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- Permanent Link:
- https://digital.soas.ac.uk/JHP0000045/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Jain Temple, Taxila, UNESCO World Heritage site
- Series Title:
- Jaina Heritage in Pakistan = پاکستان میں جین مت
- Added title page title:
- Jain Temple, Takshashila, UNESCO World Heritage site
- Added title page title:
- Sirkap, ancient metropolis of Taxila
- Publication Date:
- 2016
Notes
- General Note:
- This project was carried out in collaboration by principal investigator Dr Peter Flügel of the Centre of Jaina Studies (SOAS) with a research team of the Nusrat Jahan College (NJC) in Rabwah coordinated by Dr Mirza Naseer Ahmad, comprisng Mr Muzaffar Ahmad (research officer ), Mr Asif Mahmood Rana (photographs and data collections), Mr Naeem Ahmad (maps), Mrs Tahira Siddiqa (maps), Mr Abdul Khaliq (design), Mr Umar Hanan (editing), with additional help of local historians of Jainism in North India, Ravinder Jain and Purushottam Jain.
- General Note:
- The work was sponsored through a generous gift of Baron Dilip Mehta of Antwerp. Key contributors were PI Dr Peter Flügel (SOAS), Dr Mirza Naseer Ahmad (NJC), coordinator of work in Pakistan, and RO Mr Muzaffar Ahmad, who analysed data from published sources in Urdu and English and from museums in Pakistan and planned the field research. Fieldwork was conducted and written up by Asif Rana, and maps were produced by Naeem Ahmad and Tahira Siddiqa (all NJC). Ravinder Jain of Maler Kotla and Purushottam Jain of Mandi Gobindgarh in India provided invaluable background information about locations of Jaina sites in Pakistan, based on prior research (Jain & Jain 1974) and communications from Sādhvī Svarṇakāntā (1929-2001) (born in Lahore), Dr Sādhvī Arcanā (family from Rawalpindi), Mahindra Kumar Jain (Co-researcher of the late Hiralal Duggar in Panch Kula), and others, and from Iqbal Qaisar in Lahore, who conducted independent research on the same subject. See Qaisar (2018). Valuable information was also supplied by Noel Q. King (1922-2009) of Corralitos in California (born in Taxila), who in 2003 researched the Jain temples and institutions in Pakistan but had his notes stolen on a train, and Raj Kumar Jain (born in Jhelum), stalwart of the Śvetāmbara refugee community in Delhi. They were interviewed by PI on 8.6.2005 and 23.2.2017 respectively. Further interviews were conducted with informants in Meerut, Jaipur, Bikaner, etc.
- General Note:
- Credits: Dr Peter Flügel (principal investigator and lead collaborator), Dr Tahira Saeed, Deputy Director (BPS-18) National Archives of Pakistan, Islamabad (co-investigator), Dr Mirza Naseer Ahmad, Deputy Director Nazarat Taleem and HoD Earth Sciences Department, Nusrat Jahan College (NJC) (collaborator and project manager), Mr Muzaffar Ahmad (NJC) (research officer), Mr Asif Mahmood Rana (NJC) (photographs and data collection), Mr Naeem Ahmad, Mrs Tahira Siddiqa (all NJC) (maps), Mr Abdul Khaliq (NJC) (designing), Mr Umar Hanan (NJC) (editing), Mr Ahtesham Aziz Chaudhary, Research Officer at Lahore Museum (collaborator), Mr Ravinder Jain, Maler Kotla (collaborator), Mr Purushottam Jain, Mandi Gobindgarh (collaborator), Dr Sādhvī Arcanā (collaborator).
- General Note:
- For more information about Jaina Heritage in Pakistan, see: Flügel, Peter and Ahmad, Muzaffar (2018) 'An Exploratory Survey of the Jaina Heritage in Pakistan.' Jaina Studies - Newsletter of the Centre of Jaina Studies, 13. pp. 26-32. (article last referenced online at https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/25638/)
- General Note:
- Photograph dated 2016.05.28
- General Note:
- Location: Sirkap, Taxila
- General Note:
- Condition: base of the building is visible after the excavation of the site.
- General Note:
- Local Behaviour: the site is under archaeological department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Initials: KPK; Urdu: خیبر پختونخوا; Pashto: خیبر پښتونخوا)
- General Note:
- Sirkap, the ancient metropolish of Taxila, is under the authority of the Directorate General of Archaeology, Government of the Punjab.
- General Note:
- English text of Sirkap history sign: SIRKAP. Sirkap (Taxila) has been inscribed in 1980 upon the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World cultural and natural Heritage. Inscription on the List confirms the exceptional universal value of a cultural site, which deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity. -- The second city site of ancient Taxila presently known as “Sirkap” after the name of a wicked character of a folk legend, “Raja Rasalu and seven demons”, who lived and ruled here. Hargreaves excavated the ancient city remains during 1912-30 under the direction of Sir John Marshall and in 1944-45 by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and his colleagues. The remains belong to four distinct super-imposed periods of Pre-Greek, Greeks, Scythians and Parthians. The city founded approximately in the first quarter of the second century B.C. by the Bactrian Greek King Menander. The city was well planned and fortified. The builders introduced their Ionic and Corinthian orders of architecture at Sirkap. The Greek influence enhanced further under their successors Scythians and Parthians. The Parthian king Gondophares following the Greek pattern rebuilt the city with its main street in the middle studded with shops and places of worship like Apsidal Temple, Sun Temple and Double- Headed Eagle Stupa and king's palace close to the eastern gate. Christian Apostle Saint Thomas came to Sirkap in 40 A.D. and was received by the king in his Royal Palace. The famous traveler Apollonius of Tyana who visited Taxila in 44 A.D. mentions “Taxila about the size of Nineveh and walled like Greek city. The narrow streets arranged well like that of Athens". It was under Parthian that “Gandhara Art”, gradually emerged out of the classical forms and local iconographic traditions. A third century B.C. Aramaic inscription of Asoka and other objects like coms and household objects all indicate more indebtedness to the western contacts. In about 60 A.D., the Great Kushanas completely swept away the Parthians and carved a mighty empire m India extending up to river Ganges. They laid the foundation of the third city site of Taxila at Sirsukh in about 80 A.D. -- The ancient remains of Sirkap (Taxila) for their outstanding historic and architectural importance have been declared "protected antiquity" under the Antiquities Act - 1975. And, who so ever will destroy, break, damage, alter, injure, deface or mutilate or scribble, write or engage any inscnption or sign on any antiquity shall be punishable under Section 19 of the said Act with rigourous imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine of Rupees 200,000/- or with both. -- PATRIMONIO MUNDIAL / WORLD HERITAGE -- UNESCO
- General Note:
- English text of Sirkap archaeology sign: EXCAVATED REMAINS SIRKAP. -- SECOND CITY OF TAXILA -- CIR 2ND CENT. B.C.-2ND CENT. A.D -- THE SECOND CITY OF TAXILA DRIVES ITS NAME OF SIRKAP FROM THE LEGEND OF THE HERO RASALU AND THE SEVEN RAKSHASAS WHO FED ON HUMAN FLESH. THE NAME OF THE DEMON WAS SIRKAP. THIS CITY WAS FOUNDED BY BACTRIAN GREEK KING DEMETRIUS IN 190 B.C. THE CITY REMAINS IN OCCUPATION FOR THREE CENTURIES UNDER THE SUCCESSIVE DOMINATION OF GREEK SAKA, PARTHIAN AND KUSHANA RULERS TO THE TIME OF VIMA KADPHISES, WHEN THE CITY WAS SHIFTED TO NORTH EAST AT SIRSUKH IN 2ND CENTRURY A.D. IN CONTRAST WITH THE IRREGULAR AND HAPHAZARD PLANNING OF FIRST CITY OF TAXILA (BHIR MOUND). THIS CITY WAS LAID OUT ON THE SYMMETRICAL CHESSBOARD PATTERN CHARACTERISTIC HELLENISTIC OF THIS PERIOD. -- STRATIGRAPHICAL SEQUENCE -- PERIOD - I PRE-GREEK -- PERIOD - II BACTRIAN GREEK, C 190 B.C. -- PERIOD - III SAKAS & PARTHIANS, 90 B.C.-30 B.C. -- PERIOD - IV KUSHANAS C 60-80 A.D. -- I - EXCAVATED AREA MEASURES 2000 FEET NORTH SOUTH AND 600 FEET EAST. II - THE DEFENCE WALL SUBROUNDED THE CITY INCLUDING EXCAVATED AND UNEXCAVATED AREA 3 MILES. III - THE THICKNESS OF THE DEFENCE WALL VARIES FROM 15 TO 21 FEET. ITS HEIGHT VARIES FROM 20 TO 30 FEET. IV - THE FORTIFICATION OF THE CITY WAS BUILT IN THE FIRST CENTURY B.C. V - LAST OF THE BACTRIAN GREEK KING WAS OVERTHROWN BY THE SAKA CHIEF MAUES IN 190 B.C. VI - GONDOPHARIES THE PARTHIAN KING CAPTURED TAXILA IN 19 A.D. VII - ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE VISITED THE COURT OF GONDOPHARIES IN 40 A.D. VIMA KADPHISES THE KUSHAN KING CONQUERED GANDHARA REGION AND WEST PUNJAB IN 60 A.D.
- General Note:
- English text of Jain Stupa sign: JAIN STUPA -- Taxila was a famous centre of Jainism in the ancient times, many sanctuaries and ritual objects relating to this religion were recovered during excavations here. Of the buildings between the apsidal temple and the northern wall of the City, the only one that calls for particular notice is a large stupa-court stretching across its entire frontage on Main Street. The spacious stupa-court has a number of living cells around its four sides. The stupa in the centre had been despoiled of its relics but the relic chamber still contained, among other objects, some broken pieces of what must once have been a singularly beautiful crystal casket, the fine workmanship of which suggests that it dates from the Maurya age. The probability is that the relics were taken from some much older monument and that, the crystal casket in which they had reposed having been broken, the fragments of it were scrupulously preserved. That contact with the relics would invest such fragments with a special sanctity is clear from the story of the Brahman Drona, who at the division of the relics of the Buddha, received as his share the casket in which the Mallas had placed then among the smaller objects found in this court were two ritualistic tanks of terracotta similar to those found in the palace stupa-court.
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Nusrat Jahan College, Rabwah
- Holding Location:
- SOAS University of London
- Rights Management:
 This item is licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.
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