Archaeological Sites in Taxila

Submitted to

Dr.Muhammad Ilyas Bhatti

Submitted by

Maryam Khalil 1st semester

Department of Anthropology

Quaid-e-Azam University

Islamabad - Pakistan

2016
Introduction:

The museum is a place where we can see collection of rare things or the things of historical
interest. It is a store house of all wonderful and value able things. Taxila city is 35 km, 20
minutes’ drive from Islamabad moving towards north-west where the civilization of Gandhara
exists. While traveling on GT road, after crossing Margalla Hills, just turning left from Taxila
bypass at Khanpur Lake road about 4 km there is Taxila Museum. It’s a site museum where the
collections of gandhara art are placed, which is about of 600BC to 700BC. Two beautiful & well
maintained gardens are also attached with the museum’s building, for visitors to relax and enjoy
the natural environment and weather.

A visit to museum is an education in itself, and for this reason it is visited by hundreds of people
every day. Travellers for foreign countries also make it a point to visit it because it enables them
to form an idea of arts and crafts of Pakistan. Women and children also visits museum in large
number every day. They perhaps do this out of idle curiosity. Keeping in view our interest
towards ancient things our teacher sir Illyas Bhatti decided to visit to taxilla museum.

On Sunday morning I get up early at 6 am take breakfast and went directly to bus stop, waiting
for my university bus to pick me up. At 8 am we move towards taxilla museum. At 11 am we
reached the museum. As we enter, we come to the main big hall, which shows in its middle a
complete stupa from the Buddhist monastery of Mohra Moradu. To its left is an archaeological
map of Taxila. On its right and left are table show cases exhibiting small finds. If we turn behind
and look at the wall show cases we see schist stone sculptures on two sides. They present scenes
from the life of the Buddha, other Buddhisattvas, and examples of Gandhara Art. In one corner
are red sand stone sculptures, and on the other wall are two sandstone sculptures, one of a
Budhisattva and another of a Suri-god. First of all me and my friends visited the whole museum
then our teacher explain about the historical importance of different objects, after explaining the
history our teacher assign us to pick one object and write the whole history and importance of the
selected object. Keeping in view my own interest I pick the ancient coins from different objects
as my hobby is to collect the old coins. Here I discuss the importance and the history of these
coins that I have selected.
History of Taxilla Museum:

Construction of Taxila museum started in 1918, its foundation stone laid by Lord Chelmsford,
Viceroy of India in 1918. Construction was concluded in 1928 and the museum was opened for
public by Sir Habibullah then the Minister for Education. Sir John Marshall, who was going to
be retired from the post of Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1928, could
not complete its original plan. The government of Pakistan constructed the northern gallery in
1998. There are some 4000 objects displayed, including stone, stucco, terracotta, silver, gold,
iron and semiprecious stones. Mainly the display consists of objects from the period 600 B.C to
500 AD. Buddhist, Hindu and Jain religions are well represented through these objects
discovered from three ancient cities and more than two dozen Buddhist stupas and monasteries
and Greek temples in the region. Taxila Museum has one of the most significant and
comprehensive collections of stone Buddhist sculpture from the first to the seventh centuries in
Pakistan (known as Gandharan art. The core of the collection comes from excavated sites in the
Taxila Valley, partiuclary the excations of Sir John Marshall. Other objects come from excavated
sites elsewhere in Gandhanra, from donations such as the Ram Das Collection, or from material
confiscated by the police and custom authorities. The whole collection contains more than 1400
objects, and 409 have been published (Khan, 2007).

The Taxila Museum is a site museum and is the repository for the majority of the numismatic
material found during archaeological work in Taxila. Digging began in 1917 under John
Marshall, then director of the Archaeological Survey of India, and continued until 1934. Since
those excavations, work has continued to the present day. The museum contains a large
collection of coins from the period of the Indo-Greeks to the late Kushans. Some of these are
published in Marshall's (Khan, 2008) original excavation reports, and an ongoing project exists
to publish the full collection (Khan, 2009).

Coins of Taxila:

The coins recovered at taxila were many and of great variety. In all, they totaled over 12000 of
which 1579 came from the Bhir Mound and 7665 from Sirkap. These are the two largest and
most valuable groups, and their value is enhanced by the additional light which the stratification
of the two sites throws on their history (Marshall, 2013).
The Kushana city founded another city at Sirsuk to the north of the Lundi-Nala fortified
settlement, rectangular in plan. The wall, which had a roll plinth at the base, has unlike Sirkap,
semi-circular bastions on the outside. Both the bastions and the wall have loop holes at the height
of five feet. Among the antiquities were forty coins of copper, which included right up to the
time of the Turki shahi ruler Spalapati Deva, suggesting that the settlement continued here
munch later than the time of the Kushanas.

Coins:

Taxila the Parthians were succeed, in the 1 st century A.D. by the great Kushanas, who had
succession of rulers Kujula Kadphises, his son Vima I Takto, his son Vima II, Kadphises, his son
Kanishka, followed by Vasishka and his son Kanishka II, and Huvishka and Vasudeve I. Of them
the greatest was Kanishka I, who started, from the beginning of his reign (about 78 A.D.), a new
era which continued for 99 years. These kings began a new series of gold and copper coins, with
standing or sitting royal portrait, boring the title of Shao-nao-Shao (Shain Shah). Kanishka was a
great patron of Buddhism, and the portrayed the figure of the Buddha on his coins. They were
followed by the little Kushanas, Kanishka III and Vasudeva II, who lost their Indian possessions
of Mathura. Towards the end of the 3 rd century A.D. they were pressed from the west by the
Sassanian rulers of Iran who established their suzerainty and started a new series of Indo-
Sassanian coins. It is a time that new local dynasties, as subsidiary rulers rose up. One of them
was Gadakhara or Gakkhara, as known from coins but tradition remembers them as Kiyanis.
Their kings, peraya, Kirada and Samudra, issued coins of the type of the Kushanas and of the
Sassanians. Finally came the Kider Kushanas, who gradually asserted their independence and
continued to rule until the coming of the Huns in the middle of the 5 th century A.D (Dani,
1986).

Opinion about Taxila museum:

In my opinion any type of study trip is very beneficial and knowledge able for students so our
visit to Taxila museum is very interesting, this trip is possible due to our respected Sir Dr. Illyas.
I am very thankful for my respected Sir to give us chance to know about our historical places.
This is amazing for me the people of that time are very civilized. As Taxila is an important
archaeological site and contain numerous examples of Hindu, Buddhist and Greek cultures thus
Taxila is important focal point for interaction with the outside world. Taxila is historical place it
gives an overview of the history of city and contained ancient culture this is very important for
our young generation to visit such historical places to get knowledge about ancient civilization.

REFRENCES:

Dani, A. H. (1986). The historic city of Taxila (Vol. 19): Unesco.

Khan, G. (2007). Kanishka Coins from Taxila. Gandharan Studies, 1, 119-148.
Khan, G. (2008). Gold Coins in the Cabinet of Taxila Museum, Taxila. Gandharan Studies, 2,
39-60.
Khan, G. (2009). Huvishka Coins from Taxila. Gandharan Studies, 3, 75-125.
Marshall, J. (2013). A guide to Taxila: Cambridge University Press.