The Gandhara

Civilization
The Rise, Fall & Today

By:
Optimists
Contents
Introduction
Geography
History
Fall Of Gandhara
The Rediscovery
Religion
Language
Art
Major Collections
Architecture
Cultural Influence
Famous Archeological
Sites
Recent Efforts
INTRODUCTION

 An ancient kingdom located in northern Pakistan and

eastern Afghanistan.
 Located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the potohar
plateau and on the kabul river.
 Its main cities were Purushapura, Takshashila and
Pushkalavati which are now known as Peshawar, Taxila and
Charsadda respectively.
 The kingdom lasted from early 1st millenium B.C. to the
11th century AD, attained its height from the 1st century
to the 5th century under the buddhist rule and decayed
after the muslim conquests of 10th and 11th century AD.
GEOGRAPHY
 Gandhara now includes Peshawar valley, Mardan, Swat, Dir,
Malakand, and Bajuaur agencies of NWFP, Taxila in the Punjab, and
up to Jalalabad in Afghanistan.

 Gandhara was located on the northern trunk road and was a centre of
international commercial activities.
 It was an important channel of communication with ancient Iran and
Central Asia.
GEOGRAPHY
 The boundaries of Gandhara varied throughout history.

 Sometimes the Peshawar valley and Taxila were

collectively referred to as Gandhara and sometimes the
Swat valley was also included.

 The kingdom was ruled from capitals at Pushkalavati

(Charsadda), Taxila, Purushapura (Peshawar) and in its final
days from Udabhandapura (Hund) on the Indus.
HISTORY
Prehistoric Period
 Evidence of stone age human inhabitants of Gandhara,
including stone tools and burnt bones, was discovered at
sanghao near mardan in area caves. The artifacts are
approximately 15,000 years old. More recent excavations point
to 30,000 years before present.

 Gandhara was first mentioned in the rig-veda, as Texila

remained the strong hold of the aryans, whose great epic book
Mahabharata was for the first time recited here
Prehistoric Period
 Gandhara had played an important role in the Hindu epic
of Mahabharata, as the princess name Gandhari was
married to hastinapur's blind king Dhritrashtra, their
descendents subsequently ruled the region up to 1
millennium B.C..
 The famous battle of kurukshetra which eliminated the
entire kuru family including bhishma and 100 kaurava
brothers also took place in the Gandhara kingdom in the
vedic era.
Persian Rule (520–326 BC)
 Cyrus the great (558–530 B.C.) built first the "universal"
empire, stretching from greece to the indus river.

 Both Gandhara and kamboja soon came under the rule of

the achaemenian dynasty of persia during the reign of
cyrus the great and in the first year of darius I.
Persian Rule
 When the persians took control of this kingdom, Pushkarasakti, a
contemporary of king bimbisara of magadha, was the king of
Gandhara. He was engaged in a power struggle against the
kingdoms of avanti and pandavas.
 Issuance of coin currency for the first time in the indus land
 The most significant development was the great use of iron
technology, which produced iron tools, weapons and other
objects of daily use as known from the excavations at Taxila.
 At the same time the oldest university of the world was founded
at Taxila, where taught the great grammarian panini, born at the
modern village of lahur in Sawabi district of the frontier province.
It is the basis of this grammar that modern linguistics has been
developed.
 By about 380 B.C. persian hold on the region weakened. Many
small kingdoms sprang up in Gandhara.
Alexander’s Conquest (327-
302BC)
 Achaemenian empire, that had extended from Gandhara to
greece and Egypt, had collapsed under the onslaught of
Alexander of macedonia.
 In 327 B.C. Alexander the great conquered Gandhara and the
Indian territories of the Persian empire.

 He was welcomed by the local king ambhi in his palace at

bhirmound near Taxila.
 The era lasted for 25 years.
Maurya Dynasty (305 –180
BC)
 Chandragupta, the founder of Mauryan Dynasty is said to have
lived in Taxila when Alexander captured this city.

 Chandragupta led a rebellion against the Magadha empire and

ascended the throne at pataliputra in 321 B.C., and ultimately
snatched the entire kingdom back after a battle with seleucus,
nicator alexander's successor in asia in 305 B.C.
Maurya Dynasty

 He developed the Mauryan city at bhir mound in Taxila,

where ruled his grandson, ashoka, twice as governor.

 He introduced buddhism in Gandhara and built the first

buddhist monastery, called Dharmarajika vihara, at Taxila.
 Gandhara remained a part of the Mauryan empire for
about a century and a half.
Indo-Greeks (185-97BC)
 The decline of the empire left the sub-continent open to
the inroads by the greco-bactrians, around about 185 B.C.,
demetrius of bactria invaded and conquered Gandhara
and the Punjab.

 Later, wars between different groups of bactrian greeks

resulted in the independence of Gandhara from bactria and
the formation of the indo-greek kingdom
Indo-Greeks
 Menander was its most famous king. He ruled from Taxila
and later from Sagala (sialkot). He rebuilt Taxila (sirkap)
and Pushkalavati. He became a buddhist later on.

 By 90 B.C. the parthians had taken control of eastern Iran

and in around 50 B.C. they put an end to the last remnants
of greek rule in Afghanistan. Eventually an indo-parthian
dynasty succeeded in taking control of Gandhara.

 The indo-greek dynasty fell about 75 B.C..

Kushan Rule (75-230 AD)
 The kushans, known as yuezhi in China moved from central
asia to bactria, where they stayed for a century. Around 75,
one of their tribes, the kushan under the leadership of kujula
kadphises gained control of Gandhara. 

 The period is considered the golden period of Gandhara.

Peshawar valley and Taxila are littered with ruins of stupas and
monasteries of this period.
 Gandharan art flourished and produced some of the best
pieces of indian sculpture.
Kushan Rule
 The Gandhara civilization peaked during the reign of
the great kushan king kanishka (128–151). The cities
of Taxila (takshasila) at Sirsukh and Peshawar were
built. Peshawar became the capital of a great empire
stretching from bengal to central asia.
 Under kanishka, Gandhara became a holy land of
buddhism and attracted chinese pilgrim to see
monuments associated with many jataka tales.
 After kanishka, the empire started losing territories in
the east. In the west, Gandhara came under the
sassanid, the successor state of the parthians, and
became their vassal from AD 241 until 450.
Invasion by the Huns (450–
565 AD)
 The hepthalite huns captured Gandhara around AD 450,
and did not adopt buddhism. During their rule, hinduism
was revived but the Gandharan civilization declined.

 They capital was shifted to hund near the bank of indus.

Invasion by the Huns

 The sassanids, aided by turks from central asia, destroyed

the huns' power base in central asia, and Gandhara once
again came under persian suzerainty in ad 568.
 When the sassanids were defeated by the muslim arabs in
ad 644, Gandhara along with kabul was ruled by buddhist
turks.
Turkishahi and Hindushahi ( 650–
1021 AD)
 Gandhara was ruled from kabul by Turkshahi for next 200 years.

 Sometime in the 9th century the hindushahi replaced the Turkishahi.

 The dynasty ruled from kabul, later moved their capital to
udabhandapura.
Fall of Gandhara (10th & 11th
Century)
 Jayapala was the last great king of hindushahi dynasty, His empire extended from west
of Kabul to the river Sutlej.

 However, this expansion of Gandhara kingdom coincided with the rise of the powerful
Ghaznavid Empire under Subuktgeen
Fall of Gandhara

 Defeated twice by Sabuktigin and then by Mahmud of ghazni

in the kabul valley, Jayapala committed suicide

 Anandapala, a son of Jayapala, moved his capital near

nandana in the salt range. In 1021 the last king of this
dynasty, trilocanapala, was assassinated by his own troops
which spelled the end of Gandhara.
The Rediscovery
 By the time Gandhara had been absorbed into the empire of mahmud of ghazni,
buddhist buildings were already in ruins and Gandhara art had been forgotten
 In the 19th century, british soldiers and administrators started taking interest in the
ancient history of the indian suB.C.ontinent
 In 1848 cunningham found Gandhara sculptures north of Peshawar. He also
identified the site of Taxila in the 1860s. From then on a large number of buddhist
statues have been discovered in the Peshawar valley.
 John marshall performed an excavation of Taxila from 1912 to 1934. He discovered
separate greek, parthian, and kushan cities and a large number of stupas and
monasteries. These discoveries helped to piece together much more of the
chronology of the history of Gandhara and its art.
 After 1947 Ahmed Hassan Dani and the archaeology department at university of
Peshawar made a number of discoveries in the Peshawar and swat valley.
 Excavation on many sites of the Gandhara civilization are being done by researchers
from Peshawar and several universities around the world.
CULTURE
RELIGION
 Hinduism was supposed to be the predominant religion before
the persian rule as Gandhara had played an important role in
the epic of mahabharata.

 During the 2nd century B.C., It was here that buddhism was
adopted as the state religion which flourished and prevailed
here for over 1000 years, starting from 2nd century B.C., Until
10th century A.D.
RELIGION

 The Greeks also came within their religious influence in the

indo-greek period.

 After the muslim invasion in 10th and 11th century, Islam

prevailed in the region which is still the dominant religion
roer the last thousand years.
LANGUAGE
 Gandhara's language was a "middle indo-aryan" dialect, usually
called gāndhārī. Texts are written right-to-left, which had been
adapted for indo-aryan languages from a semitic alphabet.

 During the persian rule, the aramaic script was used to write the
iranian languages of the empire.
LANGUAGE
 Semitic scripts were not used to write south asian
languages again until the arrival of islam and subsequent
adoption of the persian-style arabic alphabet for new indo-
aryan languages like urdu, punjabi, sindhi and kashmiri.
 The greeks introduced their language, art and religion in
the country of Gandhara, where ruled thirteen greek kings
and queens. Their language lasted more than five hundred
years and their art and religion and considerable influence
on the flourish of Gandhara civilization.
 Kharosthi script died out about the 4th century.
 The hindko and the archaic dardic and kohistani dialects,
derived from the local indo-aryan prakrits, are still spoken
today, though the afghan pashto language is the most
dominant language of the region today.
ART
 The gandhāra style of buddhist art developed out of a
merger of greek, syrian, persian, and indian artistic
influence.

 Development began during the parthian period (50 B.C. –

A.D. 75). Gandhāran style flourished and achieved its peak
during the kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th century.
ART
 It declined and suffered destruction after invasion of the white
huns in the 5th century and subsequently after the arab invasion
in 11th century AD.

 The purpose of this art was the propagation of buddhism through

the images carved and made in stone, stucco, terracotta and
bronze, mostly enshrined in the stupas and monasteries
throughout Gandhara
 Today the Gandhara sculptures occupy a prominent place in the
museums of England, France, Germany, USA, Japan, Korea,
China, India and Afghanistan together with many private
collections world over.
Major Collections

 Peshawar museum, Peshawar, Pakistan (largest collection

in the world).
 Lahore museum, lahore, Pakistan.
 Taxila museum, Taxila, Pakistan.
 National museum of Pakistan, karachi, Pakistan.
 Mathura museum, mathura, India.
 Musée guimet, Paris, France (about 150 artifacts, largest
collection outside of asia.)
 British museum, london, great britain (about 100 artifacts)
 Tokyo national museum, Tokyo, Japan (about 50 artifacts)
 National museum of oriental art, Rome, Italy (about 80
artifacts)
ARCHITECTURE

 The persian and greek influence led to the development of

the greco-buddhist style, starting from the 1st century A.D.

 Important remnants of buddhist construction are stupas and

other buildings with clearly recognizable greek statues and
style elements like support columns and lengthy staircases.
ARCHITECTURE
 Ruins from other epochs, are found in the Gandhara capital Taxila
in the extreme north of the punjab.

 A particularly beautiful example of buddhist architecture is the

ruins of the buddhist monastery takht-i-bahi in the northwest
province.
 Useum of Indian art, Dahlem, Berlin, Germany.
Cultural Influence
 DRESSES
 Kushana kings who have gifted the national dress of shalwar
and kamiz and sherwani to Pakistan.
 FOOD
 Huns and the turks who gave to Pakistan the present ethnic,
their culture, food and adab.
 CASTS
 The jats, gakkhars, janjuas (jouanjouan of the chinese) and
gujars all trekked into Pakistan and made their home here.
 Pashtuns, who borrowed the surname of gul and later the title
of khan from the mongols.
 FUEDALISM
 The confederated tribes of the huns, led to new administrative
system in the country and created a new form of land
management that has lasted until today.
 FAMOUS
ARCHEOLOGICAL
SITES
Famous Archeological Sites

The most famous sites are:

 Hadda and bamiyan in afghanistan

 Shah-ji-ki-dheri in Peshawar
 Bala hisar and sheikhan dheri in charsadda
 Takht-i-bahi, jamal garhi and sahri bahiol in mardan
 Aziz dheri in swabi
 Butkara-i & II in swat
 Sirkap, sirsukh,julian in Taxila
RECENT EFFORTS
Recent Efforts
 NFCH
 The establishment of national fund for cultural heritage in 1994.
 Universities
 Foreign archaeologists have also excavated various virgin
locations in collaboration with the archaeology departments of
punjab and Peshawar university.
 Gandhara Week
 In 2005, inauguration of the Gandhara week, to be celebrated
from march 28 to april 3, .To promote the heritage of the
Gandhara civilisation and to highlight the collections exhibited in
various museums in the country in order to attract domestic and
foreign tourists.
 UNESCO
 Unesco and the government of Pakistan have joined hands to
map the cultural assets of the country.
 Thank
You!