The Bacchanalian Scenes and the Representation of Women in the Buddhist Sculptures of Gandhāra Art

Abstract

The attraction between opposite genders in living beings including humans is natural and intuitive. The feelings of intimacy and passion for the opposite gender is an open secret, and its value and importance cannot be denied. Attraction among the opposite sex, or in other words, the feeling of love, is the culmination of all romantic poetry, folklore, and other literary works. For decades, it has also been a topic of debate and research for Psychologists and Sociologists. Looking at art history, the discovered sculptures showing human intimacy, are preserved in museum collections and academic publications. In this paper, few examples can be viewed in the form of Gandhāra art; in which bacchanalian scenes' carving are portrayed with numerous flairs, glances, and wine drinking to make them more amorous and signify discern of love in various ways. For this purpose, it is focused on the loving-couples and bacchanalian scenes as represented in Gandhāra sculptures in multiple practices and appearances. Furthermore, the key focus is to re-examine an essential depiction of women in the bacchanalian scenes in the context of Buddhist art of Gandhāra. To explore the above-mentioned scenes, in this research, descriptive and analytical method is used to extract the conclusion. It is found that, Women were imagined in all her grandeur as an appealing to lovers.