Antiquity Studies

Wine in the Gandhāran Epigraphic Corpus

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Abstract

Vessels used in the consumption or ritual use of wine have been recovered from sites in ancient Gandhāra. Some were donated to Buddhist monasteries, and one even repurposed as a reliquary. The inscriptions attached to the vessels provide information about their ownership and uses without indicating any active involvement of Buddhist institutions in the production or use of wine. A recent new reading of the Dasht‑e-Nawur inscriptions also points to a non-Buddhist ritual use of wine. Some information about practical aspects of viticulture is preserved in Central Asian Gāndhārī documents, and such documents may yet be found in Gandhāra itself.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: May 6, 2024 | Accepted: June 1, 2024 | Published Oct. 8, 2024 | Language: en

Copyright © 2024 Stefan Baums. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-816-3/011


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