Dear Colleagues,

Indeed, Dr. Silk, your note of caution is wise and well-taken. Despite my momentary Stendhal syndrome, I certainly could have qualified my statement more carefully--though only the part identifying the image as the Buddha, certainly not the "beautiful" part! That said, in my haste I failed to mention that there is a fair bit more evidence to support the Buddha identification than what is covered in Dr. Sidebotham's earlier lecture.

Dr. Shailendra covers most of this evidence in the lecture linked above. For instance, several other representations of the Buddha (a pair of Buddha heads and another headless statue) were discovered at the same site. Dr. Shailendra theorizes that they are locally-made votives commissioned by South Asian merchants. 

Nonetheless, "more than a small amount of caution" is always advisable under such circumstances. Thank you again for that reminder. 

For anyone who is interested (or who has trouble accessing the recorded lecture), I've copy-pasted the abstract of Dr. Shailendra's lecture (including brief mention of the Buddha representations) below:

Dr Shailendra Bhandare (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), Prof Marianne Bergmann (GAU Göttingen) and Martina Stoye (Museum für Asiatische Kunst Berlin, SMB, SPK) 

Indian Dedications at Berenike on the Red Sea 

 

Berenike on the Red Sea was one of two ports through which in the Roman Empire the seaborne trade between the Mediterranean Sea and Arabia, East Africa and India passed. Everybody working or living there was directly or indirectly engaged in trade or in ensuring the relevant taxes for the Roman government. Activity was in sync with the monsoons. Excavations at Berenike begun in 1994 are ongoing by the Universities of Delaware (S.E. Sidebotham), Heidelberg (R. Ast), Leiden (O.E. Kaper) under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology. This joint presentation focuses on a number of figural representations and one Brahmi inscription, connected with Gandharan culture. Most of them were found recently in the context of the settlement’s main temple, a temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis, where they had been dedicated as votives. Four of them are fragments of representations of Buddha: two heads and two headless statuettes. They were not imported, but made locally on commission, using different materials, of different quality and by local workshops as well as by seasonally working sculptors. Especially the statuettes are interesting, which translate the rarer of the two main Gandharan types of the standing Buddha, the one used on Kanishka’s gold coins, into the styles of the ‘copyists’. Most probably they were commissioned by traders from India. As many other votives in the temple, the Buddha-votives seem to have served the dual purpose of representing the traders to others at probably the most public place of the settlement and of expressing thanks and prayers for a safe journey. A terracotta warrior in Greco-Roman armour with parallels in the region of Ter, however, is an import and represents the Satavahana region of the Indian trade. A votive stele featuring the Indic triad of Vasudeva-Balarama and Ekānamśa is a very significant find. Here again, comparisons with the occurrence of these deities from Gandhara provides a worthwhile context. 

On Sat, Jul 2, 2022 at 5:29 PM Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Thanks to Charles DiSimone for the link. I attach screenshots of the relevant 3 slides for the ones who could not watch the video.

Le 2 juil. 2022 à 09:29, Charles DiSimone via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> a écrit :

Dear Rich,

The talk alluded to in the Facebook post Madhav appears to be here in session 5 of the Gandharan Art in its Buddhist Context: international workshop: Dr Shailendra Bhandare (Ashmolean Museum), and Martina Stoye (Museum für Asiatische Kunst Berlin, SMB, SPK)Indian Dedications at Berenike on the Red Sea. There's a video available but I have always found the Gandhāra Connections website to be very finicky and have not been able to get it to play on my computer but only on my phone. Hopefully you have more luck!

All my best,

Charlie

Dr. Charles DiSimone

Department of Languages and Cultures

Ghent University

On Sat, Jul 2, 2022 at 9:24 AM Asko Parpola via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Excavations have been carried out at Berenike from the early 1990s under Steven Sidebotham, who in 2011 published the following book:

Sidebotham, Steven E., 2011. Berenike and the ancient maritime spice route. (The California World History Library 18.) Berkeley: University of California Press. xviii, 434 pp., ill. 

Steven E. Sidebotham is Professor of History at the University of Delaware, email ses@udel.edu

Best regards, Asko

On 2. Jul 2022, at 1.23, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Rich,

     I see a March 29 message on FaceBook by Shailen Bhandare:

"The recording of our presentation on interesting "transcultural" findings from the excavations at Berenike is now on-line. I present an exciting discovery - the first ever Sanskrit inscription found in Egypt, dated in the reign of Roman Emperor Philip 'the Arab'! It is a dedicatory inscription left by a Kshatriya named Vasula, and undoubtedly of a Buddhist nature as indicated by its colophon. Thanks again to Steve Sidebotham and Team Berenike!"

Shailen Bhandare will be the best source of information on this topic.

Madhav

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Fri, Jul 1, 2022 at 1:13 PM Richard G. Salomon via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear colleagues,

Some weeks ago I saw a reference on Facebook to the recent discovery of a Sanskrit inscription in Egypt, said to be dated to the reign of the Roman emperor Philip "the Arab" (244-249 CE). But I haven't been able to find any further information about this. Has anyone heard any more about this?

Rich Salomon

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--

Sincerely,

Westin Harris
Ph.D. Candidate
Study of Religion 
University of California, Davis

https://religions.ucdavis.edu/people/westin-harris

2021 Dissertation Fellow,

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies

Sarva Mangalam.