Brahmanical deities in foreign lands: the fate of Skanda in Buddhist Central Asia

The relationship between Brahmanism and Buddhism is a very inspiring field of inquiry, with which scholars have so far dealt applying different, often antithetic, methodological approaches and attitudes of mind. The question of the ̳borrowing‘ of Brahmanical deities by the Buddhist theistic system is one of the major issues of the debate. On this occasion, it will be addressed from an iconographic viewpoint, with a focus on the Brahmanical god Skanda/Kārttikeya, a multifaceted and metamorphic deity in its own original milieu. An analysis of the diverse iconographic contexts in which his depictions occur, from Gandhāra to Central Asia, offers inter-esting clues to a possible explanation of his presence in the local Buddhist repertoires.