Taxila

Taxila
UNESCO world heritage
Dharmarajika stupa
National territory:	Pakistan
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	(iii) (vi)
Reference No .:	139
UNESCO region :	Asia and Pacific
History of enrollment
Enrollment:	1980  ( session 4 )

Taxila in the Punjab region

Taxila: Pagoda with the double-headed eagle

Taxila (Greek form of the name; actually Sanskrit , तक्षशिला , f. Takṣaśilā , Takshashila ; lit. "Hill of Taksha", Pali : Takkasilā) was the historic capital of the Gandhara Empire , which spanned the eastern areas of present-day Afghanistan and the northwest Pakistan extended. Taxila experienced its heyday from the fifth century BC to the fifth century of our time. The archaeological sites of the former Taxila have been listed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 1980 .

location

Located at the intersection of three important trade routes, the place was of considerable economic and strategic importance. The remains of the city, a rich site for archaeological research, lie about 35 kilometers northwest of Islamabad in the Pakistani province of Punjab near the border with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and on the Grand Trunk Road .

history

In the Indian epic Ramayana it is told that the founding of Taxilas goes back to Bharata , the brother of Ramas . The city is also mentioned in the second great epic of India, the Mahabharata , and in the Jatakas ("birth stories" of the Buddha that tell of his earlier incarnations). Takshashila , the actual name of the city, is derived from Taksha , the eldest son of Bharata and first ruler, and means "hill of Taksha". The form commonly used today as Taxila comes from later Greek historiography.

In the 6th century BC Taxila was the capital of the empire Gandhara, since the conquest by the Achaemenid Darius I in the year 516 BC. The easternmost satrapy of the Persian Empire . Even at that time there were apparently trade relations with China , because there was already a word for silk in the Achaemenid language . These trade routes would develop into a network of routes known as the “ Silk Road ” in later centuries , which Taxila was connected to via the Kunjirap Pass . In addition to goods from the Persian Empire to the west and the Mediterranean region, from China in the east and India in the south, philosophies, religions and sciences from these important cultural areas also met here, making the city a center of teaching and exchange and a large university originated. Panini , an Indian scholar (5th / 4th century BC), wrote " Ashtadhyayi " at the University of Taxila , which for a long time was the most important summary of Sanskrit grammar . Kautilya (4th / 3rd century BC) wrote the " Arthashastra " (" The doctrine of material gain ") here.

In the 4th century BC The lands of the Persians were conquered by Alexander the Great . 326 BC He reached Taxila, took the city without a fight, since the ruling prince Taxiles surrendered to superior power, and stationed a garrison of Macedonians there . The rule of the Greeks ended as early as 317 BC. BC, but the Hellenistic influence, especially in art, persisted long afterwards.

Dharmarajika stupa: rising

Around 321 BC The Indian Maurya king Chandragupta founded the first Indian empire, which encompassed large parts of the Indian subcontinent . The empire experienced its greatest expansion during the reign of his grandson Ashoka , who himself was governor of his father in Taxila before he became emperor. 272 BC Ashoka became the ruler of the great empire and converted to Buddhism after a series of bloody campaigns and battles . As a result, he became a great promoter of the Buddha's teaching , the Dharma , and had edict pillars and thousands of stupas built. Also in Taxila, which at that time had been an important center of Buddhism for a long time and which attracted those eager to learn from all over the Buddhist world, the “Dharmarajika Stupa” (also Chir Tope ) was built at that time , which is probably the oldest stupa in today's Pakistan is. The original construction of this central sacred building in the city had a diameter of 50 meters, was hemispherical and probably resembled the better-known Sanchi stupa . The structure was largely destroyed in an earthquake in 30 and then rebuilt in an even larger form.

Coin of the Indo-Greek king Antialkidas

After Ashoka's death, the empire soon fell apart and in 185 BC. Gandhara was finally conquered by the Bactrian Greeks . With Sirkap they founded their own Greek city in the immediate vicinity of Taxilas and ruled there until about 90 BC. Taxila experienced a late heyday under the Indo-Greek king Antialkidas , who probably lived in the period from 115 to 95 BC. Ruled; his name is mentioned in an inscription on the Heliodorus column . Then the rule changed in quick succession to the Saken (a tribe of the Scythians , around 90 BC) and then to the Parthians (around 19 AD). According to tradition, their king Gondophares is said to have hosted the apostles Thomas and Apollonius of Tyana at his court.

Coin from Taxila (c. 2nd century)

A little later, around the year 78, the Parthians were in turn defeated by the Kushans , a branch of the Yuezhi . Vima Kadphises , the second king of Kushan, founded the third city in the Taxilas area, Sirsukh . Buddhism flourished again under the Kushans in the region, particularly encouraged by King Kanishka . His personal physician Charaka is considered to be the author of the Charaka Samhita , the oldest and most important classical work on Indian healing, Ayurveda . Also Nagarjuna , the eminent Buddhist scholar and founder of the Shûnyavâda -School of Mahayana Buddhism , taught at that time in Taxila. During the reign of Kanishka, the Dharmarajika stupa was expanded again. The remains of this most important religious building in Taxilas, which are still visible today, date back to this time. In the 1st century , the oldest images of the Buddha in human form were created in Gandhara, at the same time as the central Indian region of Mathura , after he had previously only been represented by symbols. The Hellenistic and Roman provincial influences, which had been widespread since the conquests of Alexander the Great (" Graeco Buddhism "), were clearly visible in these depictions . Starting from Gandhara, this style became formative for Buddhist art not only in this region, but also in the countries along the Silk Road; from Central Asia to China and Mongolia to Korea and Japan .

Coin finds indicate that Taxila was conquered by the Sassanids in the 4th century . One last account of the city and especially its Buddhist culture comes from the Chinese pilgrim monk Faxian , who visited it in 403. Around the year 455, the region was finally conquered by the Hephthalites (“white Huns”) (possibly another group of the Iranian Huns ). They destroyed the city and also the Buddhist monasteries in the area and thus ended the 1000 year history of Taxila. The Chinese pilgrim monk Xuanzang , who among other things wrote a report about the Buddha statues of Bamiyan , which were also erected in Gandhara , visited the former Taxila in the 7th century and described it as a ruined city.

City layout

The field of ruins at Taxila actually consists of three or even four urban complexes. To the west is the oldest city (now called Bhir Mound ). Little has been dug in it so far, but the remains that have been examined show that it was an unplanned urban complex with small houses and narrow streets. Ashoka resided here as governor.

In Greek times, perhaps under Seleucid or Bactrian rule, a second city ( Sirkap ) was built to the west of it . It shows a regular, chessboard-like city map, as is typical of Hellenistic cities. In the middle of the city is the wide main street, from which smaller side streets lead off. There were shops on the main street, mostly consisting of just one room. Behind it were the larger residential buildings. There were stupas , temples and a palace. The palace is not very big and is characterized by the small size of the rooms. In the plan he is close to palace buildings from Mesopotamia. In the fifth block is the pagoda with the double-headed eagle . Its base is decorated with niches delimited by columns. In between there are smaller portals that are crowned by animals, including the eponymous double-headed eagle. Next to this pagoda there was a larger house, in which visitors or monks were possibly accommodated. An Aramaic inscription was found here that mentions Asoka, but is probably older than the pagoda. In the seventh block and occupying it was the apse temple .

The Kushana-era city ​​of Sirsukh lies to the northwest. It has hardly been researched so far. Approx. Finally, 1.5 km away there is a city layout at the same time. The individual cities or districts seem to have been inhabited at the same time and not just one after the other. Various temples and monasteries stood between these walled city complexes. B. the temple complex Jandial .

archeology

The ruins of Taxila were rediscovered in the mid-19th century by the British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham . His compatriot Sir John Marshall carried out the first detailed excavations from 1913 over a period of 20 years.

Others

Claude Lévi-Strauss describes a touristic trip to Taxila in Sad Tropics . In the ruins of the city he sees "with the exception of Christianity [...] all the influences that shaped the Old World [...] gathered".

literature

• Kurt A. Behrendt: The Buddhist Architecture of Gandhāra. ( Handbook of Oriental Studies, 2: India. Volume 17) Brill, Leiden / Boston 2004
• Sir John Marshall : A Guide to Taxila. Department of Archeology in Pakistan, Sani Communications, Karachi, editions 1 to 4: 1900, 1918, 1936, 1960.
• Ahmad Hasan Dani: Historic City of Taxila. Sang-e-Meel Publications, New edition (March 31, 2001).
• Martin Brandtner: Taxila. History and interpretations of a city on the Indian foothills of the Silk Road. In: Ulrich Hübner u. a. (Ed.): The Silk Road. Trade and cultural exchange in a Eurasian network of routes, Asia and Africa. 3, Hamburg 2005, pp. 35-63, ISBN 3-930826-63-1 .

Web links

Commons : Taxila  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Photos from Taxila
• Taxila from Livius.org with a map of the region
• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Claude Lévi-Strauss : Sad tropics . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt, 1978, p, 391f, ISBN 3-518-57206-7

Coordinates: 33 ° 45 ′ 24 "  N , 72 ° 49 ′ 46.1"  E