Gandhara - The Quest For Enlightenment (Part 3) - Taxila And Khanpur

Salaam and hello from the Pakistan Monument. This is part three of our video series on Gandhara. In this episode we are taking you to Taxila and Khanpur. Here you will find the treasures of Buddhist heritage dating back to the 3rd century BC. The Taxila museum is about 40 kilometers and an hour's drive from the Pakistan Monument in Islamabad. We will make a quick tour of the museum first and then we will visit five key Buddhist sites in the valley. Finally we are here at the Taxila museum. The museum opened its gates to public in 1928. Its galleries house more than objects. These antiquities were recovered from excavations starting in 1913 by Sir John Marshall and continued after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. The museum has a vast collection from the sites belonging to the earliest period of history to the peak of Buddhism in Gandhara. We have the renunciation of Buddha. He leaves the palace and goes to the jungle. Then we have the Nirvana. He gives the first sermon. Then he comes and preaches to the people. Finally we have the sleeping Buddha or the dead Buddha. Then we have the last showcase of Buddha. The Taxila valley is known by various names in history. Some of these are Takshashila, Takasila, Nagruda and Chuchashilo. Taxila, the name we are using today is derived from Takshashila by the Greek and British historians. Taxila had the world's first university. The founder of the ancient Mauryan empire Chandragupta Maurya received his education and training from Chanakya Kothalia at this university. Ashoka was the grandson of Chandragupta. He became the emperor in around 270 BC. In his rule, Taxila received the holy relics of Buddha. Dharmarajika is actually one of the earliest stupas that we have in Taxila region, most probably according to many of the scholars. So this was the earliest stupa erected by Ashoka after his conversion to Buddhism when he opened seven of the original stupas that contained the relics of Buddha. So he redistributed the relics into 84,000 parts and he constructed 84,000 stupas in the length and breadth of the subcontinent. So far we have four of that period stupas reported from the present Pakistan according to the divine narratives of Buddhism, Divya Vadan. So according to that particular text, Dharmaraja, it was the title of Ashoka. So most probably based on that, so this name was given to this structure. According to some other scholars, they are of the view that Dharmaraja was the real, you know, Raja of religion or Dharma. It was Buddha himself. The Kunala stupa is not far from the Taxila museum and the Dharmarajika stupa. The site is named after Prince Kunala. It is a 10-minute drive from the museum. Then it takes about 25 minutes to hike to the top of the hill where the stupa is standing overlooking the ancient city of Sirkam. Kunala was the son of Ashoka, born from his third wife Padmavati. This son was having beautiful eyes while during his birth, his mother was unable to survive and she died. After her death, he was carefully grown up under the emperor himself. For education, Maharaj himself sent him to Taxila and wrote a letter sealed with his own teeth. But inside that letter, one mistake got a serious blunder. This mistake was in Brahmi characters of Adhana. Writing Adhana by making a dot over letter A, which is making Andhana to make him blind. These directions of the emperor were very serious. His subjects and monks refused to do it. Later on, he himself, because he was a obeyed child of his father, he ordered his governor or some also say that he himself blinded his eyes. Ashoka, in praying for his eyes, he built a stupa. The details are mentioned by Huan Zhang who actually visited this land in 7th century AD. Later on, this stupa was venerated by many people. The Buddhist monastery and stupa complex in Mora Muradu is located in the valley near Khanpur dam. The site dates back to the 2nd century common era. It was among the most spacious and well-decorated Buddhist centers in Taxila. The main stupa here is amongst the largest stupas in Gandhara. Like other monasteries, Mora Muradu also played an important role in preaching Mahayana Buddhism and producing sutras. These ruins are not only the walls, but the centers of learning, producing literatures related to Buddhist philosophy. And Mahayana interpretation was the main center of the institutions which developed this interpretation and presented to the public for their education in the form of art as well as in the form of manuscripts and in the form of books of that time. Mahayanaism means the greater will of law. In this greater will of law, the major feature of this tradition is to depict Buddha in figural form. Kushans who were actually Yuvichi tribes reached Central Asia from Mongolia and onward they extended their empire to Gandhara. The prominent name in Kushan is Kanishka the first. Kanishka the first accepted Buddhism. In his rule he called the fourth Buddhist council. This council was the major point to change or to divert the tradition of depicting the Buddha in figural form. Not only the depiction of Buddha, but also the recording of many oral versions of stories in art form to make them public for the masses that they should learn, they should educate the public about Buddha. We are now taking you to the Julia Buddhist complex. The site is located on a flat hilltop 100 meters above the Khanpur road. It is a contemporary of the Mora Muradu complex, but their construction styles are different. Julia had three upper and lower stupa courts. The main stupa was located in the upper court. Julia is believed to be among the world's oldest universities with students coming from far and wide. This great learning center played a key role in transmission of Buddhism along the silk road. It was Taxila and Gandhara properly if we say Julia, Mora Muradu which were the universities or campuses of Taxila where this Mahayana sect, their sutras, their interpretations were developed and flourished and which were interpreted and reinterpreted. Mahayana flourished in this land in Gandhara and it was this sect which not only gave the people monasteries as a focal point, devotional point for them to come and get inspiration, but they also prepared this artistic language for them to produce these beautiful images of Buddha and Bodhisattvas who were the beings who out of compassion for the people they delayed their nirvana, they did not attain nirvana, they stayed invisibly in the world to help the people. From Julia we are now going to Bhamala. This unique Buddhist site is located in the northern most part of the Khanpur valley. A narrow road along the bank of river Haro leads to the small ridge overlooking the river where the Bhamala stupa stands. The site is about 600 meters above sea level. The Bhamala stupa and monastery are unique in many ways. Bhamala is one of the most important Buddhist complexes of Taxila valley. It was for the first time excavated by Sajjan Marshall back in 1930-31. But after that no excavations were carried out at this particular site until 2012-13. So we started our excavation here back in 2012-13 and 16. The major discoveries we made at this particular site were the Mahaparinirvana image of Buddha, the statue of Buddha which is 14 meter in length. So this is one of the most important discoveries because based on radiocarbon dates we have placed this, we have assigned this statue to the 3rd century AD which is the earliest monumental sculpture of Buddha in the entire world. Another exceptional feature of this statue is this is the only statue of Buddha representing the death scene or Mahaparinirvana scene which is made in Kanjur stone, a type of porous stone. Apart from this Bhamala is also known for its cruciform or stepped cross stupa. So this is the best preserved cruciform or stepped cross stupa dated back to 3rd century AD. It has been a wonderful journey to Taxila and Khanpur with our experts. In this trip we have visited the Taxila Museum, Dharmarajika, Kunala, Mohra Muradu, Julian and Bhamala sites. Stay tuned for the next episode. We are taking you to Swat.