The Hindu and Buddhist architectural heritage of Pakistan is part of a long history of settlement and civilization in Pakistan. The Indus Valley civilization 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.
The time period in the history of India known as the Vedic period or Vedic age is the period of the composition of the sacred texts called Vedas and other such texts in Vedic Sanskrit. The associated culture sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization was centred on the Punjab (modern day Pakistan and India) and the Gangetic plain (modern 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. Early medieval Hindu authors suggest dates as early as the 4th millennium BCE.
Its early phase saw the formation of various kingdoms of ancient India. In its late phase (from c. 700 BCE), it saw the rise of the Mahajanapadas, and was succeeded by the golden age of Hinduism and classical Sanskrit literature, the Maurya Empire (from c. 320 BCE) and the Middle kingdoms of India.
Gandhāra (Sanskrit गन्धार, Persian Gandara, Waihind) (Urdu: گندھارا) is the name of an ancient Mahajanapada, in northern Pakistan (the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and parts of northern Punjab and Kashmir) and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau (see Taxila) and on the northern side of the Kabul River. Its main cities were Peshawar and Taxila. [1]
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 under the Buddhist Kushan Emperors. After it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1021, 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.
The Punjabis were predominantly Hindus like the rest of South Asia, when Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim attacked Sindh and lower Punjab, in 713. 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:
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 Bhutta who captured this locality after Raja Dahir. This village is also claimed to be the birthplace of Sassi, the renowned heroine of Sassi-Pannun and of Ab-ul-Fazal and Fiazi, sons of Mullah Mubarik.
Islamgarh, 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. It is 46 kilometres south east of Baghla Fort. The fort is in a dilapidated state.
According to Tarikh-e-Murad, a fort was built by Raj Hans Karar in Mau Mubarak 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. 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.
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 Mauryan period, who built it in 250 BCE 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 state 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.
The ruins of Kafirkot, ruins at Mari, remains of Rokhri, architectural objects and remain-ruins of Sirkapp Fort.
In December 2017, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar while hearing a case on Katas Raj Temple in Chakwal stressed, "This temple is not just a place of cultural significance for the Hindu community, but also a part of our national heritage. We have to protect it." [2] The bench of judges during the hearing of the case also expressed displeasure at the displacing of idols from the temples, demanding to know why there were no statues in the temples of Shiri Ram and Hanuman. The bench was told that a former chairman of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) earned millions of rupees from corruption [during his tenure] and then ran away [from Pakistan]. [3]
Archaeological exploration of the pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded until the late 1970s when the nation was invaded by the Soviet Union. Archaeologists and historians suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world. Urbanized culture has existed in the land from between 3000 and 2000 BC. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages have been found inside Afghanistan.
The history of Pakistan encompasses the region of the Indus Valley, which spans the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern Iranian plateau. The region served both as the fertile ground of a major civilization and as the gateway of South Asia to Central Asia and the Near East.
Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province, with an estimated population of 110,012,442 as of 2017. Forming the bulk of the transnational Punjab region, it is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the enclave of Islamabad, and Azad Kashmir. It also shares borders with the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan, and the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The capital is Lahore, a cultural, historical, economic and cosmopolitan centre of Pakistan where the country's cinema industry, and much of its fashion industry, are based.
Taxila is an important archaeological site located in the modern city with the same name in Punjab, Pakistan. It lies about 32 km (20 mi) north-west of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, just off the famous Grand Trunk Road.
Gandhāra was an ancient region in the Peshawar basin in the north-west of the ancient Indian subcontinent, corresponding to present-day north-west Pakistan and north-east Afghanistan. The centre of the region was at the confluence of the Kabul and Swat rivers, bounded by the Sulaiman Mountains on the west and the Indus River on the east. The Safed Koh mountains separated it from the Kohat region to the south. This being the core area of Gandhara, the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus river to the Taxila region and westwards into the Kabul and Bamiyan valleys in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range. During the Achaemenid period and Hellenistic period, its capital city was Pushkalavati, modern Charsadda. Later the capital city was moved to Peshawar by the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great in about 127 AD.
The Mahājanapadas were sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. Two of them were most probably ganatantras (republics) and others had forms of monarchy. Ancient Buddhist texts like the Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics which had evolved and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the northwest to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and included parts of the trans-Vindhyan region, prior to the rise of Buddhism in India.
Pushkalavati IAST: Puṣkalāvatī, Greek: Peukelaotis), and later Shaikhan Dheri, was the capital of the Gandhara kingdom. Its ruins are located on the outskirts of the modern city of Charsadda, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28 kilometres northeast of Peshawar. Its ruins are located on the banks of Swat River, near its junction with Kabul River, with the earliest archaeological remains from 1400 to 800 BCE in Bala Hisar mound. Pushkalavati was the capital of the ancient Gandhara kingdom before the 6th century BCE, when it became an Achaemenid regional capital, and it remained an important city until the 2nd century CE.
The history of Peshawar refers to the history of the city of Peshawar, Pakistan. Being among the most ancient cities of the region, Peshawar has for centuries been a center of trade between West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia.
The Katas Raj Temples, also known as Qila Katas, is a complex of several Hindu temples connected to one another by walkways. The temple complex surrounds a pond named Katas which is regarded as sacred by Hindus. The complex is located in the Potohar Plateau region of Pakistan's Punjab province. The temples are located near the town of Choa Saidanshah, and are near the M2 Motorway.
Buddhism in Pakistan took root some 2,300 years ago under the Mauryan king Ashoka. Buddhism has played a major role in the history of Pakistan — the land of which over time has been part of predominantly Buddhist empires such as the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Maurya Empire of Ashoka, the Pala Empire.
Taxila Museum is located at Taxila, Punjab, Pakistan. The museum is home to a significant and comprehensive collection of Gandharan art dating from the 1st to the 7th centuries CE. Most objects in the collection were excavated from the ruins of ancient Taxila.
Pakistani architecture is intertwined with the architecture of the broader Indian subcontinent. With the beginning of the Indus civilization around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, for the first time in the area which encompasses today's Pakistan an advanced urban culture developed with large structural facilities, some of which survive to this day. This was followed by the Gandhara style of Buddhist architecture that borrowed elements from Ancient Greece. These remnants are visible in the Gandhara capital of Taxila.
The History of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa concerns the history of the North Western region of what is now the state of Pakistan, as well as the surrounding areas that have been colloquially referred to as Pashtunistan. The earliest evidence from the region indicates that trade was common via the Khyber Pass; originating from the Indus Valley Civilization. The early people of the region were a Vedic people known as the Pakthas, identified with the modern day Pakhtun peoples. The Vedic culture reached its peak between the 6th and 1st centuries B.C under the Gandharan Civilization, and was identified as a center of Hindu learning and scholarship.
The Bhir Mound is an archaeological site in Taxila in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It contains some of the oldest ruins of Ancient Taxila, dated to sometime around the period 800-525 BCE as its earliest layers bear "grooved" Red Burnished Ware, Bhir Mound, along with several other nearby excavations, form part of the Ruins of Taxila – inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.
The Pothohar Plateau is a plateau in north-eastern Pakistan, forming the northern part of Punjab. It borders the western parts of Azad Kashmir and the southern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The region was once the home of the ancient Soanian culture, which is evidenced by the discovery of fossils, tools, coins, and remains of ancient archaeological sites.
Punjab is the largest province in population and the second largest province in physical size in Pakistan. In 2017, 1.75 million tourists visited Pakistan according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Jandial near the city of Taxila in Pakistan is the site of an ancient temple well known for its Ionic columns. The temple is located 630 meters north of the northern gate of Sirkap. The Temple was excavated in 1912-1913 by the Archaeological Survey of India under John Marshall. It has been called "the most Hellenic structure yet found on Indian soil".
Taxila, is a city in Rawalpindi District of the Punjab, Pakistan. Taxila is situated about 32 km (20 mi) north-west of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, along the historic Grand Trunk Road, near the important Sikh pilgrimage centre of Hasan Abdal, and the Mughal-era Wah Gardens.
The Amb Temples, locally known as Amb Sharif, are part of an abandoned Hindu temple complex on the Sakesar mountain, located at the western edge of the Salt Range in Pakistan's Punjab province. The temple complex was built in the 7th to 9th centuries CE during the reign of the Hindu Shahi empire.
Panj Tirath is Hindu religious site located in Hashtnagri in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is over 1000-yr-old Hindu religious site. Panj Tirath derived its name from the five pools of water present there. It was declared as the national heritage of Pakistan.Before Pakistan was formed, there were five temples and five wells there where members of the Hindu community would wash before prayers. Three temples now have collapsed due to lack of maintenance.