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💁♀️ Daniela De Simone📜 From Alexander to Ashoka: Encounters Between Ancient India and the Hellenistic World. A Story Told Through Textual Records and Material Traces
This lecture explores the complex interactions between Ancient India and the Hellenistic world from the late fourth to the third century BCE, a period shaped by imperial ambition, cross-cultural diplomacy, and artistic innovation, and extending into the subsequent era of the so-called Indo-Greek kingdoms. Anchored in the historical arc from Alexander the Great’s incursions into northwestern India to the reign of Ashoka, third emperor of the Mauryan dynasty and first Buddhist sovereign, the talk examines how these two civilisational spheres came into contact and what material traces they left behind, and the forms of interaction that continued to shape the region in subsequent centuries. Drawing on a range of sources, including Greek diplomatic accounts, Ashokan inscriptions (including one composed in Greek), coins, monumental architecture, and sculptural forms, the lecture considers how visual and textual media were mobilised to express authority, religious ideals, and shifting geopolitical relationships. Rather than framing this encounter as a unidirectional influence, the lecture brings into focus zones of interaction, where cultural forms were exchanged, adapted, and recontextualised. Particular attention will be given to the Greek presence in India, its intersections with the spread of Buddhism, and to the hybrid iconographies that later emerged in regions such as Gandhara. Richly illustrated and interdisciplinary in scope, the lecture offers a nuanced perspective on one of antiquity’s most intriguing intercultural entanglements.
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Daniela De Simone is Assistant Professor in South Asian Art and Archaeology at Ghent University, and was previously Curator for South Asian Archaeology at the British Museum. Her research focuses on the history of South Asian Buddhism through the study of material culture. She has excavated early Buddhist sites in Nepal and conducts regular fieldwork at Buddhist sites in India. She is the principal investigator of the Harvard-funded research project Excavations at Bodhgaya: the Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment.
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📅 Wanneer? woensdag 27 mei 2026, om 19u30
🏛 Waar? leslokaal 0.4 (Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent)
💰 Prijs? gratis voor leden van het Griekenlandcentrum, studenten (m.u.v. PhD-studenten) en scholieren. Anderen betalen €5 aan de kassa.
🇬🇧 Opgelet: deze lezing wordt in het Engels gegeven!
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Event Venue
leslokaal 0.4 (Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent), Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent, België, Gent, Belgium
Tickets
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