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Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Steinplatz 2
99085 Erfurt
Universität Erfurt
Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt
The main aim of my research is to investigate, within a long-term perspective, patterns of transformation in the religious and urban landscape of the north-western regions of South Asia (Gandhāra), having the Swat valley/Uḍḍiyāna as a case-study in order to benefit from the detailed archaeological documentation yielded by the ISMEO-IAMP excavations.
The role played by Buddhism as socially active agent between 3rd century BCE and 10th century CE in Swat is particularly remarkable, as it was theoretically inclusive towards the new-born multi-ethnic urban society. Introduced in the north-west territories with the Mauryas in the 3rd century BCE (beginning of the so-called “second urbanization phase”), during the following centuries Buddhism witnessed a progressive religious dominancy, marked by the foundation of hundreds of sacred areas and monasteries promoted by local princes or clientes of foreign kings. After the crisis of the urban system followed the collapse of the Kushan empire and the consequent socio-economic shift in focus from town to countryside, Buddhist foundations managed to overcome the decadence of ‘classical’ Buddhism by embracing, around the 7th-8th century, Tantrayāna and Vajrayāna practices which coexisted with the revival of Brahmanism.
In order to producing an integrated model of the religious and urban patterns and to analyze the socio-economic logics of religious changes within the wider political scenario, this research will combine the study of available archaeological evidence (from the mid-1st millennium BCE till the end of the 1st millennium CE) with textual and epigraphic sources, paying a special attention to the transformation of religious spaces/practices, within and outside urban contexts. That will be improved by question-oriented researches on the field involving both targeted excavations and surveys, seeking to fill some of the most important gaps in the historical reconstruction.
Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Universität Erfurt
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt
Universität Erfurt (Campus)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt