Capital of ancient Gandhara in modern-day Pakistan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pushkalavati,[lower-alpha 1] was the capital of the ancient region of Gāndhāra, situated in present day's Pakistan.[1] Its ruins are located on the outskirts of the modern city of Charsadda, in Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 35-42 kilometres northeast of Peshawar,[2] at the banks of Jindi River,[3] near the junction of Swat River with Kabul River. The earliest archaeological remains in Bala Hisar mound are from 1400 to 800 BCE.[4][5] Pushkalavati (in Bala Hisar mound) may have been incorporated as an Achaemenid regional settlement around 520 BCE,[6] and it remained an important city (in Shaikhan Dheri mound) through to the beginning of 3rd century CE.[7]
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Pushkalāvatī
پشکلاوتي
Top: The remains of the original mound, Bala Hisar Bottom: Swat river and Bala Hisar mound just beyond (center of the photograph).
The ruins of Pushkalavati consist of two sites, separated by the small Shambor river.[8] To the south is Bala Hisar, which consists of two separate mounds, one eastern and one western.[9] To the north is Shaikhan Dheri, wedged between the Shambor and Jindi rivers.[10]
Pushkalavati (Sanskrit: पुष्कलावती, IAST: Puṣkalāvatī) means "Lotus City" in Sanskrit. According to Hindu mythology as per the Ramayana, it was named Pushkalavati because it was given to Pushkala, the son of Bharata.[11]
The ruins of Pushkalavati consist of many stupas and the sites of two ancient cities.
Bala Hisar
Bala Hisar site (34.168°N 71.736°E / 34.168; 71.736) in this area was first inhabited in the 2nd-millennium BCE.[13][14] The C14 dating of early deposits in Bala Hisar, bearing "Soapy red"/red burnished ware, is 1420-1160 BCE, so this early phase is considered to last roughly from 1400 to 800 BCE.[15]
Along with the continuity of red burnished ware, but now decorated with grooves (the so-called "grooved" red burnished ware), in the period (c. 750-500 BCE) there was influence from Ganges Valley in the appearance of upright-sided open bowls made of grey ware, similar to Painted Grey Ware culture's pottery shapes.[16]
The site could have been incorporated to Achaemenid empire c. 520 BCE, although there is no archaeological evidence of administrative buildings or palaces in Bala Hisar, but only "some evidence of the emulation of Achaemenid drinking vessels" which local elites could have adopted from the empire.[17] Pottery known as "Tulip bowls," which attests to emulation of Achaemenid shapes, is only present in Bala Hisar in (c. 400-325 BCE).[18]
According to Arrian, the city then surrendered in 327/326 BCE to Alexander the Great, who established a garrison in it.[19] Reinhard Dittman (1984) suggested that the earliest appearance of the "Lotus bowl" in Bala Hisar belongs to the time of Alexander the Great up to the beginning of the Mauryan times, late 4th to early 3rd centuries BCE, but according to Cameron Petrie (2013), a post-Achaemenid date around the late 4th to the 2nd centuries BCE is likely.[20]
Pushkalavati mint. Obverse: Zebu with greek ταυροϛ ('tauros' meaning 'bull) above, [u]ṣabhe (cf. Sanskrit vṛṣabha = bull) in Kharosthi at the bottom. Reverse: Tyche of Pushkalavati, wearing mural crown, holding a flower. [Po]khala[va]didevada (cf. Sanskrit 'Puṣkalāvatī devatā' i.e. 'the goddess of Puṣkalāvatī city') in Kharosthi[26] up right, [droprasaya] in Kharosthi down left. Time of Azes I, circa 58-12 BCE.[27]
Two early Buddhist manuscripts were acquired among a group of twenty‐seven birch‐bark scrolls, in 1994 by the British Library, possibly found in a Dharmaguptaka monastery in Hadda, Afghanistan.[28] These two manuscripts, known as avadanas, and written in Gandhari language around 1st century CE (now in the British Library Collection of Gandharan Scrolls)[29] mention the name of the city as Pokhaladi.[30][31][32]
Buddhist statues (made of stucco), found around three kilometers to the east of Shaikhan Dheri, in mound Pālātu Dheri.Buddhist statuary, found in Pālātu Dheri and Ghaz Dheri, roughly three kilometers to the east of Shaikhan Dheri.
In the 2nd century CE, river changed its course and city was flooded. The town moved to the site of the modern village of Rajjar.
The former city's ruins were partly excavated by Ahmad Hasan Dani in 1960s. There are still many mounds at Mir Ziarat, at Rajar and Shahr-i-Napursan which are still unexcavated.
The last reference to Pushkalavati as Po-shi-kie-lo-fa-ti[33] was recorded in the account of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang in 7th century C.E.[34] The monk Hui Li also commented Xuanzang's visit to the east of the town Po-shih-kie-lo-fa-ti (Pushkalavati) where there was a stupa built by king Ashoka, in the location which four past Buddhas preached.[35]
Subsequently, after the region was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 AD, the name Gandhara was not used anymore, and in all probability the following period is when Pushkalavati became known as Shaikhan Dheri, as dheri means mound/hill in Pashto.[36][37]
Athenian "Owls" coin (Circa 500/490–485 BCE) discovered in the Shaikhan Dehri hoard in Pushkalavati. This coin is the earliest known example of its type to be found so far east.[38]Achaemenid period silver ingot, circa 5th century BCE, Pushkalavati, Gandhara.[39][38]
The city of Pushkalavati was situated near the confluence of Swat and Kabul rivers. Three different branches of Kabul river meet there. That specific place is still called Prang and considered sacred. A grand graveyard is situated to the north of Prang where the local people bring their dead for burial. This graveyard is considered to be among the largest graveyards in the world. The name Prang was considered by Ahmad Hasan Dani as ultimately derived from the word Prayag, meaning "confluence", via an intermediate contracted form *Prag.[40]:7 The name is a reference to the Kabul and Swat rivers, which must have once met here.[40]:7
In the concluding portion of the (Ramayana) Uttarakanda or Supplemental Book, the descendants of Rama and his brothers are described as the receivers of the great cities and kingdoms which flourished in Western India.[41] Uttarakānda may have been composed slightly later than c. 500 BCE.[42][43]
According to this mythical book, Bharata the brother of Rama had two sons, Taksha and Pushkala. Bharata gave to the former Taksha-sila or Taxila, to the east of the Indus, known to Alexander and the Greeks as Taxila. To the latter he gave Pushkala-vati or Pushkalavati, to the west of the Indus,[11] known to Alexander and the Greeks as Peukelaotis.[41] Thus according to Hindu legend, the sons of Bharata received kingdoms that flourished on either side of the Indus river, which were conquered by their father.[11]
Petrie, Cameron, 2013. "Charsadda", in D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal (eds.), History of Ancient India III: The Texts, Political History and Administration til c. 200 BC, Vivekananda International Foundation, Aryan Books International, Delhi, p. 515: "The recent absolute dating of early deposits [of 'Soapy red'/red burnished ware] at the Bala Hisar (GrA-8358: 1420-1160 BC; Peshawar-Bradford Period II-Coningham and Batt 2007: 93-98; also Young 2003: 39) has, however, provided clear confirmation of previous suppositions that this ware and the corresponding early levels at the Bala Hisar date from around 1400 BC onwards into the early 1st millennium BC, c. 800 BC."
Coningham, R.A.E. and C. Batt, 2007. "Dating the Sequence", in R.A.E. Coningham and I. Ali (eds.), Charsadda: The British-Pakistani Excavations at the Bala Hisar, Society for South Asian Studies Monograph No. 5, BAR International Series 1709, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 93-98
Petrie, Cameron A., (2013). "South Asia", in: The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History, Oxford University Press, p. 99: "[T]he regions at the western-most edge of South Asia were incorporated into the Achaemenid empire (c. 520 BCE) [...] The limited excavations have revealed no evidence for the establishment of Persian administrative buildings or palaces in cities like Charsadda [...] but there appears to be some evidence of the emulation of Achaemenid drinking vessels, which may indicate that local elites adopted some symbols of authority and certain culinary practices."
Dani, Ahmad Hasan, 1963. Pushkalavati: The Lotus City, Archaeological Guide Series No. 1, Peshawar University, Peshawar, pp. 4-5: "First […] is the Bala-Hisar mound, actually there are two mounds, approachable by a pathway from the main Peshawar road just where it makes a sharp bend towards the river Jinde (a branch of Swat river) immediately before the bridge that acts as a gateway to the modern town of Charsadda […] Sir Mortimer traces the material of the western mound to the iron age and dates its beginning to about the 6th century B.C. […] According to him this was the city invested by Alexander’s generals. In the 3rd-2nd century B.C. the eastern mound, which was separated from the western at this time by a river (now dried up), assumed importance, but not for long."
Dani, Ahmad Hasan, 1963. Pushkalavati: The Lotus City, Archaeological Guide Series No. 1, Peshawar University, Peshawar, p. 5: "[I]t is suggested that the main centre of activity had shifted by or before the 1st century B.C. to another site at Shaikhan Dheri, north of the river Sambor, now a marshy channel, which separates Bala-Hisar from Shaikhan Dheri […] this mound is caught up between two rivers, Sambor on the south and Jinde on the east. The consequent changes in these rivers did not allow the city to flourish long."
Shastri, Hari Prasad, (1952). "Uttara-kanda, Chapter 101: The slaying of the Gandharvas and the conquest of their Country", in: The Ramayana of Valmiki: "Bharata, the son of Kaikeyi entered those two opulent and magnificent cities, and there, Bharata established Taksha in Takshashila and Pushkala in Pushkalavata, in the country of the Gandharvas, in the ravishing region of Gandhara. Overflowing with treasure and precious gems, adorned with groves, they seemed to vie with each other in magnificence."
Petrie, Cameron, 2013. "Charsadda", in D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal (eds.), History of Ancient India III: The Texts, Political History and Administration til c. 200 BC, Vivekananda International Foundation, Aryan Books International, Delhi, p. 515.
Petrie, Cameron, 2013. "Charsadda", in D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal (eds.), History of Ancient India III: The Texts, Political History and Administration til c. 200 BC, Vivekananda International Foundation, Aryan Books International, Delhi, p. 516: "Vogelsang [...] has argued that there was a period of what he refers to as 'Indic' influence in Ch. I Layers 38-33, which is marked by the appearance of upright-sided open bowls in grey ware [...] These vessels are akin to various forms seen in the Ganges Valley, particularly Painted Grey Ware bowls [...] Vogelsang (1988: 112) proposed that the 'Indic' influence at the Bala Hisar took place in the second quarter of the 1st millennium BC (750-500 BC) [...]"
Petrie, Cameron A., (2013). "South Asia", in: The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History, Oxford University Press, p. 99: "[T]he regions at the western-most edge of South Asia were incorporated into the Achaemenid empire (c. 520 BCE) [...] The limited excavations have revealed no evidence for the establishment of Persian administrative buildings or palaces in cities like Charsadda [...] but there appears to be some evidence of the emulation of Achaemenid drinking vessels, which may indicate that local elites adopted some symbols of authority and certain culinary practices."
Petrie, Cameron, 2013. "Charsadda", in D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal (eds.), History of Ancient India III: The Texts, Political History and Administration til c. 200 BC, Vivekananda International Foundation, Aryan Books International, Delhi, p. 517: "There are no radiocarbon dates from sites in South Asia that can be used to clarify the chronology, but a date during the mid-late Achaemenid period, i.e. c. 400-325 BC, would match other elements of the Bala Hisar sequence that have been confirmed by absolute dates."
Cunningham, Alexander (1871). Four Reports Made During The Years 1862-63-64-65, Vol. II, Archaeological Survey of India. Government Central Press. p.102.: "From Bazaria Alexander marched against Peukelaotis, seated not far from the Indus, which being surrendered to him, he placed a garrison in it, and 'proceeded,' according to Arrian, 'to take many other small towns situated on that river.'"
Petrie, Cameron, 2013. "Charsadda", in D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal (eds.), History of Ancient India III: The Texts, Political History and Administration til c. 200 BC, Vivekananda International Foundation, Aryan Books International, Delhi, p. 518: "Dittman suggested that his Phase IIC, which is marked by the earliest appearance of the lotus bowl, dates to the time around Alexander the Great up to the beginning of the Mauryan domination, or roughly the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC (Dittman 1984: 191). However, as with the tulip bowls, there is no available absolute dating evidence to clarify the proposed dating, and a post-Achaemenid date spanning from the late 4th to the 2nd centuries BC is likely to be appropriate."
Dani, Ahmad Hasan, (1963). Pushkalavati: The Lotus City, Archaeological Guide Series No. 1, Peshawar University, Peshawar, p. 5: "Then going north-eastwards through the market town on the road that leads to Tangi, the visitor turns on to a kacha road towards the village of Rajar, recrosses the river Jinde and finally comes to the low mound of Shaikhan Dheri [...]"
Khan, M. Nasim, 2005. "Terracotta Seal-Impressions from Bala Hisar, Charsadda", in Ancient Pakistan, Vol XVI, p. 13: "Bålå Hisår and Shaikhan Dheri. The former site (or Charsadda-I, Wheeler 1962:13), locally known as Hisår Dheri, lies on the south-western while the latter on the opposite bank of the Sambor River."
Petrie, Cameron, 2013. "Charsadda", in D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal (eds.), History of Ancient India III: The Texts, Political History and Administration til c. 200 BC, Vivekananda International Foundation, Aryan Books International, Delhi, p. 514: "In many ways the sequence at Shaikhan Dheri as exposed by Dani (1965-66) is far less problematic as it was of shorter duration and is at least partly controlled by coin finds and a small number of radiocarbon dates. This evidence shows that the site was established during the Indo-Greek period and presumably occupied continuously up to the Kushan period (Dani 1965-66: 24)."
Dani, A. H., (1965-66). "Shaikhan Dheri Excavation 1963 & 1964 Seasons (In Search of the Second City of Pushkalavati), in: Ancient Pakistan II, pp. 23-24: "On the topmost layers a number of coins of Vasudeva I (copper coin of Siva and bull type) were recovered [...] Thus the end of the city came towards the close of the second century A. D. or in the middle of the 3rd century A. D."
University of Washington. "The Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project": "...twenty‐seven unique birch‐bark scrolls, written in the Kharoṣṭhī script and the Gāndhārī language, that had been acquired by the British Library in 1994..."
Baums, Stefan, (2019). "A survey of place names in Gandhari inscriptions and a new oil lamp from Malakand", in (eds.) Wannaporn Rienjang and Peter Stewart, The Geography of Gandharan Art: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop of the Gandhara Connections Project, University of Oxford, 22nd - 23rd March 2018, Archaeopress, Archaeopress, Oxford, p. 169: "Avadānas in the British Library collection of Gāndhārī manuscripts also mention a number of cities by name. Some of these occur in stories set in India proper [...] but we have also (in addition to Taxila, discussed above) mentions of Pokhaladi (Sanskrit Puṣkalāvatī) in CKM 2 and 14."
Beal, Samuel, (ed. & trans.), 1884. Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, Volume 1, Author: Hiuen Tsang, London, p. 109: "To the north-east of the sangharama of Kanishka-raja about 50 li, we cross a great river and arrive at the town of Pushkalavati (Po-shi-kie-lo-fa-ti). It is about 14 or 15 li in circuit; the population is large; the inner gates are connected by a hollow (tunnel?)."
Dani, Ahmad Hasan, 1963. "Pushkalavati: The Lotus City", Archaeological Guide Series No. 1, Peshawar University, Peshawar, p. 1: "Pushkalavati is a name long forgotten in history, the last reference being recorded in the account of the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, in 7th century A.D."
Beal, Samuel, (1911). The Life Of Hiuen-Tsiang: Shaman Hwui Li, New Edition, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., London, p. 64: "A hundred li or so to the north-east of the Sangharama of Kanishka, we cross a great river and come to the town of Po-sih-kie-lo-fa-ti (Pushkaldvati). To the east of the town there is a Stupa built by Asoka-raja. Here the four past Buddhas have preached the Law."
Cunnigham, Alexander, (1871). The Ancient Geography of India, p. 60: "[W]hich is situated on a dheri, or 'mound of ruins,' the remains of some early town."
Dutt, Romesh C., (1899). "Ramayana-Conclusion", in: The Ramayana and Mahabharata: "Bharat had two sons, Taksha and Pushkala. The former founded [or received] Taksha-sila, to the east of the Indus, and known to Alexander and the Greeks as Taxila. The latter founded [or received] Pushkala-vati, to the west of the Indus, and known to Alexander and the Greeks as Peukelaotis. Thus the sons of Bharat are said to have founded kingdoms which flourished on either side of the Indus river in the fourth century before Christ."
Goldman, Robert P., and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, (2017). The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII: Uttarakāṇḍa, Princeton University Press, p. 54: "As we, along with many earlier students of the Rāmāyaṇa, have noted, the Uttarakāṇḍa shows considerable evidence in many of its sections of a somewhat later composition than the bulk of the central five books of the poem, books 2 through 6. Moreover, the characterization of some of the epic's central figures, particularly Rāma, appears to be rather different in some ways from that in the other books."
Goldman, Robert P., and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, (eds.), 2022. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: The Complete English Translation, Priceton University Press, p. 3: "The oldest surviving version of the great tale of Rāma, and the one that is doubtless the direct or indirect source of all of the hundreds and perhaps thousands of other versions of the story, is the monumental, mid-first millennium BCE epic poem in some twenty-five thousand Sanskrit couplets attributed to Vālmīki."
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