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Looking at Gandhāra
HISTORIA I ŚWIAT, nr 4 (2015) ISSN 2299-2464 Kumar ABHIJEET (Magadh University, India) Looking at Gandhāra Keywords: Art History, Silk Route, Gandhāra It is not the object of the story to convey a happening per se, which is the purpose of information; rather, it embeds it in the life of the storyteller in order to pass it on as experience to those listening. It thus bears the marks of the storyteller much as the earthen vessel bears the marks of the potter's hand. —Walter Benjamin, "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire" Discovery of Ancient Gandhāra The beginning of the 19th century was revolutionary in terms of western world scholars who were eager to trace the conquest of Alexander in Asia, in speculation of the route to India he took which eventually led to the discovery of ancient Gandhāra region (today, the geographical sphere lies between North West Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan). In 1808 CE, Mountstuart Elphinstone was the first British envoy sent in Kabul when the British went to win allies against Napoleon. He believed to identify those places, hills and vineyard described by the itinerant Greeks or the Greek Sources on Alexander's campaign in India or in their memory of which the Macedonian Commanders were connected. It is significant to note that the first time in modern scholarship the word “Thupa (Pali word for stupa)” was used by him.1 This site was related to the place where Alexander’s horse died and a city called Bucephala (Greek. Βουκεφάλα ) was erected by Alexander the Great in honor of his black horse with a peculiar shaped white mark on its forehead. -
Buddhist Histories
JIABS Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume 25 Number 1-2 2002 Buddhist Histories Richard SALOMON and Gregory SCHOPEN On an Alleged Reference to Amitabha in a KharoÒ†hi Inscription on a Gandharian Relief .................................................................... 3 Jinhua CHEN Sarira and Scepter. Empress Wu’s Political Use of Buddhist Relics 33 Justin T. MCDANIEL Transformative History. Nihon Ryoiki and Jinakalamalipakara∞am 151 Joseph WALSER Nagarjuna and the Ratnavali. New Ways to Date an Old Philosopher................................................................................ 209 Cristina A. SCHERRER-SCHAUB Enacting Words. A Diplomatic Analysis of the Imperial Decrees (bkas bcad) and their Application in the sGra sbyor bam po gnis pa Tradition....................................................................................... 263 Notes on the Contributors................................................................. 341 ON AN ALLEGED REFERENCE TO AMITABHA IN A KHARO∑™HI INSCRIPTION ON A GANDHARAN RELIEF RICHARD SALOMON AND GREGORY SCHOPEN 1. Background: Previous study and publication of the inscription This article concerns an inscription in KharoÒ†hi script and Gandhari language on the pedestal of a Gandharan relief sculpture which has been interpreted as referring to Amitabha and Avalokitesvara, and thus as hav- ing an important bearing on the issue of the origins of the Mahayana. The sculpture in question (fig. 1) has had a rather complicated history. According to Brough (1982: 65), it was first seen in Taxila in August 1961 by Professor Charles Kieffer, from whom Brough obtained the photograph on which his edition of the inscription was based. Brough reported that “[o]n his [Kieffer’s] return to Taxila a month later, the sculpture had dis- appeared, and no information about its whereabouts was forthcoming.” Later on, however, it resurfaced as part of the collection of Dr. -
The Apsidal Temple of Taxila
T HE THE APSIDAL TEMPLE OF TAXILA: A TRADITIONAL HYPOTHESIS AND PSIDA L POSSIBLE NEW INTERPRETATIONS T EMP L E Luca Colliva O F T AXI L A The so called ‘apsidal temple’ of Sirkap is an imposing building belonging, according to Marshall, : T RADI to the Indo-Parthian period (Figure 1) (Marshall 1951, 150-151). It is built over an artificial terrace T facing the main street in the northern part of the town and was brought to light by John Marshall at IONA th the beginning of the last century after some minor excavations during the 19 century. Unlike his L H predecessors, who were very doubtful about its nature (Cunningham 1871, 126-128), Marshall identified YPO T this building as a Buddhist gr. ha-stūpa (Marshall 1930, 111; Marshall 1951, 150); this interpretation HESIS has indeed never been questioned and is accepted, also, in the last study on urban form in Taxila A (Coningham & Edwards 1998, 50). ND However, we cannot deem this attribution certain. No traces are detectable of the main stūpa P OSSIB Marshall recognises in the ‘circular room’ (Marshall 1951, 151). Besides, what Marshall describes as L E two additional stūpas are nothing but scanty remains of foundations belonging to two monuments N of uncertain nature. As I already pointed out in a more exhaustive way (Colliva in press), Marshall EW I was probably convinced that the apsidal shape of this building was enough to identify it as a N T Buddhist caitya. The discovery at Sonkh of an apsidal-shaped temple, probably dedicated to a nāga ERPRE cult, shows, on the contrary, that non-Buddhist religious buildings with an apsidal plan occur in T A T periods chronologically consistent with that of the “apsidal temple” of Sirkap (Härtel 1970; Härtel IONS 1993). -
Old Habits, New Consequences Old Habits, New Khalid Homayun Consequences Nadiri Pakistan’S Posture Toward Afghanistan Since 2001
Old Habits, New Consequences Old Habits, New Khalid Homayun Consequences Nadiri Pakistan’s Posture toward Afghanistan since 2001 Since the terrorist at- tacks of September 11, 2001, Pakistan has pursued a seemingly incongruous course of action in Afghanistan. It has participated in the U.S. and interna- tional intervention in Afghanistan both by allying itself with the military cam- paign against the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida and by serving as the primary transit route for international military forces and matériel into Afghanistan.1 At the same time, the Pakistani security establishment has permitted much of the Afghan Taliban’s political leadership and many of its military command- ers to visit or reside in Pakistani urban centers. Why has Pakistan adopted this posture of Afghan Taliban accommodation despite its nominal participa- tion in the Afghanistan intervention and its public commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan?2 This incongruence is all the more puzzling in light of the expansion of insurgent violence directed against Islamabad by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a coalition of militant organizations that are independent of the Afghan Taliban but that nonetheless possess social and po- litical links with Afghan cadres of the Taliban movement. With violence against Pakistan growing increasingly indiscriminate and costly, it remains un- clear why Islamabad has opted to accommodate the Afghan Taliban through- out the post-2001 period. Despite a considerable body of academic and journalistic literature on Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan since 2001, the subject of Pakistani accommodation of the Afghan Taliban remains largely unaddressed. Much of the existing literature identiªes Pakistan’s security competition with India as the exclusive or predominant driver of Pakistani policy vis-à-vis the Afghan Khalid Homayun Nadiri is a Ph.D. -
Complete List of the Recipients of the Pakistan Civil Awards – 2021
Complete List of the Recipients of the Pakistan Civil Awards – 2021 President confers civil awards to 184 Pakistanis, foreigners for excellence, services President Dr Arif Alvi on August 14, 2020 conferred Pakistan’s civil awards to 184 Pakistanis and foreigners in recognition of their services to Pakistan and showing excellence in their respective fields. Among the civil awards conferred by the president on Independence day included Nishan- e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Sitarah-e-Pakistan, Sitarah-e- Shujaat and Sitarah-e-Imtiaz. The other categories included Pride of Performance, Sitarah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Sitarah-e-Khidmat, Tamgha-e-Pakistan, Tamgha-e- Shujaat, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam. The investitures ceremony for the said awards would be held on March 23, 2021, according to a Cabinet Division press release. Following is the list of the awards and the would-be recipients along with the fields they served in. NISHAN-I-IMTIAZ Sadeqain Naqvi Arts (Painting/Sculpture) Prof. Shakir Ali Arts (Painting) Zahoor ul Haq (Late) Arts (Painting/ Sculpture) Ms. Abida Parveen Arts (Singing) Dr. Jameel Jalibi Muhammad Jameel Khan (Late) (Sindh) Literature (Critic/Historian) Ahmad Faraz (Late) (KP) Literature (Poetry) HILAL-I-IMTIAZ Prof. Dr. Anwar ul Hassan Gillani (Sindh) Science (Pharmaceutical Sciences) Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah (Punjab) Public Service HILAL-I-QUAID-I-AZAM Jack Ma (China) Services to Pakistan Downloaded from www.csstimes.pk | 1 Complete List of the Recipients of the Pakistan Civil Awards – 2021 SITARA-I-PAKISTAN -
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Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 64 (2021) 217-250 brill.com/jesh Regimes of Diplomacy and Law: Bengal-China Encounters in the Early Fifteenth Century Mahmood Kooria Researcher, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands and Visiting faculty, Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana, India [email protected] Abstract This article examines the Bengal–China connections between the Ilyās Shāhī and Ming dynasties in the early fifteenth century across the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea. It traces how law played a central role in the cultural geography and diplomatic vocabulary between individuals and communities in foreign lands, with their shared understanding of two nodal points of law. Diplomatic missions explicate how custom- ary, regional and transregional laws were entangled in inter-imperial etiquette. Then there were the religious orders of Islam that constituted an inner circle of imperial exchanges. Between the Ilyās Shāhī rule in Bengal and the Ming Empire in China, certain dimensions of Islamic law provided a common language for the circulation of people and ideas. Stretching between cities and across oceans the interpolity legal exchanges expose interesting aspects of the histories of China and Bengal. Keywords Bengal-China connections – Ming dynasty – Ilyās Shāhī dynasty – interpolity laws – diplomacy – Islam – Indian Ocean Introduction More than a decade ago JESHO published a special issue (49/4), edited by Kenneth R. Hall, on the transregional cultural and economic exchanges and diasporic mobility between South, Southeast and East Asia, an area usually © Mahmood Kooria, 2021 | doi:10.1163/15685209-12341536 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0Downloaded license. -
Ancient Universities in India
Ancient Universities in India Ancient alanda University Nalanda is an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India from 427 to 1197. Nalanda was established in the 5th century AD in Bihar, India. Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, it survived until 1197. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war. The center had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the university’s heyday and providing accommodations for 2,000 professors. Nalanda University attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. A half hour bus ride from Rajgir is Nalanda, the site of the world's first University. Although the site was a pilgrimage destination from the 1st Century A.D., it has a link with the Buddha as he often came here and two of his chief disciples, Sariputra and Moggallana, came from this area. The large stupa is known as Sariputra's Stupa, marking the spot not only where his relics are entombed, but where he was supposedly born. The site has a number of small monasteries where the monks lived and studied and many of them were rebuilt over the centuries. We were told that one of the cells belonged to Naropa, who was instrumental in bringing Buddism to Tibet, along with such Nalanda luminaries as Shantirakshita and Padmasambhava. -
The Hephthalite Numismatics
THE HEPHTHALITE NUMISMATICS Aydogdy Kurbanov 1. Introduction Arabic – Haital, Hetal, Heithal, Haiethal, Central Asia and neighbouring countries have a Heyâthelites. In Arabic sources the Hephtha- very old and rich history. A poorly-studied and in- lites, though they are mentioned as Haitals, tricate period of this region is the early medieval are sometimes also refered to as Turks. period (4th - 6th centuries AD). During this time, In the 4th - 6th centuries AD the territory of Cen- “The Great movement of peoples”, the migration tral Asia included at least four major political en- of nomadic peoples (Huns) from Asia to Europe, tities, among them Kushans, Chionites, Kidarites, took place. In South and Central Asia, great em- and Hephthalites. Discussions about the origins pires existed, including Sasanian Iran, Gupta and of these peoples still continue. Ideas vary from some small states. Across Central Asia, mysteri- the Hephthalites considered as part of the Hun ous new peoples appeared: the Hephthalites, the confederation to different other origins. It is also Kidarites and the Chionites, among others. Their uncertain whether the Hephthalites, the Kidarites origins are still debated. Some scholars suppose and the Chionites had a common or different ori- that they were part of a Hun confederation, while gins – that is, are they three branches of the same others suppose they had different origins. ethnic group or are they culturally, linguistically, Generally, the early research on the Hephthalites and genetically distinct from one another? was based only on written sources. They were The Hephthalites are well represented in their mentioned for the fi rst time in AD 361 at the siege coins. -
Note on the Historical Results Deducible from Recent Discoveries in Afghanistan Henry Thoby Prinsep
University of Nebraska Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Books in English Digitized Books 1-1-1844 Note on the historical results deducible from recent discoveries in Afghanistan Henry Thoby Prinsep Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/afghanuno Part of the History Commons, and the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Prinsep, Henry Thoby Note on the historical results deducible from recent discoveries in Afghanistan. London: W.H. Allen and Co., 1844. vi, 124 page, 17 plates This Monograph is brought to you for free and open access by the Digitized Books at DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books in English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTE ON THE f HISTORICAL RESULTS, DISCOVERIES IN AFGBANI8TAN. H. T. PRINSEP, ESP. LONDON: WM. H. ALLEN AND CO., 7, LEADENHALL STmET. - 1844. W. I.ICW19 AND SON, PRINTERS, PINCH-LANE, LONDON. PREFACE. THE Public are not unacquainted vith the fact, that dis- coveries of much interest have recently been made ia the regions of Central Asia, which were the seat of Greelr do- minion for some hundred years after their conquest byAlex- ander. These discoveries are principally, but not entirely, nunismatic, and have revealed the names of sovereigns of Greek race, and of their Scythian, and Pa~thiansuccessors, of none of whom is any mention to be found in the extant histories of the East or West. There has also been opencd to the curious, through these coins, a lan- guage, the existence of which was hithcrto unknown, and which must have been the vernacular dialect of some of the regions in which the Grecian colonies were established. -
Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art
Rienjang and Stewart (eds) Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art Edited by Wannaporn Rienjang Peter Stewart Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art Since the beginning of Gandhāran studies in the nineteenth century, chronology has been one of the most significant challenges to the understanding of Gandhāran art. Many other ancient societies, including those of Greece and Rome, have left a wealth of textual sources which have put their fundamental chronological frameworks beyond doubt. In the absence of such sources on a similar scale, even the historical eras cited on inscribed Gandhāran works of art have been hard to place. Few sculptures have such inscriptions and the majority lack any record of find-spot or even general provenance. Those known to have been found at particular sites were sometimes moved and reused in antiquity. Consequently, the provisional dates assigned to extant Gandhāran sculptures have sometimes differed by centuries, while the narrative of artistic development remains doubtful and inconsistent. Building upon the most recent, cross-disciplinary research, debate and excavation, this volume reinforces a new consensus about the chronology of Gandhāra, bringing the history of Gandhāran art into sharper focus than ever. By considering this tradition in its wider context, alongside contemporary Indian art and subsequent developments in Central Asia, the authors also open up fresh questions and problems which a new phase of research will need to address. Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art is the first publication of the Gandhāra Connections project at the University of Oxford’s Classical Art Research Centre, which has been supported by the Bagri Foundation and the Neil Kreitman Foundation. -
Phase Iii Architecture and Sculpture from Taxila 6.1
CHAPTER SIX PHASE III ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE FROM TAXILA 6.1 Introduction to the Phase III Developments in the Sacred Areas and Afonasteries ef Taxila and the Peshawar Basin A dramatic increase in patronage occurred across the Peshawar basin, Taxila, and Swat during phase III; most of the extant remains in these regions were constructed at this time. As devotional icons of Buddhas and bodhisattvas became increasingly popular, parallel trans formations occurred in the sacred areas, which still remained focused around relic stupas. In the Peshawar basin, Taxila, and to a lesser degree Swat, the widespread incorporation of large iconic images clearly reflects changes occurring in Buddhist practice. Although it is difficult to know how the sacred precincts were ritually used, modifications in the spatial organization of both sacred areas and monasteries provide some insight. Not surprisingly, the use and incorporation of devotional images developed regionally. The most dramatic shift toward icons is observed in the Peshawar basin and some of the Taxila sites. In contrast, Swat seemed to follow a different pattern, as fewer image shrines were fabricated and sacred areas were organized along different lines. This might reflect a lack of patronage; perhaps new sites following the Peshawar basin format were not commissioned because of a lack of resources. More likely, the Buddhist tradition in Swat was of a different character; some sites-notably Butkara I-show significant expansion following a uniquely Swati format. At a few sites in Swat, however, image shrines appear in positions analogous to those of the Peshawar basin; Nimogram and Saidu (figs. 109, 104) arc notable examples. -
How Chinese Buddhist Travelogues Changed Western Perception of Buddhism
The Historical Turn: How Chinese Buddhist Travelogues Changed Western Perception of Buddhism MAX DEEG Cardiff University [email protected] Keywords: Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing, William Jones, Buddhist travelogues DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15239/hijbs.01.01.02 Abstract: Information about Buddhism was scarce and vague at best in the West until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first Orientalists studying Indian sources had to rely on Hindu texts written in Sanskrit (e.g. Purāṇas) which portrayed the Buddha as an avatāra of the Hindu god Viṣṇu. The situation changed with the discovery of the Pāli texts from Śrī Laṅkā through scholars like George Turnour and the decipherment of the Aśokan inscriptions through James Prinsep by which the historical dimension of the religion became evident. The final confirmation of the historicity of the Buddha and the religion founded by him was taken, however, from the records of Chinese Buddhist travellers (Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing) who had vis- ited the major sacred places of Buddhism in India and collected other information about the history of the religion. This paper will discuss the first Western translations of these travelogues and their reception in the scholarly discourse of the period and will suggest that the historical turn to which it led had a strong impact on the study and reception of Buddhism—in a way the start of Buddhist Studies as a discipline. Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies, 1.1 (2018): 43–75 43 44 MAX DEEG n the year of 1786, in his third ‘Anniversary Discourse’