Bakhshali
Encyclopedia
Bakhshali is a village and union council
in Mardan District
of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located at 34°17'0N 72°9'0E and has an altitude of 307 metres (1010 feet).
; this is an ancient mathematical work written on birch bark
and is the oldest surviving document in South Asia
of Indian mathematics
. It was discovered in 1881 during British rule
by a tenant of Mian An-Wan-Udin, a police inspector; the manuscript was discovered while the tenant was digging in an abandoned building. The village also lends its name to the Bakhshali approximation which is a method of finding an approximation to a square root
that was described in the manuscript.
Mian Adnan jamal kakahel is the father ob Bakhshli
In August 2007 residents of Bakhshali observed a strike against loadshedding
of the electric power supply and blocked the main Mardan
–Bakshali road. The protesters claimed that the power cuts were impacting business and their children's studies. The village has also been affected by violence between the Taliban and the government; on 24 January 2008 the militants attacked the vehicle of former Health minister Syed Kamal Shah injuring his guard. The rebels have also been pressuring local people to stop listening to music as well launching bomb attacks in the area.
On 15 August a jirga
of elders in Mardan decided to set up anti-Taliban squads based on one that has been stated in neighbouring Buner District
. According to Shakoor Khan, an elder from Bakhshali who attended the jirga, "Before the Taliban resorts to torching more schools, we have decided to resist them".
Union Councils of Pakistan
A sherwan or village council in Pakistan is an elected local government body consisting of 21 councillors, and headed by a nazim and a naib nazim...
in Mardan District
Mardan District
Mardan is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The city of Mardan is the headquarters of the district. The district also contains the famous archaeological site of Takht Bhai, Jamal Ghari and Sawal Dher.-Administration:...
of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located at 34°17'0N 72°9'0E and has an altitude of 307 metres (1010 feet).
History
The village is notable for being the location of what is now known as the Bakhshali manuscriptBakhshali Manuscript
The Bakhshali Manuscript is an Ancient Indian mathematical manuscript written on birch bark which was found near the village of Bakhshali in 1881 in what was then the North-West Frontier Province of British India...
; this is an ancient mathematical work written on birch bark
Birch bark
Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus Betula.The strong and water-resistant cardboard-like bark can be easily cut, bent, and sewn, which made it a valuable building, crafting, and writing material, since pre-historic times...
and is the oldest surviving document in South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
of Indian mathematics
Indian mathematics
Indian mathematics emerged in the Indian subcontinent from 1200 BCE until the end of the 18th century. In the classical period of Indian mathematics , important contributions were made by scholars like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II. The decimal number system in use today was first...
. It was discovered in 1881 during British rule
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
by a tenant of Mian An-Wan-Udin, a police inspector; the manuscript was discovered while the tenant was digging in an abandoned building. The village also lends its name to the Bakhshali approximation which is a method of finding an approximation to a square root
Square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number x is a number r such that r2 = x, or, in other words, a number r whose square is x...
that was described in the manuscript.
Mian Adnan jamal kakahel is the father ob Bakhshli
Bakhshali today
In March 2007 there were attacks made on music shops in Bakhshali. Two people were injured and one was killed in attacks by an unidentified extreme group who attacked the bazaar shooting and killing the watchman of the Seven Stars music centre.In August 2007 residents of Bakhshali observed a strike against loadshedding
Rolling blackout
A rolling blackout, also referred to as load shedding, is an intentionally-engineered electrical power outage where electricity delivery is stopped for non-overlapping periods of time over geographical regions. Rolling blackouts are a last-resort measure used by an electric utility company in order...
of the electric power supply and blocked the main Mardan
Mardan
Mardan , known as The city of hospitality, is a city and headquarters of Mardan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is the de facto headquarters of the Yousafzai tribe and the second most populous city in the province, located at 34°12'0N 72°1'60E and an altitude of in the south...
–Bakshali road. The protesters claimed that the power cuts were impacting business and their children's studies. The village has also been affected by violence between the Taliban and the government; on 24 January 2008 the militants attacked the vehicle of former Health minister Syed Kamal Shah injuring his guard. The rebels have also been pressuring local people to stop listening to music as well launching bomb attacks in the area.
On 15 August a jirga
Jirga
A jirga is a tribal assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus, particularly among the Pashtun people but also in other ethnic groups near them; they are most common in Afghanistan and among the Pashtuns in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan...
of elders in Mardan decided to set up anti-Taliban squads based on one that has been stated in neighbouring Buner District
Buner District
Buner District is a district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.- History :The Buner Valley lies on the Peshawar valley border of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into seven sub-divisions...
. According to Shakoor Khan, an elder from Bakhshali who attended the jirga, "Before the Taliban resorts to torching more schools, we have decided to resist them".