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TAKSHASHILA


A panoramic view of the Buddhist monastery at Jaulian, a location at Taxila
Taxila
Urdu Sanskrit Pāli
ٹکسل तक्षशिला Takṣaśilā Takkasilā

The Gandhāran city of Taxila (33.46.45° N 72.53.15° E)[1] was an important Vedic[citation needed] and Buddhist[2] centre of learning from the 5th century BCE[3] to the 2nd century CE[4]. UNESCO has listed 18 locations at Taxila as World Heritage Sites.[5]

Taxila is located in the west of the Islamabad Capital Territory, to the northwest of Rawalpindi, on the border of the Punjab and North West Frontier Provinces, about thirty kilometres west-northwest of Islamabad, just off the Grand Trunk Road.

Taxila lay at the meeting point of three major trade routes, the royal highway from Pāṭaliputra, the northwestern route through Bactria, Kāpiśa, and Puṣkalāvatī (Peshawar), and the route from Kashmir and Central Asia, via Śrinigar, Mānsehrā, and the Haripur valley[1] across the Khunjerab pass to the Silk Road.

Legend has it that Taksha an ancient Indian king who ruled in a kingdom called Taksha Khanda (Tashkent) founded the city of Takshashila. The word Takshashila, in Sanskrit means "belonging to the King Taksha". Taksha was the son of Bharata (brother of the legendary Rama) and Mandavi (cousin of Sita), historical characters who appear in the Indian epic Ramayana.

In the Mahābhārata, the Kuru heir Parikṣit was enthroned at Taxila.[2]

Ahmad Hasan Dani and Saifur Rahman Dar trace the etymology of Taxila to a tribe called the Takka.[3] According to Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, "Taxila" is related to "Takṣaka," which means "carpenter" and is an alternative name for the Nāga.[4]

  • c. 518 BCE[5] – Darius the Great annexes North-West of India, including Taxila, to the Persian Achaemenid Empire.[6]
  • 326 BCE[7] – Alexander the Great receives submission of Āmbhi,[8] king of Taxila, and afterwards defeats Porus at the Jhelum River.[9]
  • c. 317 BCE – In quick succession, Alexander's general Eudemus and then the satrap Peithon withdraw from India.[10] Candragupta, founder of the Mauryan empire, then makes himself master of the Punjab. Candragupta Maurya's advisor Kautilya was a teacher at Taxila.[verification needed]
  • During the reign of Chandragupta's grandson Aśoka, Taxila became a great Buddhist centre of learning. Nonetheless, Taxila was briefly the center of a minor local rebellion, subdued only a few years after its onset.[11]
  • 185 BCE[12] – The last Maurya emperor, Bṛhadratha, is assasinated by his general, Puṣyamitra Śunga, during a parade of his troops.[13]
  • 183 BCE[14] – Demetrios conquers Gandhāra, the Punjab and the Indus valley.[15] He builds his new capital, Sirkap, on the opposite bank of the river from Taxila.[16] During this new period of Bactrian Greek rule, several dynasties (like Antialcidas) likely ruled from the city as their capital. During lulls in Greek rule, the city managed profitably on its own, managed independently and controlled by several local trade guilds, who also minted most of the city's autonomous coinage.
  • c. 90 BCE[17] – The Indo-Scythian chief Maues overthrows the last Greek king of Taxila.[18]
  • c. 25 CE[19] – Gondophares, founder of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom, conquers Taxila and makes it his capital.[20]
  • 76[21] – The date of and inscription found at Taxila of 'Great King, King of Kings, Son of God, the Kushana' (maharaja rajatiraja devaputra Kushana).[22]
  • c. 460–470[23] – The Ephthalites sweep over Gandhāra and the Punjab; wholesale destruction of Buddhist monasteries and stūpas at Taxila, which never again recovers.[24]

Before the fall of these ancient invader-kings in India, Taxila had been variously a regional and national capital for many dynasties, and a true center of learning for Vedic learning, Buddhists, Indians, and a possible population of Greeks that may have endured for centuries.[25]

The British archaeologist Sir John Marshall conducted excavations over a period of twenty years in Taxila.[26]

Contents

Ancient centre of learning

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Taxila is significant in Buddhist tradition because it is believed[citation needed] that the Mahāyāna sect of Buddhism was founded there.

The Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini, the political theorist Kautilya and the Ayurvedic healer Caraka studied at Taxila at various points in time.[verification needed]

Kautilya, who later became adviser to the founder of the Mauryan empire, is said to have composed his treatise on statecraft the Arthaśāstra in Taxila.[verification needed]

There are several Jātaka stories about the students and teachers of Taxila.[27]

Some scholars[verification needed] date Takshashila's existence to c. 700 BCE.

Generally, a student entered Takshashila at the age of sixteen.[citation needed] The four Vedas (Rig-Ved, Sama-Ved, Yajur-Ved, Atharva-Ved) and the Eighteen Arts were taught, in addition to law, medicine and warfare.[verification needed] Skills such as archery, hunting and elephant-lore were also taught.[verification needed]

References

  1. ^ Thapar, Romila [1961] (1997). Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195639324, 237.
  2. ^ Kosambi, Damodar Dharmanand [1956] (1975). An Introduction to the study of Indian History, Revised Second Edition, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 126.
  3. ^ Scharfe 2002
  4. ^ Kosambi 1975:129
  5. ^ Marshall, John [1951] (1975). Taxila: Volume I. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 83.
  6. ^ Marshall 1975:83
  7. ^ Marshall 1975:83
  8. ^ Named "Taxiles" by Greek sources after his capital city.
  9. ^ Marshall 1975:83
  10. ^ Peithon was named by Alexander satrap of Sindh, and was again confirmed to the Gandhara region by the Treaty of Triparadisus in 320 BCE: "The country of the Parapamisians was bestowed upon Oxyartes, the father of Roxane; and the skirts of India adjacent to Mount Parapamisus, on Peithon the son of Agenor. As to the countries beyond that, those on the river Indus, with the city Patala (the capital of that part of India) were assigned to Porus. Those upon the Hydaspes, to Taxiles the Indian." Arrian "Anabasis, the Events after Alexander". He ultimately left in 316 BCE, to become satrap of Babylon in 315 BCE, before dying at the Battle of Gaza in 312 BCE
  11. ^ Thapar 1997
  12. ^ Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar [1986] (1998). A History of India, Third Edition, London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15481-2, 68.
  13. ^ Kulke and Rothermund 1998:68
  14. ^ Kulke and Rothermund 1998:70
  15. ^ Marshall 1975:83
  16. ^ Kulke and Rothermund 1998:70
  17. ^ Marshall 1975:84
  18. ^ Marshall 1975:84
  19. ^ Marshall 1975:85
  20. ^ Marshall 1975:85
  21. ^ Kulke and Rothermund 1998:75
  22. ^ Kulke and Rothermund 1998:75
  23. ^ Marshall 1975:86
  24. ^ Marshall 1975:86
  25. ^ The Life of Apollonius Tyana demonstrates that the rulers of Taxila spoke Greek several centuries after Greek political dominance had faded.
  26. ^ Marshall, Sir John (1960). A Guide to Taxila. Karachi: Department of Archaeology in Pakistan, Sani Communications.
  27. ^ Marshall 1975:81

See also

External links

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World Heritage Sites in Pakistan

Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro | Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol | Fort and Shalamar Gardens, Lahore | Monuments of Thatta | Rohtas Fort | Taxila