Moizza S Elahi | University of Toronto (original) (raw)

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Papers by Moizza S Elahi

Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie Orientale, 2023

The aim of this paper is to shed light on locally constructed sculptural representations of donor... more The aim of this paper is to shed light on locally constructed sculptural representations of donors and devotees from Butkara I in Swat valley – one of the earliest Buddhist sites in the Greater Gandhara region. The discovery of several sculptures and architectural elements depicting elaborately adorned male and female figures with distinctly individualizing facial features, and bearing varied Buddhist offerings, not only throws into relief the artistic phenomenon of portraiture in early Gandharan Buddhist art but also exemplifies the visual and material enactment of donative ritual and practice. The appropriation of a transcultural and widely legible visual vocabulary for constructing these essentially Buddhist figures underscores the complex cross-cultural interactions and encounters underpinning Gandharan art and Buddhist practice in the early centuries of the Common Era. The paper argues that, in addition to relic establishment and donative inscriptions, the ruling aristocrats us...

Journal of Asian Civilizations, 2020

To better understand and more effectively address the complexity of the art of Gandhara, its deve... more To better understand and more effectively address the complexity of the art of Gandhara, its development out of cross cultural encounters and exchanges, and the multivalent meanings that emerged out of the varied processes of its production and use, two analytical frameworks can be usefully employed: materiality and globalization. The conjunction of these approaches holds tremendous potential for the field of Gandharan art and archaeology. They can move scholarship away from reductive Hellenizing discourses towards ideas, that focus on the effects of the complex connectivity and mobility in lands associated with this art. Beginning with a brief historiographical review and critique of the formative narratives on Gandharan art, this paper goes on to discuss the concepts of materiality and globalization, their respective scope and implications, and how they can be applied (individually and collectively) to Gandharan art.

Conference Presentations by Moizza S Elahi

A two-day workshop of lectures and discussion rounds organized with the Ho Centre for Buddhist St... more A two-day workshop of lectures and discussion rounds organized with the Ho Centre for Buddhist Studies and the Department of Art History at University of Toronto. The workshop aims to shed light on the dynamic workings of materiality and localized constructions of Buddhist ritual, practice, and experience in ancient Gandhāra and its neighbouring regions in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Images on the Move: comparative approaches to visual mobility in the Mediterranean, Gandhara and China. Second International Doctoral Cluster (IDC) Workshop (UCL and UofT)., 2021

28th European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting, Budapest, 2022

110th CAA (College Art Association) Annual Conference, 2022

The female figure is a persistent theme in South Asian artistic traditions from ancient times. Ea... more The female figure is a persistent theme in South Asian artistic traditions from ancient times. Early Buddhist monuments of India proliferate with large-scale sensual images of women with bared breasts and ample hips. Stone sculpture produced between the 1st and the 4th centuries CE, from the Buddhist sites of Gandhāra in modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, however, abandons the overt sensuality and voluptuous monumentality of the female form. In addition to jewelled adornments, intricately sculpted drapery becomes a significant part of female iconography. In this artistic tradition, visual representations of women come to be associated with specific settings and recurrent themes. Furthermore, depictions of elaborately attired donor women become ubiquitous while visual representation of nuns remains largely absent. Little attention has been paid to the topic of women and gender in Gandhāran scholarship. Discussions on Gandhāran visual culture either remain mired in reductive discourses on 'artistic influences' or address images as mere illustrations of Buddhist texts. Through the examination of visual and material records from the region of Swat—stone relief panels, images of donor women, and inscriptions—this paper presents a preliminary exploration of the gendered visual rhetoric in Gandhāran art and its role in the construction of social ideals and gender norms in Gandhāran society.

Books by Moizza S Elahi

Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, 2023

Annali di Ca’ Foscari.Serie orientale is the journal of the Department of Asian and North African... more Annali di Ca’ Foscari.Serie orientale is the journal of the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Started in 1970, the journal became an Open Access resource in 2014. Its mission is to foster original and interdisciplinary research in the fields of Asian and North African Studies. Each annual issue features articles and reviews written by leading scholars whose contributions span across a vast array of topics. These can be gathered under four main headings: