Vishnu on the banks of the Volga river

[mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU]

I have not succeeded in locating the reference, but I
recall that many years ago, in a Danish academic series,
I came across an archeological report on the discovery
of a Buddha image in burial in a Danish bog. If my memory
serves, it was also speculated that it must have arrived
in Denmark via the Volga trade route, which played 
an important role in the trade in slaves and valuables
between Byzantium and Northern Europe. It might be
interesting to bring together what evidence there is
of Indian relics discovered in medieval Europe. I note, too, in this context, though it involves neither India nor the Volga the magnificent Sassanid silver plate that forms part
of the trésor de St. Denis. Has there been any effort to
treat exchange between early medieval Asia and Europe with
the kind of comprehensiveness we find in work on Hellenistic
and Roman relations with the East, or the period
following the Mongol conquests? 

Matthew T. Kapstein
Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
The University of Chicago Divinity School
Directeur d'études
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris