I N D I R A N The newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust Issue 11: 2016-17

Bridget Allchin 1927-2017 (photo: the Allchin family)

In this issue: Editor’s letter News from the Trust. Notice Dr Bridget Allchin 1927-2017. Ursula Sims-Williams The Everlasting Flame Exhibition goes to Delhi. Joanna Salisbury Safe Passage to India: a courier’s view. Almut Hintze How to become a Zoroastrian Priest. Nicholas Sims-Williams A Kipling footnote. Robin Ackroyd Rare Books, Genghis Khan and Raging Dogs. Visiting and working at the Trust: Bi Bo Reading Sogdian; J Eva Meharry The Bamiyan Buddhas revisited; Chris Martin Westcott House at the Trust. Cameron Petrie The Two Rains Project. Work in progress: Wannaporn Rienjang Bimaran Workshop at the Ancient India & Iran Trust; Samuel Lieu AIIT Downunder. AIIT people and the Friends’ Group. James Cormick Three-and-a-half Daniells. Editor’s Letter: News from the Ancient India & Iran Trust

Welcome to the eleventh edition improved accessibility by having a The Trust continues to support the of Indiran, the newsletter of the hearing loop installed in the India research of graduate students and Ancient India & Iran Trust, a bumper Room. We are grateful to all whose early-career academics, through the edition for 2016 and 2017. donations contributed to the cost. Allchin Seminar held in December, bursaries for visiting scholars and In April 2016, the Trust was sorry A major building project was sponsorship of prizes for the best to say goodbye to Brendan Griggs, completed in August 2017. Thanks papers presented at the biennial Administrator and editor of the to a large donation, the basement Symposia Iranica. We are delighted Newsletter, who left to be Chief boiler room has been converted into to include in this edition of the Executive of the Great Britain extra book storage space, a project newsletter articles about some of Sasakawa Foundation, shifting his in keeping with the Trustees’ original this research. There are also articles sphere of interest thousands of miles aim of making the house a library. by our Trustees, reflecting their own further East to Japanese culture; but research interests and major projects. he operates from a base in London, The many readers who come to so we still see him from time to time. the Library study manuscripts We continue to welcome our many His successor, Margaret Widdess, and carpets, Manicheans and readers and visitors to what we came to the Trust at the beginning Zoroastrians, Sogdian and Bactrian, hope is a good experience in lovely of May 2016, joining other staff letters and photographs from the surroundings. We hope that we can members Jo Salisbury and Jose John Trust’s collection. Others visit the make a contribution to research, (Assistant Librarians) and James Trust for special study days, book education and general interest in Cormick (Custodian). launches or as part of a conference. the world of ancient India, Iran and The last year has been a time of The programme of Friday lectures Central Asia through our collections change and innovation, with the continues, with three or more and programmes. As an independent transfer of the Trust to the status of lectures each term, including a charity, we are indebted to all who Charitable Incorporated Organisation special event for Friends, and this keep us going by subscribing as (CIO). This change brings practical year we have been introduced to Friends or donors. Thanks to all advantages, but also a new many places, communities and who are responsible, in all parts of registered charity number: 1162982. personalities, among them Kipling, the Trust, for the combination of Please note this number, especially Parsis, Sasanians, Ottoman Athens, learning, inspiration, management if you are kind enough to consider Huns, an East India Company and maintenance that we aim to making any form of donation. Chaplain, even Indian vultures. The achieve. The move to CIO status coincided programme for the Michaelmas Term with the retirement of Dr Bridget 2017 was particularly full, including Allchin as a Trustee. She continued Festival of Ideas events, a two-day to be remembered at the Trust for symposium on the historic buildings her pioneering work in archaeology, of Lahore and other lectures. The but also as the last Founding Trustee Term ended with the Harold to have served also as a current Bailey Memorial Lecture Trustee. With sadness we learned delivered by Peter Frankopan of her death on 27 June. She died (author of the best seller The peacefully after a short illness, Silk Roads) on 13 December in Norwich, close to her son and at the McDonald Institute. daughter-in-law. In death as in life, Details of all our events are all our Founding Trustees continue circulated, and you can share to be an inspiration and a reminder many of the Trust’s activities of their vision and generosity. A by logging on to the Trust’s note about Bridget appears in this website www.Indiran.org, and Newsletter, to be followed by a fuller reading the blog or following tribute at a later date. us on Twitter and Facebook. Please let us know if you have Following on from the construction been receiving information of the ramp a few years ago, the by post but would now like to Trust has taken another step towards receive it by email. The building team in the new bookstore

2 INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust Dr Bridget Allchin 10 February 1927 – 27 June 2017

Our Founding Trustee Dr Bridget Allchin passed away on 27th June at Broadland View Care Home in Norwich peacefully after a short illness aged 90. She is remembered with fondness and admiration for her work as an archaeologist and for her writ- ings (both those written by her and those written jointly with her late husband Raymond, also an archaeologist and a Found- ing Trustee). At the Trust we are especially grateful to her as one of our Founding Trustees, to whose enthusiasm for their areas of research and their generosity we owe the foundation of the Trust, with its library based on their collections.

Bridget and Raymond encouraged young archaeologists, and this is reflected in the annual Allchin Seminar, held in Cambridge in alternate years. Last year’s seminar was well attended by PhD students and early-career archaeologists, many of whom gave papers, as well as by senior academics and archaeologists.

Danika Parikh, a Cambridge archaeology PhD student who has worked on the Allchin papers at the Trust, has written as follows: Bridget’s legacy in the field of South Asian archaeology, and her efforts to structure the field and provide platforms for teaching and publishing are clear: besides her own ground-breaking research and many collaborations, she was a founding trustee of the Ancient India and Iran Trust, a founding member of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology, editor of the journal Afghan Studies and founding editor of the journal South Asian Studies. In 2014 Bridget was presented with the Royal Asiatic Society Gold Medal; the society recognized her as a ‘pioneering female field-archaeologist in South Asia’.

For the whole article see http://www.indiran.org/bridget-allchin-pioneering-prehistorian-of-south-asian-archaeology/

A full tribute will appear in a later issue of Indiran.

Bridget Allchin in Lewan, KPK, Pakistan 1977 (photo: the Allchin family)

INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 3 The Everlasting Flame Exhibition goes to Delhi by Ursula Sims-Williams

Following the success of The Everlasting Flame at the Brunei Gallery SOAS in 2013, in early 2016 the exhibition was taken to the National Museum, Delhi. The exhibition was organized by a team of five curators under the lead of Sarah Stewart (SOAS) of whom two (myself and Almut Hintze) are AIIT Trustees. We were fortunate in having our Assistant Librarian Jo Salisbury on board as part of the hands-on team at Delhi. She has given a separate account of her experiences below. Ursula Sims-Williams is Honorary Librarian of the Ancient India & Iran Trust (AIIT) and Lead Curator of Iranian Collections, British Library. Everlasting Flame curators on the opening night (left to right): Almut Hintze, Firoza Mistry, Sarah Stewart, Ursula Sims-Williams and Pheroza Godrej (photo: Ursula Sims-Williams)

Safe Passage to India: a courier’s view Trust Books on Loan at the National Museum, Delhi, March-May, 2016 by Joanna Salisbury From 19 March until 29 May 2016, three of the AIIT’s rare books went on loan at the National Museum New Delhi as part of their exhibition ‘Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’. The exhibition, sponsored by the Indian Ministry of Minority Affairs, was organized in collaboration with SOAS, the British Library and the Parzor Foundation. It formed part of an extensive programme of cultural events, exhibitions and an international conference on Zoroastrianism. As host of the original 2013 exhibition (installed in their Brunei Gallery) SOAS represented private object lenders from the UK and, as a representative of one of these lenders, I was asked to accompany and oversee the installation of these objects, together with SOAS South Asia Subject Librarian Farzana Whitfield and AIIT’s honorary librarian and Curator of Iranian Languages at the British Library, Ursula Sims-Williams. The AIIT were lending three books: Volume 2 of Anquetil du Perron’s Le Zend-Avesta (Paris, 1771), Henry Lord’s The Religion of the Parsees (London, 1630) and Historia religionis veterum Persarum by Thomas Hyde (Oxford, 1700). What a wonderful opportunity to have some of the Trust’s important Zoroastrian texts on display alongside unique, historical objects, works of art and manuscripts representing Zoroastrian history and culture from collections in India, Russia, Iran and the UK. It would also turn out to be quite an experience. The courier’s role required special training, and is an interesting blend of attention to detail, collaborative working and a willingness to sit and wait. Once our items were packed and securely crated up for transport at the fine arts handlers’ in London, it was our responsibility as couriers to travel with the objects and ensure their safe arrival, transportation and installation at the museum in Delhi. After an early morning start at Heathrow customs, seeing the objects safely packed up ready for loading, we could check ourselves onto the flight and relax. Thank goodness we did. Once we had landed, efforts to clear all of our objects through customs began. This was not done at a brisk pace – everything was checked and triple checked and with the need for the correct paperwork and transport to be in place, patience and determination were most definitely required, as well as the willingness to sit and wait six hours for customs clearance!

4 INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust After negotiating Delhi’s Friday night traffic, all objects and couriers were delivered safely to the museum, to be warmly greeted at midnight by Sarah Stewart (Lecturer in Zoroastrianism at SOAS and lead curator of the exhibition) and the National Museum’s excellent exhibitions team. Thereafter followed a week of frenetic activity as a multitude of curators, conservators, designers, exhibition organisers, handlers and couriers all worked together to assemble, condition check, double-check, hang, secure and install over 300 exquisite objects and works of art to create a seamless and beautiful exhibition space. With over 45 objects transported from SOAS to unpack, condition check and install, all I can say is thank goodness for the patience and expertise of conservators and the support of two excellent colleagues. Whether it’s overseeing every detail of the journey of the objects in your care; Ursula Sims-Williams (left) and Joanna Salisbury (right) keeping an essential toolkit or condition checking objects for installation carpenter within arm’s reach (quite a (Photo: Shri Sharma) challenge in a busy gallery during installation); or meticulously checking condition reports, it is the courier’s job to see the loan of the objects through from start to finish: from departure to installation. Embrace all of this and you are richly rewarded, working alongside colleagues whose patience, expertise and good-humour combine to produce, not just a magnificent and successful exhibition but also, a rather remarkable and certainly memorable collaborative experience.

Joanna Salisbury is the Assistant Librarian of the AIIT.

‘The courier’s role required special training, and is an interesting blend of attention to detail, collaborative working and a willingness to sit and wait.’ Joanna Salisbury

SOAS crates being secured for the flight to Delhi. (Photo: Joanna Salisbury)

INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 5 How to become a Zoroastrian Priest by Almut Hintze

The Zoroastrian community priestly boarding schools were A day at the Dadar Athornan comprises two major groups, established in the nineteenth and Institute, Mumbai behdin the laity, or , and the early twentieth centuries. The On a normal weekday at the Dadar priesthood. Boys and girls of both Seth Sorabji Manekji Damanwala Athornan Institute the wake-up groups undergo the same initiation Madressa in Udvada, however, which call for pupils is at 5.30 am. After ceremony, in India usually at the age was still operating in the 1950s, performing the kusti prayers, the of seven, a little later in Iran. During no longer exists and the splendid boys wash themselves, have tea and the initiation ceremony they are Mancherji Framji Cama Athornan recite the morning prayers at 6.20 invested with the sacred shirt, or Institute in Andheri (founded in 1923 am for half an hour. The recitation sudre, and girdle, or kusti while they by the philanthropist Seth Merwanji is followed at 7 am by an hour of recite the essential Avestan prayers, Mancherji Cama) currently has just Bhantar study, or memorisation or kusti prayers, which they have one student, in spite of an attempt practice. The texts they learn by learnt by heart under the guidance to revive it in 2008. At present, the heart include the entire Yasna of a priest during the period of only fully functioning school for and set prayers from the Khordeh preparation. From this moment on Zoroastrian priests world-wide is the Avesta. They also revise prayers they are expected to wear the sudre Dadar Athornan Institute in Mumbai, they have previously memorised. and kusti continuously and perform under its principal Dr Ramiyar Breakfast is at 8am, followed by the kustiprayers at certain times as Karanjia. The course content which playing time until 9am, when the symbols of their life-long struggle aspiring priests learn chiefly consist normal school day starts. The study against the destructive forces of Evil. of Avestan texts to be recited by of ordinary school subjects ends heart and actions to be performed at 10.45 am with a short break While membership of the during the ritual, and how to followed by an hour of Bhantar community is open to anyone born coordinate the two. The knowledge study. At 11.45 am they say their into a Zoroastrian family, those who of the right words and right actions kusti prayers, have lunch, pack their want to become priests must be of has been passed on from father books and leave for the nearby male gender and priestly ancestry. to son over millennia in the oral Dadar Parsee Youth Assembly High Zoroastrian priests are encouraged tradition of the Zoroastrians, and School, where they receive ordinary to get married and to have children. orality has remained an important school education. They come home The formal education of a priest part of the tradition up to the at 6 pm, have a snack and then time starts after the initiation ceremony present day. for homework and play. The older mentioned above and culminates in an examination that is followed by the initiation into priesthood, called navar by the Parsis of India, nozud by the Zoroastrians of Iran, at about the age of twelve. Subsequently candidates may continue for about two more years and become full- fledged priests, or yozdathregar, after a second examination and priestly initiation, called martab. While navar priests only perform ‘outer’ liturgical ceremonies, i.e. those celebrated outside the fire- temple in any clean place, martab priests are in addition qualified to conduct ‘inner’ ceremonies inside the fire-temple, including Yasna, Visperad and Videvdad rituals. Zoroastrian priests may be educated by their fathers at home. In addition, Recitation Practice (Bhantar), Dadar Athornan Institute 2016 among the Parsis of India, special (photo: Almut Hintze) 6 INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust students spend the morning at High School, come back for lunch and do their Bhantar study in the afternoon for an hour and a half. Although this looks like a rather tight and exacting schedule, the students find time for play and enjoyment in the company of their peers. Those who have lived in one of the priestly schools cherish fond memories of their childhood years spent there and feel particularly close to other priests who attended the same beloved Athornan Institute. Almut Hintze is Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism, SOAS, University of London, and Honorary Treasurer of the AIIT.

Pupils at the M. F. Cama Athornan Institute in Andheri (photo: Adil Jussawalla, courtesy Parsiana)

Practice of the Yasna ritual, Dadar Athornan Institute (courtesy: Dadar Athornan Institute, Mumbai)

INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 7 A Kipling footnote by Nicholas Sims-Williams

What is the link between our Friends’ event on 22 May 2016, Geoff Hales’ splendid dramatised presentation on Kipling in India and the New Delhi exhibition on Zoroastrianism, The Everlasting Flame (see p. 4-5), to which the Trust lent several of its rare books in February-April 2016? Many readers will be familiar with the tale ‘How the rhinoceros got his skin’ in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, which centres on a ‘Parsee’ who is named (in Kipling’s caption to his picture though not in the text of the story) as ‘Pestonjee Bomonjee’. It is probably less well known that Pestonjee Bomanjee (1851-1938) was a real person, who came as a teenager to study art under Kipling’s father in Mumbai and later became famous as a painter. Kipling’s fanciful drawing of the Parsee with his ‘more-than-oriental-splendour hat’ was included in the New Delhi exhibition, together with a more realistic portrait of the artist in his studio by Ardeshir Pestonji. Nicholas Sims-Williams is Emeritus Professor of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, SOAS, University of London, and Chair of the Trustees of the AIIT.

Kipling’s drawing of the Parsee, illustrating his Just So story

Rare Books, Genghis Khan and Raging Dogs by Robin Ackroyd

Author Robin Ackroyd on horseback, on the way to Spirit, the loyal dog who guarded Robin fearlessly. Genghis Khan’s birthplace, Dadal, Khentii province, Spirit ran alongside for over 250 kilometres during the northern Mongolia (© Robin Ackroyd) 700km-plus trek. (© Robin Ackroyd)

Books and learning are, by tradition, very highly regarded in Mongolia. Buddhist lamas treat sacred texts – nom sudar – with great care, wrapping them in a cotton cloth, or barintag, to protect them. The word for book or scripture – nom – is an an- cient loanword, ultimately from the Greekn ómos – law. Genghis, or Chinggis, Khan is often portrayed, lazily and pejoratively, as an illiterate nomad. In fact, he brought in a Mongolian system of writing, in around 1204, based on the vertical Uighur script. He saw that his laws – yasa – and decrees – yarlik – were written down, as well as his wise sayings, or bileg. The Mongols have a very strong tradition of passing down ‘wise words’ through the generations. Often these are alliterative, so they can be more easily be learned. Messengers travelling long distances, in the 12th and 13th centuries, could recall their instructions by singing them in the saddle.

8 INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust I record many sayings and proverbs, Russian and explain their translations, in my work book about Mongolia, its nomadic was a gift culture, and the whereabouts of in 1974 the tombs of the Mongol khans. from one Some of these are published for well- the first time. I spent hours, during known A couple in traditional clothes, by the my research, in the library rooms professor to another. Kherlen river near the settlement of of the Ancient India and Iran Trust, Libraries are a long way from the Möngönmorit. (© Robin Ackroyd) consulting rare books. My own steppes and forested mountains work focuses, to some extent, on of northerly Mongolia, where I the impermanence of life, and journeyed on horseback for over Spirit was fearless, even when the transitory nature of material 700km, exploring sites associated outnumbered. There were possessions, but my quest for the with Genghis Khan – and, ultimately, sometimes up to six dogs upon most important books shows me to where he may be buried. us. Spirit would chase them off. that the collections at the Trust are He would then run over to me, For the last 250km, on my journey uniquely precious. They need to be looking up for approval. The dogs to the world conqueror’s birthplace preserved, cared for, and used, for in Mongolia can be ferocious; some at Dadal, near the Siberian border, as long as possible. carry rabies. I was joined by a loyal dog, Spirit. Occasionally a letter, or note, When, in November 2015, I talked Temüjin – the future Genghis Khan – would flutter out – and give me at the Trust about my experiences, was afraid of dogs, we learn from the information about the author, or Spirit caught people’s imagination. Secret History of the Mongols. The reviewer. I have since built a small I can see why. I was delighted when Mongols were famed, in medieval library myself, and have found other he joined me, turning up one night times, for a tactic known as the hidden gems in old books – an and chasing off a pack of dogs that ‘feigned retreat’. In the Middle original type-written receipt from had descended on my camp. I have Mongolian language of the time it an Oriental bookshop in Paris in little doubt that, several thousand was called ‘fighting a dog’s fight’. 1959, for instance, and research years ago, the first dog to be Nowadays the normal greeting on notes, some typed and some hand- domesticated came into contact with approaching a home is: ‘Nokhoi written. One book shows that a man in very much the same way. khori!’ – ‘Restrain the dog!’ So having Spirit with me was useful, as well as very pleasing. The locals thought he had been sent by God because I had travelled to the sacred mountain Burkhan Khaldun. There was certainly something very special about Spirit.

Robin Ackroyd travelled, with five horses, in an independent expedition to Mongolia. He is a Friend of the Trust. His books, Genghis: Sacred Tomb, Secret Treasure and Mongolia: Seeking Genghis Khan, are available on Amazon.

Herders gathered on the eve of the Naadam festival at Tsenkhermandal, in the northern Mongolian countryside. Naadam is the annual celebration of horse racing, archery, and wrestling. (© Robin Ackroyd)

INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 9 A visiting scholar, a bursary holder (now graduate student) and a member of Westcott House write about the Trust and their research Visiting and working at the Trust there.

epitaph. It turned out Reading Sogdian that after we informed A Chinese visiting professor reviews him of what we read from her work and takes her leave of the the Sogdian inscription, Trust he remembered that a few years ago they also by Bi Bo acquired the epitaph (written shortly before her departure of a Sogdian written in in January 2017) Chinese. The content and How the time has flown since I the size show that the first arrived in late January 2016. I two slabs bearing Chinese still remember the first day when I and Sogdian inscriptions came back to the Trust. I was very did belong to one epitaph, pleased to live in the same flat in the though separately made. Trust again that I had lived in on my After having checked previous visit. From the window I the back side of the two slabs, Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams could enjoy the different beauties of we worked out how they might and Dr Bi Bo studying the bilingual the Botanic Garden in four seasons. be laid out. This is really exciting epitaph in Shenzhen This time, with the great help of news, since before this only one Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams and Dr Sogdian-Chinese bilingual epitaph including five of the so-called Imre Galambos, I came back as an had been excavated in China, whose ‘Ancient Letters’ excavated near sabao Academic Visitor at the Faculty of owner, a Sogdian (caravan Dunhuang by Aurel Stein (1862- Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at leader), lived in the Northern Zhou 1943) in the early 20th century and the University with funding from the period (557–581 C.E.). The present another letter from Loulan. After China Scholarship Council, as well epitaph we are studying belongs we finished reading the texts, with as the support of the Trust and the to a Sogdian woman whose family the kind help of Mrs Ursula Sims- Sino-British Fellowship Trust (via was originally from Samarkand and Williams at the British Library and Dr SOAS). whose husband was a merchant. Susan Whitfield and her colleagues She died a few years later than he The main aim of my visit was to at the International Dunhuang did, and they were buried together carry out my research project on Project (IDP), we went to the British the Sogdian documents in China. in a northern Chinese city thousands Library to check the manuscripts of One important task has been to of miles away from their home these letters. work on a Sogdian-Chinese bilingual country. Although both the Sogdian and the Chinese inscriptions are Meanwhile we are reading a epitaph with Prof. Sims-Williams. Sogdian Buddhist text together The epitaph is housed in a museum brief and do not contain too many details about this woman and her with Prof. Almut Hintze. With the in Shenzhen and we were given original Chinese parallel available, permission to study the Sogdian family’s life in China, it still provides us with valuable information about this translated Sogdian text is inscription (see above) by the not difficult to understand, but curator in winter 2014. At first we the ordinary Sogdians in China in the late sixth century. Now our joint sometimes we are confused by could only study it from the photo the profound terms of Buddhist of the rubbing which was not very article on the epitaph is finished and hopefully it will be published soon. philosophy, especially when it comes good quality. In June 2014 I had a to the passages with ambiguous chance to go to check the original It is not the first time that I have or shoddy translation! Even so, we Sogdian inscription and I took some worked with Prof. Sims-Williams do not want blame the anonymous photos which helped us to improve in the past few years; we have Sogdian translator; on the contrary, the reading. In June 2015, after collaborated several times in we are very grateful to him for attending a conference in Hong working on the Sogdian documents leaving us such valuable materials Kong, Prof. Sims-Williams met me in from Niya and Khotan, Xinjiang, to study Sogdian! The reading Shenzhen and we planned to check China. As on previous occasions I session is always full of joys and the original Sogdian inscription. To have benefited a lot from working insights. Often if we are struck by a our surprise, the curator took out with him. In the past few months we word of linguistic importance, the another stone slab and told us it managed to read several published two professors would engage in a must be the Chinese part of the and unpublished Sogdian texts, heated discussion. To put it in their

10 INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust Buddha niche, Bamiyan, Afghanistan. own words, it is like doing mental Photo: Jake Simkin exercises. At that time I could not The Bamiyan help thinking, if Prof. Harold Bailey Buddhas guidebooks; Bridget Allchin’s 1951 were still alive, he would have been photographs of the Kabul Museum’s eager to join us! revisited, thanks collections, documenting the prized I have never met Prof. Bailey in antiquities before they were lost or person, but every time I read his to a Trust Bursary damaged during the Mujahideen civil annotations in his books or look war (1992-96) and Taliban regime at his photos or portrait on the by J Eva Meharry (1996-2001); notes and letters penned walls, I feel as though his soul is still Since the Taliban destroyed the by notable Afghan scholars hidden here. Every day when I sit in the Bamiyan Buddhas fifteen years ago away in book jackets, reflecting on India Room to do my work, every - hitherto surviving the rise and fall Afghanistan’s cultural and political time when I easily find a book I of empires for fourteen centuries transformation since the Soviet want to check from the library of - the international community has invasion in 1979. Not to mention the Trust, I feel so grateful to him continuously debated whether to the informative stories recounted and other founding Trustees who rebuild the colossal statues. Yet the by the Trust’s staff and distinguished have left such a wonderful legacy decision to reconstruct the Buddhas guests during daily tea breaks, such as to the scholars including me, as not only hinges on the willingness of Ralph Pinder-Wilson’s imprisonment well as to those who are currently the Afghan government, which has in Afghanistan, or my supervisor’s Trustees and the donors who have thus far categorically rejected the student days at Cambridge. kept it running. I also would like to ambitious and expensive scheme, but Largely owing to the resources found take this opportunity to express also on our understanding of what led at the Trust, part of the argument I my great thanks to the staff at the to the destruction of the Buddhas and formulated was that archaeology, and Trust: Brendan, James, Jo, Jose and the likelihood of its recurrence. Bamiyan in particular, was a potent Margaret. It is really a pleasure to be With this on-going question in tool in early twentieth-century Afghan with them! mind, in 2015 I set out to examine progressive, nationalist agendas, which strained relations with the I wish time flew more slowly, but how successive Afghan political conservative faction of Afghan society. sadly, the time to say goodbye is administrations utilized archaeology in The fundamentalist Taliban regime coming. At this moment I can think, their nation-building agendas for my similarly employed archaeology to only of Xu Zhimo’s poem, written Durham MA dissertation, ‘Nationalism, legitimate their political leadership, on his departure from Cambridge, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology using the destruction of the Bamiyan which floats on my lips: in Afghanistan: A Case Study of Bamiyan’, under the supervision of Buddhas in 2001 to assert their agenda Quietly I take my leave UNESCO Professor Robin Coningham. against the international community. Just as quietly as I came; Thanks to an AIIT bursary, I uncovered Given this conclusion, as well as Gently waving my sleeves, dozens of valuable resources within the Afghanistan’s on-going civil strife and Not even a single cloud will I Trust’s holdings. the recent Da’esh attack in Kabul, it bring away. thus seems an unpropitious moment Amongst the overflowing shelves, to resurrect the Bamiyan Buddhas. I shall take my leave, with nothing I found early twentieth-century Now using my MA dissertation as a but my books, since everything Afghan government brochures and in such a quintessential place has pilot study for my PhD in Archaeology been deeply inscribed in my mind: at Cambridge, I am again excellent library, nice people, grateful to have AIIT’s resources morning coffee at 11 o’clock, readily available as I continue to beautiful garden, naughty squirrels ‘discover’ new material in the and jolly birds on the trees, as well idyllic setting of the Trust’s library. as three timid deer and a small fox I continue to ‘discover’ new material occasionally seen from the window in the idyllic setting of the Trust’s in front of my table in the India library. Room. Eva Meharry Dr Bi Bo Eva Meharry is a doctoral School of Chinese Classics The author at the researcher in Archaeology, Renmin University of China, Beijing Ancient India & Iran Trust. University of Cambridge.

INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 11 Professor Almut Hintze gave Westcott House a fascinating talk about at the Trust Zoroastrianism explaining the basic precepts of by Br Chris Martin SSF the religion and how it has related through the Every four years one is given an extra centuries to Judaism and day that should be spent wisely and in Christianity; we all sat in the company of good friends, and so silent awe as Professor th on the 29 February a group of eleven Hintze recited to us several ordinands and one tag-along friar beautiful prayers in the made their way across town to visit Avestan language. We also the AIIT from Westcott House, one learnt a little about Sogdian and its Westcott group with Trustees at the Trust of Cambridge’s theological colleges relation to Christianity from Professor friar was the scrummy cake with tea, for the Church of England. We had Nicholas Sims-Williams, and for but ultimately it was a very successful a marvellous afternoon, beginning several weeks Westcott’s Community leap-day of making a few more good with a tour of the house that included noticeboard included messages about friends! the chance to see some beautifully changing the ‘Greek for fun’ club to a illuminated books and a dried leaf ‘Sogdian for fun’ club. Chris Martin studied at Westcott from the Buddha’s Bodhi tree. Possibly the best memory for a plump House, Cambridge

The Two Rains Project Learning from responses to climate change by Cameron Petrie Two Rains is the abbreviated title the Indus Civilisation (c.2500-1900 Archaeology, Earth Sciences and for the project Winter Rain, Summer BCE), which developed in a specific Geography to reconstruct climate, Rain: Adaptation, Climate Change, region where westerly winter rainfall model rain patterns, and explore Resilience and the Indus Civilisation. overlapped with the summer rainfall societal adaptations and responses This project builds on the work of the Indian Summer Monsoon to change. We plan to do this by carried out for the Land, Water and (ISM). In addition to living in a combining data on settlement Settlement project, about which I diverse and variable environment, distribution, food production and spoke at the Ancient India & Iran we also know that Indus populations consumption, and water stress. Trust in November 2015. were beset by an abrupt weakening The data will then be integrated Climate change is one of the most of the ISM around 2100 BCE, and and assessed using agent-based pressing global concerns, particularly this appears to have coincided with modelling, where we will be able to as it is likely to have a direct impact the start of the decline of Indus use the data that we collect to run on food security. We know that cities. The degree to which there is simulations to explore how particular rainfall systems are complex and a connection between the two is, decisions are likely to have panned inherently variable, and human however, unclear. out. By using such an integrated populations have been able to Archaeologists are in a unique interdisciplinary approach, we plan adapt their behaviour to a wide position to understand the to ask directly ‘Does climate change range of climatic and environmental ways in which societies respond really cause collapse?’, explain how conditions. There is a lot to learn to climate change as they can particular communities perceived from the past about the degree investigate the ‘before’, ‘during’ weather and landscape changes, to which human choices were and ‘after’ of past instances of hypothesise why they made the resilient and sustainable in the face success or failure. We feel that decisions they did, and explore the of variable weather conditions and the Indus Civilisation provides an consequences of those decisions. when confronted with abrupt events ideal laboratory for exploring how of climate change. societies can respond to variable Dr Cameron Petrie is Reader in South The Two Rains project is investigating and changing rain systems, for the Asian and Iranian Archaeology at the the resilience and sustainability of Two Rains project will be combining University of Cambridge and a Trustee South Asia’s first complex society, cutting edge approaches from of the Ancient India & Iran Trust 12 INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust Work in progress Two reports, one on a workshop held at the Trust, and the other on workshops in Australia Bimaran Workshop at the Ancient India involving Trustees of the AIIT. & Iran Trust By Wannaporn Rienjang

This two-day workshop, which took by a discussion. The first two place on the 11 and 12 September presentations covered two specific 2015, was sponsored by the British objects in the relic assemblage of Institute of Persian Studies, the Bimaran stupa no. 2: the coins and Iranian Heritage Foundation, the the inscribed stone container, their Neil Kreitman Foundation, the Neil dates and significance in establishing Kreitman Central Asian Numismatic the chronology of relic assemblage Endowment Fund, and Clare Hall and the practice of relic worship. Joe Cambridge. The workshop aimed Cribb’s presentation showed that the at presenting new findings on the four coins in the name of Azes found material cultures of early historic in the Bimaran deposit can now be Afghanistan that relate to Buddhist attributed to the Indo-Scythian satrap relic worship, and developing ideas Mujatria who ruled in Jalalabad for future research on Buddhism area in the late first to early second in Afghanistan. The focus of the century AD. Wannaporn Kay Rienjang, The Bimaran Casket, image ©Trustees of the British Museum workshop was a deposit inside a PhD candidate in the Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, a Buddhist ritual mound west of raised awareness of how to critically illustrated the rectangular recess on Jalalabad called Bimaran stupa no. employ stylistic analysis in the dating the underside of some Gandharan 2, particularly on the well-known of Buddha images. The Friday session and unique ‘Bimaran gold casket’. stone containers. This feature suggests the date first to second was wrapped up by Dr Cameron The workshop gathered specialists century AD and eastern Afghanistan Petrie, senior lecturer in South Asian from diverse fields including or Bajaur as the time and place and Iranian Archaeology, University of numismatics, art history, epigraphy for the production of the Bimaran Cambridge, who summarized the state and archaeology. inscribed stone container. of play and elements necessary for Fifteen discussants and three re-interpreting the relic assemblages The next two presentations touched observers participated, including Joe of Bimaran stupa no. 2. on a broader context, the practice Cribb, former Keeper of Coins and of openly displaying relics and The second day of the workshop was Medals, the British Museum, Prof. the development of the Buddha devoted to discussions under three Nasim Khan, emeritus professor, image. Drawing on art historical and themes: chronology, relic practices, and Institute of Archaeology and archaeological evidence gathered from the development of Buddhist imagery. Anthropology, University of Peshawar, Pakistan and India, Kurt Behrendt drew Fourteen discussants and two observers and Dr Kurt Behrendt, curator of attention to the impact of the visual participated, including Sir Nicholas Asian Art, the Metropolitan Museum representation of the Bimaran gold Barrington, and Mr Wahid Parvanta, of Art, New York. casket. Robert Bracey, curator of South honorary Cultural attaché from the Four papers were presented in the and Central Asian coins, Department of Embassy of Afghanistan in London. morning of 11 September followed Coins and Medals, the British Museum, The workshop has stimulated thinking on how to employ multidisciplinary approaches to help establish the dates for the Bimaran deposit. Although the question of the date of the famous Bimaran gold casket remains, for the time being, unanswered, new insights on objects associated with it were achieved. This advance will certainly encourage future collaboration between scholars of various fields whose interest lies in the history and archaeology of ancient Afghanistan. Wannaporn Rienjang is Project Assistant of the Gandhara Prof. Nasim Khan of the Peshawar University, chairing a Connections Project, University of discussion session on stupa decoration Oxford INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 13 AIIT Downunder by Samuel Lieu

The successful outcome of a large in 1911 by the two distinguished Humanities held at the University of grant application to the Australian French sinologues, Edouard Sydney (27 November). Research Council on behalf of the Chavannes and Paul Pelliot. A separate evening was devoted Series Sinica of the Corpus Fontium Together with Mrs Ursula Sims- to research on Manichaeism. Both Manichaeorum by Dr Gunner Williams (Hon. Librarian of AIIT), the Prof. Sims-Williams and Dr Morano Mikkelsen and Prof. Samuel N.C. two AIIT scholars also gave keynote gave talks on their own cutting-edge Lieu enabled the Australian team addresses at Professor Sam Lieu’s research in this low key Mani-Fest (1 to invite the Chair of the Trustees, retirement conference: EURASIA December 2015), followed by dinner Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams, to – SILK ROAD – BYZANTIUM held at hosted by Mr Christopher Flynn (a take part in a series of research the Ancient History Documentary long-term supporter of the Corpus ‘workshops’ related to the project Research Centre of Macquarie Inscriptionum Iranicarum project) at at Macquarie University (Sydney) in University (26–27 November 2015). a Chinese restaurant in Sydney. late November and early December In his lecture, Prof. Sims-Williams On a sad note, the team greatly 2015. A generous grant from the made clear that Macquarie’s loss Ancient Cultures Research Centre, missed Dr John Sheldon, a frequent will be the AIIT’s gain as Prof. Sam visitor to the Trust and a former Macquarie University, also enabled Lieu, a current Trustee, will be able Dr Enrico Morano, a long-time student of Prof. Sir Harold Bailey; to spend even more time at the John was recovering from a serious associate of the AIIT through the Trust in his retirement! Another accident in Italy. He would have Dictionary of Manichaean Texts participant, Adjunct Professor Ross co-hosted the festivities and made a project, to be a major participant Burns FAHA, a former visitor to major contribution to the research through a Visiting Fellowship. the Trust and Australia’s former ‘workshops’ had he been in Sydney The purpose of the research Ambassador to Syria, gave a moving during this ‘festive’ period. and tragically relevant lecture ‘workshops’ is to produce a new Titles of lectures delivered by on the destruction of ancient edition with translation of all the Trustees and friends of AIIT: known fragments in Parthian and monuments in Syria. Nicholas and EURASIA – SILK ROAD – BYZANTIUM Sogdian which parallel the famous Ursula were guests of Sam Lieu (26–27 November 2015). Chinese Manichaean Traité found at the Annual Fellows’ Dinner of Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams at Dunhuang and first published the Australian Academy of the (SOAS, London) The Bactrian archives: reconstructing the lost history of Ancient Afghanistan; Dr Enrico Morano (Turin & Berlin; ACRC Visiting Research Fellow); Some remarks on the corpus of the Berlin Manichaean Sogdian texts in Manichaean script; Ursula Sims-Williams (British Library) Manuscripts from the Southern Silk Road; Prof. Ross Burns (Macquarie University) The Lost Monuments of Syria—the path of destruction at Palmyra and Aleppo MANIFEST – LECTURES ON MANICHAEISM (1 December 2015) Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams (SOAS, London) Manichaeism in Bactria; Dr Enrico Morano Religion in hymns: a Parthian bifolio in Manichaean script from Turfan with hymns to the Father of Greatness. Professor Samuel Lieu is Inaugural Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum at work: Samuel Lieu (left), Distinguished Professor (Emeritus), Enrico Morano and Nicholas Sims-Williams. Macquarie University, Sydney. AIIT people and the Friends’ Group Are you a Friend?

The Trust receives no public money Crowden, drawing on the experiences Trustees of the Ancient and relies entirely on its own of his great uncle Professor K de B resources. Our work has attracted a Codrington in the early- and mid- India & Iran Trust number of volunteers, donors and twentieth century. We hope that you Sir Nicholas Barrington, MA, KCMG, close associates, but plans for future will consider becoming a Friend and CVO expansion led us to establish a more that you will join us at our events.’ Former British High Commissioner organised network of contacts and to Pakistan, Honorary Fellow of Clare Joining the Friends costs £30 for supporters through an association College, Cambridge annual membership, or £400 for a of Friends. We hope that those who life membership. Richard Blurton, MPhil are interested in the academic work For details: [email protected] Head, South and Southeast Asia promoted by the Trust, or more Section, British Museum generally in the history and culture of ‘We also highly value help from our Friends Joe Cribb, BA the countries covered, will become in providing ideas, contacts and advice, as Former Keeper of Coins and Medals, Friends, whether they live in the UK well as financial support.’ British Museum and Research or overseas. The contributions made Associate, Heberden Coin Room, by our Friends are invaluable. Ashmolean Museum Friends receive newsletters and Honorary Fellows Almut Hintze, PhD, Dr Habil, FBA advance information about lectures The Ancient India & Iran Trust (Honorary Treasurer) and seminars and other activities. Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Special Friends’ events are organised appoints distinguished scholars who operate in the fields that the Trust Zoroastrianism, SOAS, University of each term and, as part of the Trust London 'family', Friends are invited to our covers, and who have built up a close Samuel Lieu, DPhil, FRHistS, FSA, traditional Summer Garden Party and connection with the Trust. FAHA, FRSN, Inaugural Distinguished other social functions, and are always The following scholars are currently Professor (Emeritus), Macquarie welcome to visit the Trust. We also connected to the Trust as its University, Sydney and President highly value help from our Friends in Honorary Fellows: of the International Union of providing ideas, contacts and advice, Academies (Union Académique as well as financial support. Professor Gerard Fussman (Professor of Indian History, Collège de France, Internationale) 2017-2021 The joint Chairs of the Friends are Paris) Julius Lipner, PhD, FBA Bill Martin and Sandra Mason. They Professor Emeritus of Hinduism and write: Professor Anna Dallapiccola (Honorary Professor, Edinburgh) the Comparative Study of Religion, ‘Friends’ events in the past year have University of Cambridge included a talk by Conor Jameson and Professor Emeritus Prods Oktor Cameron Petrie, PhD (Honorary Stephanie Morren of RSPB about the Skjærvo (Aga Khan Professor of Secretary) Reader in South Asian and vital project ‘Saving Asia’s Vultures’, Iranian, Harvard) Iranian Archaeology, Department and an illustrated presentation on Professor Maria Macuch (Professor of Archaeology, University of Reverend George Lewis and his Emerita of Iranian Studies, Freie Cambridge collection of Persian manuscripts and Universität, Berlin) Nicholas Sims-Williams, PhD, FBA other curiosities by Catherine Ansorge (Chair) of the Cambridge University Library. Professor Robert Hillenbrand Emeritus Professor of Iranian AIIT Trustee Professor Julius Lipner (Honorary Professorial Fellow, and Central Asian Studies, SOAS, gave a talk in our Meet the Trustees Edinburgh) University of London series, under the title ‘Work in Professor Minoru Hara (Emeritus progress: from Bengal to Cambridge Ursula Sims-Williams, MA Professor of the International College and back again – many times’. There (Honorary Librarian) of the Advanced Buddhist Studies, was also a special guided tour of Lead Curator of Iranian Collections, Tokyo) the exhibition Another India at the British Library Cambridge Museum of Archaeology The late Professor Werner Christine Van Ruymbeke, PhD and Anthropology. Among the events Sundermann, Professor Gherardo Ali Reza and Mohamed Soudavar planned are a talk on 9 March on past Gnoli, Professor Mary Boyce and Senior Lecturer in Persian Studies, and present experiences of serving Ralph Pinder-Wilson were also Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern in Afghanistan and Pakistan by James Honorary Fellows of the Trust. Studies, University of Cambridge

INDIRAN the newsletter of the Ancient India and Iran Trust 15 Three-and-a-half Daniells By James Cormick

The advantage of having a cis- Allchin told me that octogenarian as the custodian of the he was deputed by Trust’s house in Brooklands Avenue the Faculty to find a is that he has been around long retirement present for enough to tell you the provenance Sir Harold, but realised of almost everything in it. On this at the presentation basis, I would like to give you a brief ceremony that he had anecdotal history of our acquisition made a mistake. Sir Harold showed Mausoleum of Nawaub Assoph Khan, of the Daniells aquatints hanging on no particular interest in it and had to Rajemahel, 1803. the walls of 23 Brooklands Avenue be reminded to take it home with him in the 1950s. It is still in the same (Daniells in the plural, because there after the ceremony was over. I, too, Hogarth frame and still has the original were two of them, Thomas (1749- verified this lack of interest 24 years label on the back: “P. & D. Colnaghi & 1840) and William (1769-1837), uncle later when I found it hidden behind Co. Ltd. …. 14 Old Bond Street, W1”. and nephew). a pile of books and gathering dust on Byam Shaw, not surprisingly, bought it the floor of Sir Harold’s study in 23 from his own shop. The first of these belonged to the Brooklands Avenue. I cleaned it up Van Louhuizens, two of the founding The last Daniell aquatint hangs in the and hung it over the mantelpiece in trustees of the Ancient India & Iran hall of the house, on the staircase the India Room, where it can be seen Trust. They were great collectors of panelling. It is by the nephew only, and admired by visitors to the house. (I Indian and Indo-Chinese artefacts, William Daniell, or rather engraved by think it is true to say that Sir Harold had including a number of pictures, mostly him and drawn by S. Davis Esq., hence no interest in the visual arts. Even the of Indian origin, mostly unframed and my claim in the title of this essay that books and manuscripts that he bought now in storage in our strongroom. we have a ‘half’ Daniell. It is from the voraciously throughout his adult life One of the pictures which was ‘Views in Bootan’ series (1813) and is were bought for their linguistic content, framed, however, and which hangs a View on the river Teenchoo. It was not for their beauty or value as books, in my sitting-room upstairs, is of the presented to the Trust in 1982, just their bibliophilic value.) Mausoleum of Nawaub Assoph Khan, after it moved into 23 Brooklands Rajemahel. It was drawn and engraved The third Daniell actually hangs Avenue, by Professor Andrew Goudie, by Thos. & Wm. Daniell, and given the in my study. It was given to me by the distinguished Oxford geographer, number No. XXIV. Unfortunately, the James and Helen Kinnier Wilson, who was also a friend and colleague framing, which is relatively modern on the understanding that if I tired of the Allchins. In fact, Goudie (1980s), has hidden the second line of it, I could pass it on to the Trust collaborated with Bridget Allchin of print under the title. So we cannot (which I will do, one day, I suppose). on a book published by Academic read who the publisher was and the It is of the ‘Remains of an ancient Press in 1978: The Prehistory and exact date of publication. But clearly building near Firoz Shah’s Cotilla, Palaeogeography of the Great Indian the number identifies it as one of the Delhi’. It was drawn and engraved Desert, by Bridget Allchin, Andrew S. 144 plates in the famous ‘Oriental by Thomas Daniell alone, again, Goudie, and Karunarkara Hegde. Scenery’ series created by the Daniells and published in 1795, as No. VII in As you will have noticed, I have said and published in six parts (1795-1808). the ‘Oriental Scenery’ series. James nothing about the artistic value of The second Daniell hangs in the India retired as Lecturer in Assyriology at these aquatints. That has already Room over the mantelpiece. It was the University of Cambridge in 1989. been done copiously elsewhere and drawn and engraved by Thomas He was the colleague of both Harold by scholars much better qualified than Daniell alone and is of the Gate of the Bailey and Raymond Allchin, and a myself to do so. The Daniells became Loll-Baug at Yabba (1801), published friend and constant visitor to Sir Harold famous in their time and 200 years in 1801, and No. III in the ‘Oriental in his retirement. But it was a much later their prints are still highly prized Scenery’ series. This was ‘Presented earlier friend who gave him the Daniell and widely collected. My purpose here to Professor Sir Harold Bailey by picture. James Byam Shaw (1903- was merely to indicate the interesting members of the Faculty of Oriental 1992) was a distinguished art historian provenances of our very small Studies, University of Cambridge, May and a director of Colnaghi’s, and it collection of them. 1967’, according to the plate on the was he who chose this picture as a James Cormick is the Custodian of the bottom of the frame. In fact, Raymond wedding present for James and Helen Ancient India & Iran Trust.

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