Non-Buddhist customs of Buddhist people: visual evidence from North-West Pakistan

In the rich repertoire of the Buddhist art of Gandhāra,1 a special place is occupied by what we usually call “Dionysiac scenes,” where different characters are portrayed in the act of drinking, dancing, performing more or less explicit erotic gestures that are a prelude to sexual intercourse, or engaged in social ceremonies of unknown nature. When considered together and analysed more closely, these scenes reveal a typological variety that no doubt reflects different layers of meaning. The paper aims at investigating them from an inner perspective, based on archaeological records from Swat.