Buddhist fascination? Some notes on cultural archeology during the British Raj

Abstract

The following pages present an overview on the archeological history in the Indian Subcontinent.  This paper will also underline a few problematic terms and concepts, unavoidably incurred during the research: the use of the term Civilization, the overbearing employment of “Orientalism”, the fragile notion of “Graeco-Buddhist art”, the idea of superiority of “classicism” in canons and traditions, and so on. Systematic research was conducted by intellectuals who were moved by contemporary Romantic sentiment, in their quest for elegant canons of classical antiquity, as much as they were imbued with a sense of superiority of one tradition (Buddhism) over another but made possible the founding and development of the Archaeological Survey of India, the main agency responsible for archaeological research and the conservation during the British Raj.