Minar-i Chakri was a pillar made of carved stones on an elevation of 16 kilometers southeast of Kabul in Afghanistan. It was 28.5 meters high and was one of Buddhist buildings which at the time of the Kushan Empire was built in the area of Kabultals. Minar-i Chakri was built in the 1st century AD and was heavily damaged during the Afghan Civil war. In March 1988 it was destroyed by the hardline Taliban regime. [1] [2]
Minar-i Chakri [3] is located directly on the northern slope of the Shakh Baranta ridge and continues to go 600 meters to the plain of Kabul. The city can be seen from above and the snow-capped mountains of the Hindu Kush in the background. To the south there is a plateau up to another mountain range with peaks of over 3000 meters. The pillar lays widely on an old trade and tour route, the closest connection to the regional capital of the Greek-Bactrian empire of Alexandria on the Caucasus. It is 65 kilometres north of Kabul, and from the southeast, it goes towards Jalalabad heading towards India. Under the rule of the Kushanas, the Greek province (satrapy) Paropanisadai was renamed Kabulistan and the provincial administration was moved to Kabul. During the reign of King Vima Kadphises, from around 100 AD, the empire began to expand into India and the economic had a magnificent growth, which was reflected in the construction of Buddhist monuments and monasteries around the capital. This also included the construction of two Buddhist pillars (Sanskrit Stambha) in the south of the city: the 19 meter high Surkh Minar ("red tower"), which collapsed in an earthquake in spring 1965, and the Minareh Syah ("black tower"), which is closer to the foot of the mountain, which was named Minar-i Chakri [4] in the 19th century.
Minar-i Chakri was first found on its way into Western antiquity through British soldiers who were exploring the country in the 19th century. In 1841, Charles Masson published a detailed report and the drawing about a "Greek monument" in London. However with the withdrawal of the British Army at the end of the First Anglo-Afghan War some of the survivors reported about a pillar they had seen. [5]
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Menander I Soter was a Greco-Bactrian and later Indo-Greek King who administered a large territory in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia. Menander is noted for having become a patron and convert to Greco-Buddhism and he is widely regarded as the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings.
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Afghanistan is a mountainous landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Some of the invaders in the history of Afghanistan include the Maurya Empire, the ancient Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great, the Rashidun Caliphate, the Mongol Empire led by Genghis Khan, the Timurid Empire of Timur, the Mughal Empire, various Persian Empires, the Sikh Empire, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and most recently the United States with a number of allies in response to the September 11 attacks. A reduced number of NATO troops remained in the country in support of the government. Just prior to the American withdrawal in 2021, the Taliban regained control of the capital Kabul and most of the country. They changed Afghanistan's official name to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
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The Greco-Buddhist art or Gandhara art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism. It had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara, located in the northwestern fringe of the Indian subcontinent.
The Indo-Greek Kingdom, also known as the Yavana Kingdom, was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India.
The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and "victory tower" that forms part of the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi's oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi, India. It was mostly built between 1199 and 1220, contains 399 steps, and is one of the most visited tourist spots in the city. Qutab-ud-din Aibak initiated construction of the Qutub Minar, but only managed to finish the first level. His later rulers continued the construction, and in 1368, Firuz Shah Tughlaq rebuilt the top parts and added a cupola.
Greater India, also known as the Indian cultural sphere, or the Indic world, is an area composed of several countries and regions in South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct indigenous cultures of South Asia. It is an umbrella term encompassing the Indian subcontinent and surrounding countries, which are culturally linked through a diverse cultural cline. These countries have been transformed to varying degrees by the acceptance and introduction of cultural and institutional elements from each other. The term Greater India as a reference to the Indian cultural sphere was popularised by a network of Bengali scholars in the 1920s, but became obsolete in the 1970s.
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Chakari was a village in Khaki Jabbar District, Kabul Province, Afghanistan. During the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s, large portions of the village were destroyed, and many people left. As of 2002, many of the former inhabitants had not returned.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a Greek state of the Hellenistic period located in Central Asia. The kingdom was founded by the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I Soter in about 256 BC, and continued to dominate Central Asia until its fall around 120 BC.
The Pataliputra capital is a monumental rectangular capital with volutes and Classical Greek designs, that was discovered in the palace ruins of the ancient Mauryan Empire capital city of Pataliputra. It is dated to the 3rd century BCE.
Hellenistic influence on Indian art and architecture reflects the artistic and architectural influence of the Greeks on Indian art following the conquests of Alexander the Great, from the end of the 4th century BCE to the first centuries of the common era. The Greeks in effect maintained a political presence at the doorstep, and sometimes within India, down to the 1st century CE with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdoms, with many noticeable influences on the arts of the Maurya Empire especially. Hellenistic influence on Indian art was also felt for several more centuries during the period of Greco-Buddhist art.
The architecture of Afghanistan refers to a distinct style of architecture of the modern country and its predecessor states. As the connection between the three major cultural and geographic centers of Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Iranian plateau, the boundaries of the region prior to this time changed with the rapid advancement of armies, with the land belonging to a vast range of empires over the last two millennia.
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