extraordinary), but educated guesses about reconstruction have been possible in several cases using both modern preservation techniques and more traditional textual scholarship, comparing previously known Pāli and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit versions of texts. Other Gandhāran Buddhist texts—"several and perhaps many"—have been found over the last two centuries but lost or destroyed.

Greco-Buddhism or Graeco-Buddhism was Buddhism within the Hellenistic period of South and Central Asia, resulting in Greek cultural syncretism developing between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD in Gandhara, which is located in present-day Pakistan and parts of north-east Afghanistan. While the Greco-Buddhist art shows clear Hellenistic influences, the majority of scholars do not assume a noticeable Greek influence on Gandharan Buddhism beyond the artistic realm.

Cultural interactions between ancient Greece and Buddhism date back to Greek forays into the Indian subcontinent from the time of Alexander the Great. A few years after Alexander's death, the Easternmost parts of the empire of his general Seleucus were lost in a war to the Mauryan Empire, under Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and helped spread the religion throughout his domain, as recorded in the Edicts of Ashoka. Thus resulting in Buddhism reaching the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, a successor of the Seleucid Empire.

Sarvāstivāda-Vaibhāṣika (Sanskrit: सर्वास्तिवाद-वैभाषिक) or simply Vaibhāṣika (वैभाषिक) was an ancient Buddhist tradition of Abhidharma (scholastic Buddhist philosophy), which was very influential in North India, especially Kashmir. In various texts, they referred to their tradition as Yuktavāda (the doctrine of logic), and another name for them was Hetuvāda (the doctrine of causes). The Vaibhāṣika school was an influential subgroup of the larger Sarvāstivāda school. They were distinguished from other Sarvāstivāda sub-schools like the Sautrāntika and the "Western Masters" of Gandhara and Bactria by their orthodox adherence to the doctrines found in the Mahāvibhāṣa, from which their name is derived (Vaibhāṣa is a vṛddhi derivative of vibhāṣa, meaning "related to the vibhāṣa"). Vaibhāṣika thought significantly influenced the Buddhist philosophy of all major Mahāyāna Buddhist schools of thought and also influenced the later forms of Theravāda Abhidhamma (though to a much lesser extent).

The Sarvāstivāda tradition arose in the Mauryan Empire during the second century BCE, and was possibly founded by Kātyānīputra (c. 150 BCE). During the Kushan era, the "Great Commentary" (Mahāvibhāṣa) on Abhidharma was compiled, marking the beginning of Vaibhāṣika as a proper school of thought. This tradition was well-supported by Kanishka, and later spread throughout North India and Central Asia. It maintained its own canon of scriptures in Sanskrit, which included a seven-part Abhidharma Piṭaka collection. Vaibhāṣika remained the most influential Buddhist school in Northwest India from the first century CE until the seventh century.