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Remarks on the Sogdian Religious Iconography in 7th Century Samarkand |
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时间：2009-7-24 13:48:29 来源：不详
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riders. The sacrifical animals are four birds and an harnessed horse. According to Grenet, the horse is destined to the god Mithra[3] while the four birds are for Zurvan, the Iranian god of time worshipped also by the Sogdians. Unfortunately there are no discoveries of Sogdian works of art with representations of Zurvan however, according to the sources, this divinity was one of the most important gods of the Sogdian pantheon. As it is commonly accepted among scholars, since the 6th century the Sogdians have used the Hindu iconography for the representation of their own gods: in this way Ahura Mazda–Adbagh was associated to Shakra (Indra), Zurvan to Brahma and Weshparkar–Vayu to Mahadeva (Shiva). In Sogdian Buddhist sources also Vaisharavana and Narayana–Vishnu appear but they are not associated to Mazdean gods. However, they are described according to their Indian attire: an armour was the carachteristic of Vaishravana and sixteen arms the one of Narayana–Vishnu. Every Sogdian god was associated with an animal which could be represented also as his vahana according to Hindu concept[4]. For this reason Grenet proposed to link the harnessed horse in the mural painting at Afrasyab with Mithra and the birds with Zurvan, in fact, among ancient Iranians and Indians (but also among the Greeks) the horse was the animal associated to the solar god and, in Hindu culture and art, the swan was the vahana of Brahma[5]. So, if we have to accept Grenet’s idea (perfectly fitting with Marshak interpretation), the birds should be regarded as the sacrificial animals for Zurvan.
The Sogdian religion was not aniconic, on the contrary, archaeological excavations led at the site of Panjakand revealed several representations of gods and goddesses. At this point, one could suppose that inside the temple represented at the end of the procession on the southern wall at Afrasyab there could have been images of the ancestors of the king as suggeste 上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] 下一页 |
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