Hindu and Buddhist architectural heritage of Pakistan

The Hindu and Buddhist architectural heritage of Pakistan is part of a long history of settlement and civilization in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. The Indus Valley civilization

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...

collapsed in the middle of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Vedic Civilisation, which extended over much of northern India and Pakistan.

Vedic period

The time period in the history of India

History of India

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...

known as the Vedic period or Vedic age is the period of the composition of the sacred texts called Vedas

Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....

and other such texts in Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...

. The associated culture sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization was centred on the Punjab

Punjab region

The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

(modern day Pakistan

Pakistan

and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

) and the Gangetic plain (modern India

India

). Scholarship places the Vedic period into the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, continuing up to the 6th century BCE when it began to be transformed into classical forms of Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

. Early medieval Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

authors suggest dates as early as the 4th millennium BCE.

Its early phase saw the formation of various kingdoms of ancient India

Kingdoms of Ancient India

Epic India is the geography of Greater India traditionally around early 10th century BC and later on from the Sanskrit epics, viz. the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as well as Puranic literature ....

. In its late phase (from ca. 700 BCE), it saw the rise of the Mahajanapadas

Mahajanapadas

Mahājanapadas , literally "great realms", were ancient Indian kingdoms or countries...

, and was succeeded by the golden age of Hinduism and classical Sanskrit literature

Sanskrit literature

Literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...

, the Maurya Empire

Maurya Empire

The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in ancient India, ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 321 to 185 BC...

(from ca. 320 BCE) and the Middle kingdoms of India

Middle kingdoms of India

Middle kingdoms of India refers to the political entities in India from the 3rd century BC after the decline of the Maurya Empire, and the corresponding rise of the Satavahana dynasty, beginning with Simuka, from 230 BC...

Gandhāra (Sanskrit गन्धार, Persian Gandara, Waihind) (Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

: گندھارا) is the name of an ancient Indian Mahajanapada, currently in northern Pakistan

Pakistan

(the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and parts of northern Punjab

Punjab (Pakistan)

Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...

and Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

) and eastern Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

, the Potohar plateau (see Taxila

Taxila

Taxila is a Tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is an important archaeological site.Taxila is situated about northwest of Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi in Panjab; just off the Grand Trunk Road...

) and on the northern side of the Kabul River

Kabul River

Kabul River , the classical Cophes , is a 700 km long river that starts in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan and ends in the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. It is the main river in eastern Afghanistan and is separated from the watershed of the Helmand by the Unai Pass...

. Its main cities were Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

and Taxila

Taxila

. http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9035986/Gandhara

The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from the 6th century BCE to the 11th century CE. It attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century CE under the Buddhist Kushan Kings. After it was conquered by Mahmood of Ghazni in 1021 CE, the name Gandhara disappeared. During the Muslim period the area was administered from Lahore or from Kabul. During Mughal time the area was part of Kabul province.

Punjab

The Punjabis were predominantly Hindu

Hindu

with large minorities of Buddhists like the rest of South Asia, when Umayyad

Umayyad

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

army led by Muhammad bin Qasim

Muhammad bin Qasim

Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi was a Umayyad general who, at the age of 17, began the conquest of the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus River for the Umayyad Caliphate. He was born in the city of Taif...

attacked Sindh and lower Punjab, in 713

713

Year 713 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 713 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* Byzantine Emperor Philippicus is...

. This started the process of Islamic conversion among the population of Punjab, as well as India . This process continued for the next 10 centuries but there were significant non-Muslim populations including Hindus and later Sikhs.

Pothohar Plateau
Pothohar Plateau
The Pothohar Plateau is a plateau in north-eastern Pakistan and the western parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The area was the home of the Soanian Culture, which is evidenced by the discovery of fossils, tools, coins, and remains of ancient archaeological sites...
Sagala
Sagala
Sagala or Sangala, the ancient Greek name for the modern city of Sialkot in present day Pakistan, was a city of located in northern Punjab, Pakistan...
Sialkot
Sialkot
Sialkot is a city in Pakistan situated in the north-east of the Punjab province at the foothills of snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District. The city is about north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometers from Indian-controlled Jammu.The...
Ganeriwala
Tulamba
Tulamba
Tulamba or Tulambah is a small city in Punjab, Pakistan. A native of Tulamba is referred to as a Tulmabvi. It's situated on the eastern edge of the Ravi River, between the cities of Abdul Hakeem and Mian Channu. Earlier it belonged to the district of Multan, but in 1985 Tulamba was included in the...
Dipalpur
Dipalpur
Dipalpur is a town in Okara District of the Punjab and headquarters of Depalpur Tehsil, assumed to be largest tehsil of Pakistan. It is situated 25 kilometres from the district capital Okara on a bank of the Beas River in Bari Doab...
Okara District
Okara District
Okara District is a district of Punjab, Pakistan. The Multan Road connects the district capital, Okara with tLahore 110 km away. Okara began as a small town about 40 km from the city of Sahiwal. It later become a city in its own right. According to the 1998 census, the district had a...
Mankiala
Mankiala
Mankiala is a village in the Potohar Plateau, Punjab which is known for its Buddhist stupa. It is located some 50 km from Islamabad, beyond Rawat Fort.-Mankiala Stupa:...

Bhutta Wahan

Is situated at a distance of 16 kilometres to the North of Rahim Yar Khan, on the lost river Hakra. The village is said to be named after the name of Raja

Raja

Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...

Bhutta

Bhutta is a Jatt tribe found in Punjab, Pakistan. The Bhutta are of Rajput origin are descended from a branch of the Suryavanshi Rajput family. Like "Soomra" jats of Punjab became Soomro in Sindh, likewise "Bhutta" became Bhutto when tribe moved towards south of Indus valley...

who captured this locality after Raja Dahir

Dahir

A Dahir is a Moroccan King's decree.-List of Dahirs:* August 12, 1913 - Criminal proceedings* March 11, 1915 - Education * November 17, 1915 - Creation of the 5-branch Seal of Solomon Flag of Morocco....

. This village is also claimed to be the birth place of Sassi, the renowned heroine of Sassi-Pannun

Pannun

A Jat tribe They are chiefly found throughout the central districts of Punjab India and Punjab Pakistan. According to some traditions, the tribe came from Ghazni in Afghanistan. They claim a connection with the Aulakh tribe....

and of Ab-ul-Fazal and Fiazi, sons of Mullah Mubarik.

Islamgarh Fort

Islamgarh

Islamgarh is a Municipal Committee of Mirpur District near Mangla Dam of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. It is located on the southern part of the Panjal Range, about 28 Kilometer in North-East of MirpurAzad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan is situated the talent producing Islamgarh, progressing...

,the old Bhinwar Fort, was built by Rawal Bhim Singh in Sambat in 1665, as the following inscription on its gate in Babri characters proves "Samabat 1665 Asuj Wadi 2, Maharaj Rawal Sri Bhim Singh Ji Maharaj". The fort is situated in the Cholistan area of Tehsil Khanpur

Khanpur

Khanpur is a city and Tehsil of the Rahim Yar Khan District of Bahawalpur Division, in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. According to the census of 1998, the city population was 117,764 with an annual growth rate of 2.6%. As of in 2009, it is around 156,152....

. It is 46 kilometres south east of Baghla Fort. The fort is in a dilapidated state.

Mau Bubarik Fort

According to Tarikh-e-Murad, a fort was built by Raj Hans Karar in Mau Mubarik as a residence for his mother, hence the name Mau refers to mother in local language. The fort was taken by Shah Arghun in 1525 CE. It was one of the six fortresses of Raj Sahasi 11. It had 20 bastions and Towers. The ramparts were about 549 meters in circumference and the walls very strongly and thickly built. Here the shrine of a saint Sheikh Hakim is of great importance.

Pattan Minara

The ruins of Pattan Minara are located at a distance of about 8 kilometers in east south of Rahim Yar Khan city. It has variously been described as the remains of Ashoka period, who built it in 250 BC. or a Buddhist monastery. Nearby the minar, remains of a fort, a mosque and some tunnels are also visible. About 110 years ago Colonel Minchin a political agent of Ex-Bahawalpur state started the excavation of these tunnels but discontinued digging for some reasons or other. According to Colonel Toy it was the capital of the Hindu kingdom in 10 CE In the mid of the 18th century Fazal Elahi Khan Halani a Daupauta chief destroyed it and used its materials in the construction of Bhagla and Dingarh Fort.

Mianwali

The ruins of Kafirkot ,Ruins at Mari, Remains of Rokhri,Architectural Objects and Remain-Ruins of Sirkapp Fort .

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Takht Bhai
Takht Bhai
Takht Bhai is a Buddhist monastic complex dating to the 1st century BCE. The complex is regarded by archaeologists as being particularly representative of the architecture of Buddhist monastic centers from its era. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.The word Takht Bhai may...
Temples in Parachinar city
Bala Hisar Fort
Bala Hisar Fort
Bala Hisar Fort is one of the most historic places of Peshawar. The word Bala Hisar is from Persian, meaning, “elevated or high fort”. According to Dr. Hussain Khan, the name was given by the Afghan King Timur Shah Durrani...
Barikot
Barikot
Barikot is a town in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, located in the Swat valley region . Barikot is the present day name of the ancient "Bazira", which was besieged by Alexander the Great....
Udyana
Butkara Stupa
Butkara Stupa
The Butkara Stupa is an important Buddhist stupa in the area of Swat, Pakistan. It may have been originally built by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, but it is generally dated slightly later to the 2nd century BCE....
Chakdara
Chakdara
Chakdara is a town in Lower Dir District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located north of Malakand on the north bank of the Swat River, in a commanding position near the entrance to Swat District and at the entrance to Lower Dir...
Gandhara
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
Gor Khuttree
Gor Khuttree
Gor Khuttree is a neighbourhood of Peshawar city, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan.- History :Gor Khuttree in the ancient city of Peshawar was identified by Sir Alexander Cunningham with Kanishka Vihara while Professor Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani identified it with the place where the famous tower...
Kashmir Smast
Kashmir Smast
The Kashmir Smast caves are a series of natural limestone caves, artificially expanded from the Kushan to the Shahi periods, situated in the Babozai mountains in the Mardan Valley in Northern Pakistan...
Lower Swat Valley
Lower Swat Valley
The Lower Swat Valley in Swat and Lower Dir Districts in Pakistan is an area of important archeological sites.The lower valley of the Swat River has been occupied for the last 3000 years. The area between Chakdara Bridge and Saidu Sharif is littered with the remains of pre historic Aryan's Gandhara...
Mingora
Mingora
Mingora is the largest city in Swat District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at an altitude of and lies on the banks of River Swat about from Saidu Sharif, the present capital of Swat. As of 1998, the population of Mingora was about 175,000...
Panchkora Valley of Dir
Panchkora Valley of Dir
The Panjkora Valley is the valley of the Panjkora River in Lower Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.-Archaeology:The Panjkora Valley contains important sites of the Gandhara grave culture....
Pushkalavati
Pushkalavati
Pushkalavati is an ancient site situated in Peshawar valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located on the banks of Swat River, near its junction with Kabul River, now it is known as Charsadda...
Shahbaz Garhi
Shahbaz Garhi
Shahbaz Garhi is an historic site located in Mardan District in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.-Location:Shahbaz Garhi is situated on the junction of three ancient routes;#Kabul to Pushkalavati#Swat through Buner...
Sehri-Bahlol
Sehri-Bahlol
Seri Bahlol is located near Takht Bhai, about 70 kilometres north-west of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan.-History:...
Swabi
Swabi
Swabi is the capital of Swabi District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 34°7'0N 72°28'0E. Its residents are referred to as 'Swabiwaal.'-Geography:...
Map of Gandhara archeological sites, from the Huntington Collection, Ohio State University (large file)

Vedic period

Punjab

Bhutta Wahan

Islamgarh Fort

Mau Bubarik Fort

Pattan Minara

Mianwali

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

See also