Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb: The Zoroastrian Pantheon of the
Bactrians and Sogdians, Second–Eighth Centuries
F R A N T Z
cnrs/école pratique des hautes études, paris
The Buddhist art of pre-Islamic Central Asia be-
longs to the history of Indian art, except for some
minor borrowings from local pantheons. At the
same time, the non-Buddhist art which coex-
isted with Buddhist art can be viewed from an
Iranian perspective as well as from an Indian
one. It is Iranian in terms of its subject matter,
but it also includes a substantial stock of forms
of Hindu origin. The present paper discusses a
number of images, some of which have been
known for a long time, and others which have
been discovered in the last twenty years and
have remained unknown outside the small circle
of archaeologists working in Central Asia.1 This
material offers insight as to how a religion firmly
structured with its sacred texts, its pantheon and
its rituals, at some stage met the challenge of
an alien iconography to provide appropriate an-
swers to its devotional needs, bridging a cultural
gap without losing anything of its own identity.
These documents belong to two different but
historically related cultural spheres. The first
one is the Kushan empire and its successor the
Kushano-Sasanian kingdom, both centered on
Bactria and extending from the first to fourth
centuries c.e. The second cultural sphere is
Sogdiana, a cluster of principalities situated to
the north of Bactria, and which from the fifth to
the eighth century dominated the Silk Road.
To begin, it is necessary to consider some fun-
damental aspects of Zoroastrianism, the ethnic
religion of the Iranians from the middle of the
first millennium b.c.e. until the Islamization of
87
G R E N E T
Iran and Central Asia in the seventh to tenth
centuries c.e. The texts produced by the Zoroas-
trian religion in all its stages show very little in-
terest in anthropomorphic images of gods. In the
Avesta, the most ancient text, the composition
of which probably belongs to a period from the
late second millennium b.c.e. to the post-Achae-
menian period, the gods are evoked through the
functions they fulfill, through fragmentary allu-
sions to mythological episodes in which they are
confronted with heroes of the past. Psychologi-
cal characteristics are vague and physical details
are confined to general allusions to beauty, radi-
ance, some attributes held in their hands, some-
times a chariot driven by the god. The richest
vocabulary is used for the animal shapes some of
the gods assume. The only exception is Anahita,
goddess of the Waters, whose statue is described,
but the passage (Yast 5.126–29) is late and, in
some of its details, obviously influenced by the
iconography of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar-
Nana. In fact an Achaemenian seal (fig. 1)2 shows
the king worshipping a goddess he probably in-
vokes under the name Anahita, but whose ico-
nography is mostly borrowed from Ishtar-Nana
standing on a lion. We shall soon come again to
her, as her further development is closely linked
with India.
The story of Zoroastrian religious art as we
know it from Iran itself seems quite consistent
with the reluctance shown in the texts. Images
of the gods are scarce and unimaginative. The
most important gods are in fact depicted in the
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb
art of the Sasanian period, but in most cases
they appear in the context of a scene of investi-
ture as a sort of mirror image of the king.3 No cult
statue from this period has survived, no doubt
because they were consciously eliminated by the
joined efforts of the Zoroastrian Church and of
the Sasanian State.4 From the previous Parthian
period we know a bronze statue of Heracles
which carries a bilingual dedication, one version
in Greek where the hero is named Heracles, one
in Parthian where he is named Wahram, the god
of Victory.5 A later Armenian source tells us that
“no one among the Armenians knew how to
make images, but they were brought from among
the Greeks,”6 a custom that the Armenians had
probably inherited from the Parthians and which
they managed to maintain against Sasanian pres-
sure until Christianization eventually put an
end to the iconic cult of Iranian gods.
The Zoroastrian Pantheon
of the Kushans
The practice of seeking from Greek art what
Iranian tradition was unable to provide is more
systematically observed in the Kushan empire.
Here, coins issued by the kings Kaniska and
Huviska show a rich selection of fifteen Zoroas-
trian deities,7 named according to their Iranian
names, but most of them depicted according to
their conventional Greek equivalents: Ahura
Mazda (as Zeus-Bel), Mithra (as Apollo-Helios),
Mah (the male moon-god, as a masculinized Se-
lene), Adur (as Hephaistos, fig. 2), Wad (the Wind,
as Boreas), Asi (the female Fortune, in Bactrian
Ardwakhs, depicted as Tyche), Farn (the male
Fortune, as Hermes), Arstat (the Justice, as Ath-
ena, fig. 3), Wanind (the Victory, as Nike), Sahr-
ewar (protector of warriors, as Ares), Druwasp
(protectress of horses, sex-changed as a Dioscu-
rus), Tir (the archer rain-god, sex-changed as Ar-
temis on a unique coin, an assimilation usually
proper to Nana), Wahram (an original icono-
graphical type). Only two Zoroastrian gods, Wah-
man and Vayu, are entirely or partly depicted
according to Indian models (see below). To this
series one should add Nana, depicted as Artemis:
though her origin is in Mesopotamia, where she
took over some functions and attributes of Ishtar
(hence her persisting association with the lion
alluded to by her throne or the animal figure at
88
the end of the staff she holds), she can be held as
fulfilling functions proper to Anahita in “West-
ern” Zoroastrianism. In addition, two gods are
Iranian but do not belong to the Zoroastrian
pantheon: one is the local river-god Oxus (whose
image probably hints at Poseidon), the other is
Yima, ancient Indo-Iranian master of the under-
world and archetype of the Iranian king (an
original type modelled on the Kushan king
himself).
On rare coins one also finds the Buddha and
five gods from the Brahmanic pantheon: Maha-
sena (fig. 4, left), Vi¶akha, Skanda, Kumara (the
last two associated as one god, fig. 4, right), Uma.
But in the dedicatory inscription of Kaniska dis-
covered at Rabatak in Afghanistan,8 the names
Mahasena and Vi¶akha are identified in an inter-
linear gloss with the name of Sros, the Iranian
god of the battle for the faith, who was perhaps
not very familiar outside the priestly circles and
was never depicted on coins under his own
name. The cock, which was one of the attributes
of Mahasena (and is clearly recognizable on the
coin illustrated here), might have facilitated the
assimilation to Sros, whose specific animal is
the cock as it calls for the dawn prayer.
This syncretistic element detectable in Hindu
gods who have kept their names is even more
obvious in the case of Hindu images identified
by an Iranian name. The iconographic type of
‡iva appears first on coins of Vima Kadphises
(fig. 5), in the early second century c.e.9 At this
stage he is identified by the titles mahe¶vara
(“great lord”) and sarvaloga i¶vara (“lord of the
world”), a title borrowed by the king and written
in kharo߆hi. I leave it to the Indologists to de-
cide whether the personal name ‡iva, rather than
I¶vara or Rudra, is pertinent at this stage. There
is no hint yet at any identification with an Ira-
nian god. The iconographic type derives from
Heracles, as shown by the lion pelt, but there are
partial adaptations to the Indian concept: the tri-
dent replaces the club, the hair drawn as vertical
lines probably evokes flames alluding to the as-
sociation between Rudra and the Indian fire god
Agni.10
Some more radical changes occur under the
next Kushan king Kaniska and are continued un-
der his successor Huviska (fig. 6). The icono-
graphic ties with Heracles are severed and the
god exhibits the three-headed and four-handed
type of Mahadeva, with his main attributes: tri-
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb
dent, vajra (borrowed from Indra), club (replaced,
in one version which shows the god with only
one head, by a fawn which either alludes to the
story of the antelope sent against ‡iva by the
•ßis11 or is borrowed from the god Prajapati).12
The flask pouring water downward probably
hints at the ritual in the rajasuya, the Indian
royal investiture ceremony.13 But the most sig-
nificant change is in the name: the legend, now
in Bactrian, reads OESO, which was explained by
Helmut Humbach in an seminal article on Indo-
Iranian syncretism in Central Asia:14 it is Vayus,
nominative form of the Avestan Vayu, formally
the same as Vedic Vayu but with a slightly dif-
ferent specification, as the Iranian Vayu is god of
the celestial space more than the god of the wind.
Several factors could have facilitated the identi-
fication of the Iranian Vayu with ‡iva. Both were
high gods, and according to some Iranologists
Vayu had been worshipped in the Eastern Iranian
regions as the highest god, in competition with
the Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians. Also, both
gods have an ambivalent nature, alternating be-
tween benevolence and fury. Lastly, the Indian
Vayu is a subordinate companion of ‡iva, as the
latter’s companions in early mythology are the
Maruts or Winds. The Vayu-‡iva combination
was apparently not achieved before some other
attempts: one is attested by the rare type of
MOZDOOANO that appears on a coin of Kani-
ska (fig. 7), which transcribes a form Muzduwan
meaning in Bactrian “the Gracious one,” equiv-
alent perhaps to the name ‡iva.15 This god is de-
picted as a Kushan king holding a trident and
riding a two-headed horse, a strange combination,
which probably illustrates the ambivalent Rudra-
‡iva as direct protector of the king, without any
specific reference to a Zoroastrian god.
A second attempt at bridging the gap between
Zoroastrianism and Hinduism addressed another
community, namely the Vaishnavas. One image
that issued from this attempt (fig. 8) is also four-
handed and betrays a significant degree of eclec-
ticism: the god is designated as MANAOBAGO,
“Mana the God,” a variant form of the name of
the Zoroastrian god Wahman (Avestan Vohu
Manah) “Good Thought,” who comes first in the
series of the six Amesa Spentas, the Zoroastrian
“archangels” created by Ahura Mazda prior to
the other gods (only one other Amesa Spenta is
attested on Kushan coins: Sahrewar depicted as
Ares). The iconography of this god is composite
89
to the extreme: the helmet comes from Greece;
the concept of Vohu Manah is expressed by the
throne (on which, according to the Avestan text
Vendidad 19.31, Vohu Manah welcomes the
souls in Paradise), the head ribbon presumably
bestowed on the souls, the moon with which he
is also associated, and the plough he holds as
protector of cattle. But this attribute also pro-
vides a link with Balarama, while the cakra is
taken from Krißña. This syncretic attempt was
short-lived. In later periods we have evidence for
Bactrians worshipping Vißñu, but when the god
is depicted in such a context he exhibits more
familiar features, as on an accession coin of the
Kushan king Vasudeva I, whose very crown name
reflected his religious sympathies (fig. 9), and on
a Kushano-Sasanian or Kidarite seal (fig. 10).
On the contrary, Vayu-‡iva remained a major
god in the Kushan empire and in the successor
kingdom of the Kushano-Sasanians (fig. 11).
Though on their coins the latter rulers titled
themselves “Mazdaean lord” and showed such
typical Zoroastrian symbols as the fire altar,
they kept the traditional type of ‡iva with raised
hair standing in front of the bull Nandi, while re-
placing the name Vayu by an epithet suitable for
both Vayu and ‡iva: burzawand yazd (in the
Pahlavi version), “the god who possesses the
heights.”
The Zoroastrian Pantheon
of the Sogdians
Let us now turn to Sogdiana, the country border-
ing Bactria to the north. While Bactria fell into
relative decline after the Hunnish invasions of
the fourth and fifth centuries, Sogdiana appears
to have easily integrated the newcomers into
its ruling class. It then emerged as the major
commercial power on the Silk Road and experi-
enced an unprecedented artistic boom.16 This
resulted in the richest set of religious images
ever produced in a Zoroastrian context: at pres-
ent, twenty-three (and perhaps twenty-four) of
the thirty gods regularly worshipped in the Zoro-
astrian calendar have been identified in Sogdian
art, mainly by the parallel and eventually com-
bined efforts of the late Boris Marshak and my-
self. This list comprises all the Zoroastrian gods
known on Kushan coins, except (provisionally?)
Wad and Wanind. The additions are: four missing
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb

Fig. 1. Imprint of an Achaemenian seal (4th c. b.c.e.) with

the king worshipping Anahita depicted as Ishtar-Nana; Fig. 2. Gold coin of Kaniska I (127–150). Reverse: ATHSO
Aramaic inscription zaratustris (not included in the photo- (Adur) as Hephaistos. After Tanabe 1992, no. 197.
graph). After Minns 1913, fig. 298.

Fig. 3. Gold coin of Huviska (150–191). Reverse: Fig. 4. Gold coins of Huviska. Reverse left, MAASENO (Mahasena);
RISTO (Arstat) as Athena. After Göbl 1984, 170, type right, SKANDO-KOMARO, MAASENO, BIZAGO (Skanda-Kumara,
“Risto (Risti) 1.” Mahasena, Vi¶akha). Photo: Courtesy of the British Museum.

Fig. 5. Gold coin of Vima Kadphises (ca. 110––127). Reverse: Fig. 6. Gold coin of Huviska. Reverse: OESO (Vayu) as ‡iva
Rudra or ‡iva, partly adapted from Heracles, with kharo߆hi leg- Mahadeva. After Cribb 1997, fig. p. 59.
end maharajasa rajadirajasa sarvaloga i¶varasa mahi¶varasa
Vima Ka†hphi¶asa tradara. After Tanabe 1992, no. 159.

90
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb

Fig. 7. Gold coin of Kaniska I. Reverse: MOZDOOANO Fig. 8. Gold coin of Kaniska I. Reverse: MANAOBAGO (Wah-
(Muzduwan). Photo: Courtesy of the British Museum. man) partly adapted from Vishnuite deities. After Tanabe 1992,
no. 166.

Fig. 9. Gold coin of Vasudeva I (191–ca. 230). Reverse:

BAZODEO (Vasudeva). After Tanabe 1992, no. 197.

Fig. 10. Kushano-Sasanian or Kidarite seal, 4th or 5th c.,

inscribed in Bactrian and showing a dignitary worshipping
Fig. 11. Gold coin of The Kushano-Sasanian king Peroz I, Vasudeva-Vißñu. British Museum, Alexander Cunningham
late 3rd c. Reverse: ‡iva-Vayu and Nandi, with Bactrian leg- Collection reg. no. 1892, 1103.98. Photo: Courtesy British
end borzoando iazado. Museum.

91
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb
Amesa Spentas (Ardwahist, Spandarmad, Hordad,
Amurdad), four deities linked with individual
salvation (Sros, Rasn, Den, and the collective
body of the Fravasis), Apa4m Napat (on whom see
below), Anahita (depicted separately from Nana).
Khwarsed, the Sun as distinct from Mithra, is
possibly attested also. The list will probably be
supplemented by future discoveries. These im-
ages are to be found in a great variety of media—
wall paintings and sculptures in temples and
houses, self-standing small terracotta figures,
images stamped on ossuaries. As in Kushan Bac-
tria, some of these images echo distant Greek
models: this is the case with Mithra, still depicted
as Helios on his chariot, though the structure of
the chariot is no longer understood,17 and Arstat,
who still keeps all the attributes of Athena.
But the Greek element is now residual. Most
of the images of Sogdian gods are fresh creations
directly inspired by the religious texts, while
several of the most important gods are clearly
modelled on their accepted Hindu counterparts.
That this was a conscious procedure is confirmed
by a short list of gods transmitted in two Bud-
dhist Sogdian texts.18 For the first three gods the
Hindu and Iranian names are given together:
“Brahma-Zurwan, Indra-Adhvagh, Mahadeva-
Wesparkar”; there follows for each a short phy-
sical description taken from the Indian side
(Brahma-Zurwan has a beard, Indra-Adhvagh a
third eye, Mahadeva-Wesparkar three faces).
Brahma-Zurwan has not yet been discovered
in Sogdian iconography, but we have many images
of Mahadeva-Wesparkar. In fact he is the direct
continuation of Vayu-‡iva we have already met
in Bactria, the name Wesparkar reflecting the
full Avestan formula Vayus uparo.kairyo “Vayu
who acts in the superior region.” In Sogdiana his
syncretic images assume various shapes, some
closer to the Indian concept (fig. 12),19 some
closer to the Iranian one. A side chapel in one of
the temples at Panjikent contained a clay statue
of the couple Uma-Mahe¶vara seated on Nandi
(fig. 13),20 very close to Indian models, except for
the cloth covering ‡iva’s penis with typical Sog-
dian prudishness. Still in Panjikent, one painted
image from a private house (fig. 14)21 carries the
explicit label “Wesparkar” and shows deliberate
adaptation to the functions of the Iranian Vayu:
one of the three heads blows a horn, an attribute
not usual with ‡iva but appropriate to the Ira-
nian Vayu in his capacity as god of the atmo-
92
sphere. This emphasis on the natural elements
is confirmed by the figure seated in front of
Wesparkar: he is Apa4m Napat, Iranian god of the
fire which burns within water (hence the fire
halo surrounded by fish and tritons).
The third Hindu-Iranian god mentioned in the
Sogdian lists is Indra-Adhvagh. Adhvagh means
“Supreme God” in Sogdian, and we know from
Sogdian Zoroastrian texts that it was used as an
epithet for Ahura Mazda. There seems to have
been a general reluctance everywhere to depict
the supreme god of the Zoroastrians. In Sasa-
nian Iran, as we have seen, he appears only as a
counterpart of the king. In Kushan Bactria, coins
s sometimes modelled on Zeus-Bel, sometimes on
Sarapis. In Sogdiana, however, a type of Adhvagh-
Indra has in fact been convincingly identified by
Boris Marshak, on a small series of terracottas
(fig. 15).22 In order to meet the difficult task of
depicting the supreme god, the Sogdian artist
conflated three models of various origins: Indra
(hence the elephant vahana), the Sasanian king
(hence the royal ribbons), King David with his
cithara, a proper allusion to Ahura Mazda’s func-
tion as master of Paradise which Zoroastrian lit-
erature calls “the House of Song.”
Other assimilations took place which are not
mentioned in Sogdian texts. Here (fig. 16-e) is a
terracotta image of a god dating probably from
the seventh century and found in 2001 at Afra-
siab (ancient Samarkand), in the excavations
carried out by the French-Uzbek Archaological
Mission in Sogdiana.23 A youthful god holds a
peacock; other fragments of the same type show
him holding also a sword. The peacock comes
from Karttikeya, whose original type (16-c)24 ap-
pears closer to a wooden relief found in Pan-
jikent (16-d: Karttikeya’s typical “conch-like”
hairdo is still recognizable). On our terracotta
the god wears a headgear with wings framing
the head of a bird that holds a pearl in its beak.
This headgear alludes to Wahram, god of Vic-
tory, who can take the shape of a falcon; indeed
it surmounts Wahram’s helmet on a Kushan coin
(16-a), and together with the pearl it appears in
the crown of a Sasanian king (16-b). Consequently
I propose to interpret the Samarkand icon as a
syncretic image of Wahram and Karttikeya.
Karttikeya also lent some features to another
Sogdian god (fig. 17, right),25 whose general ap-
pearance is even more Indianized with his four
arms. This convention of Hindu art offered a
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb

Fig. 13. Uma-Mahe¶vara (Uma is seated on ‡iva’s left thigh,

both are carried by the reclining bull Nandi). Clay statue in
Fig. 12. Wesparkar as ‡iva. Painting in a private house, Pan- a chapel of Temple II , Panjikent, late 7th or early 8th c.
jikent, 7th c. After document B. Marshak. After Shkoda 1992, fig. 7, detail.

Fig. 14. Wesparkar (adapted from Mahadeva) and Apa4m Napat. Painting in a private house, Panjikent, 1st half of the 8th c.
After document B. Marshak.

93
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb
Fig. 15. Adhvagh (adapted from Indra and King David),
terracota figure, Panjikent, 6th or 7th c. After Marshak and
Raspopova 1996, fig. 16.
practical solution to the need, imposed by the
texts, to load the Zoroastrian gods with multiple
attributes. In his case, however, the helmet car-
ries horse ears. The horse is one of the shapes
Wahram can take, but it is more specifically as-
sociated with Tir-Tistrya, the god of the rain. Tir
is also an astral god, associated with both Sirius
and Mercury; the shield brandished by the god
is not the usual Sogdian oval shield but a round
astral symbol. In addition, Tir is an archer god,
hence the arrow held in both hands. As patron of
the rain and of hunting he is associated with
Nana (fig. 17, left), who in Central Asia incorpo-
rated the concept of Anahita, mistress of the
waters. As I mentioned in the beginning of this
paper, her iconography originally stemmed from
Mesopotamia and in many Sogdian images she
keeps her lion throne. But, like her partner Tir,
she has also borrowed some Indian features at
that stage, namely Durga’s typical attribute of
the mace. I shall not elaborate on this point as it
has already been discussed with great insight by
Madhuvanti Ghose in a series of articles.26
94
Finally, I present another example of the Sog-
dian ability to adapt Hindu images for their own
religious needs. Several paintings from Panjikant
show a gate surrounded with various symbols
which identify it with the Zoroastrian Hell
(fig. 18):27 a grinning lion below, smoke on both
sides, a cat and a dragon on top, snake scales
inside, contrasting with the gate of Paradise
framed with jewels and containing the figure of
a beautiful girl. A character clearly modeled on
Vai¶ravaña guards the gate, with one significant
deviation from the Hindu prototype: instead of
trampling over the yakßa he stands in front of
him. This reminds us of Yima, the Iranian mas-
ter of Hell, whose soul is invoked in order to
prevent underground demons surfacing on the
earth. Though this cannot be proved, one can
guess that the Sogdians borrowed Vai¶ravaña in
order to depict Yima, or at least to fulfill a simi-
lar function.
I have tried here to demonstrate that Sogdiana,
which contrary to Bactria was never a Buddhist
country, became in a sense an advanced outpost
of Hindu art. We must remember, however, that
the Hindu models were never copied slavishly
but always reinterpreted in order to fit the needs
of the Zoroastrian religion. This success of Hindu
forms, which took over the vanishing heritage of
the Hellenistic art, should be ascribed in part to
the cultural unity temporarily created by the
Hephtalite empire, which in the sixth century
had encompassed a broad area stretching from
Kashmir to Margiana and extending beyond
Sogdiana on the roads to China. Subsequently,
Sogdian merchants remained very active on the
Indian trading routes, on land and even at sea.
Whether or not some actual theological ex-
changes took place between both systems in Sog-
diana we have no means of deciding. Antonio
Panaino has, however, demonstrated that such
exchanges actually occured in the milieu of the
Maga Brahmanas of Western India, who had
originally migrated from Iran and whose calen-
dar can be understood as an erudite adaptation of
the Zoroastrian calendar to the Hindu pantheon
and concepts.28
At the same time, we must stress that the Sog-
dian artists, besides learning the lessons taught
by the Indians, eventually showed considerable
ability in creating images directly inspired by their
own religious texts. I shall conclude with just
one example: a painting from Panjikent (fig. 19)
 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb

Fig. 16. (a) ORLAGNO (Wahram) on a gold coin of Kaniska I; (b) Wahram’s symbol on the crown on the Sasanian king Hormizd II
(303–309); (c) Karttikeya, stone relief from India, 10th c.; (d) Wahram as Karttikeya, wooden relief, Panjikent, early 8th c.; (e) syncretic
image of Wahram and Karttikeya, terracotta figure from Samarkand, 6th or 7th c. Table compiled by F. Grenet and F. Ory.

Fig. 17. Tir (partly adapted from

Karttikeya) and Nana (partly
adapted from Durga). Terracotta os-
suary from the Shahr-i Sabz region,
7th or early 8th c. Photo: F. Grenet.

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 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb

Fig. 18. Painting from a private house, Panjikent, ca. 740:

the gates of Hell (left) and Paradise (right). After document
B. Marshak; the thick lines are actually preserved, the thin
lines are reconstructions.

depicts a golden statue carried in procession.

The god holds a mace and possibly an incense
burner, both attributes suitable for Sros whom
I have already mentioned as the patron of cult
activity. But he also comes out of a book. The
key to the enigma is a favourite epithet of Sros:
tanu-ma4qra-, which means “whose body is the
Sacred Word.” Most probably the statue depicted
here showed Sros coming out of a codex contain-
ing the Avesta.29 By using such a convention the
Sogdian artist beautifully anticipated Arcim-
boldo’s famous painting The Librarian. Fig. 19. Sros “whose body is the Sacred Word.” Painting in a
private house, Panjikent, ca. 740. The hatched lines indicate
a yellow (i.e. golden) colour. Adapted from Marshak and
Raspopova 2000, fig. 85.
Notes
1. This article is based on a paper delivered at the
conference “A Pantheon Rediscovered: Changing Per- art (only five: Ahura Mazda, Anahita, Mithra,
ceptions of Early Historic India?” (Yale, 18–20 April Wahram, Adur).
2008). It aims at offering a synthetic overview of the 4. The analyses given by Mary Boyce (Boyce 1975)
current state of research; only the most important or keep all their value today.
most recent bibliographical references are given. For 5. Bernard 1990.
a fuller treatment of Kushan Zoroastrianism, see 6. Treatise against the iconoclasts attributed to Var-
Grenet, chap. 24 “Zoroastrianism among the Kush- danes Kertogh, 7th c., quoted in Boyce 1975, p. 101,
ans,” in Boyce and de Jong forthcoming (without illu- from der Nersessian 1944–1945, p. 67. In fact this
strations); for Sogdian Zoroastrianism, Grenet 2010 passage refers more specifically to Christian images
(illustrated). For an earlier sketch see Grenet 1995. in churches, but it can be understood in a broader
2. Grenet in Bordreuil 1986, no. 136. sense encompassing the Pagan sanctuaries, as done by
3. See Compareti 2006 for an up to date presenta- Boyce and as implied by a preceeding passage (“Don’t
tion of all Zoroastrian deities identified in Sasanian you know that in the temples of idols one finds stat-

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 g r e n e t: Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb

ues of Ormizd who is Aramazd, his fornications and 23. Directors: Frantz Grenet and Mukhammadzhon
sorceries? [. . . ] In the temples of idols one sees Ana- Isamiddinov.
hit, her impurities and seductions,” der Nersessian, 24. On the Indian iconography of Karttikeya see
pp. 63–64). Srinavasan 1997–1998.
7. I transcribe their names in the form most famil- 25. Grenet and Marshak 1998, pp. 10–15, figs. 6–7,
iar in modern literature, either the Avestan or Pahlavi 10–12.
one. On coins the gods are labelled in Bactrian, the 26. See lastly Ghose 2006.
local Iranian language noted in Greek script; the 27. Marshak and Raspopova 1991, pp. 189, 194–95,
names have taken different forms, most of which can figs. 3–7; Grenet 1995–1996.
be traced back to Avestan. Almost all the coin types 28. Panaino 1996.
discussed here are reproduced in Göbl 1984, to be sup- 29. La Vaissière and Riboud 2003, with Additional
plemented with Tanabe 1992. Note by F. Grenet; B. Marshak (in Marshak and
8. Sims-Williams and Cribb 1995–1996; Sims- Raspopova 2003, p. 50), though admitting that “the
Williams 2008 (see especially p. 64, note to line 10). external similarity of the object under discussion
9. Among an abundant literature, one can select with a codex is obvious,” holds to his previous inter-
Tanabe 1991–1992; Lo Muzio 1995–1996; Cribb 1997; pretation as a sedan chair; but the image speaks for
Bopearachchi 2008. itself. There are other eloquent example of the apti-
10. For this interpretation see Lo Muzio, p. 162. tude of Sogdian artists to original creation directly
Formerly I described the hair rather as dishevelled and informed by Zoroastrian religious texts: see e.g. the
interpreted it as an allusion to the concept of the In- “group portrait” of the Amesa Spentas holding the
dian wind god Vayu dwelling in ‡iva’s hair (Grenet symbols of Resurrection (Grenet 1996), and the cross-
1995, p. 43), but this concept seems to be present only ing to Paradise on the Cinwad bridge, shown in great
in subtle speculations involving Vayu’s identification detail on a Sogdian sarcophagus from China (Grenet,
with Soma. The hair of the wind god Wad, who is Riboud, and Yang Junkai 2004). In both cases the im-
actually dishevelled, is arranged differently as in the ages owe nothing or little to India.
images under discussion (Tanabe 1991–1992, compare
fig. 6 with figs. 5 and 7).
11. Rao 1914–1916, vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 113–14, quot-
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