Charsadda District ( ps, چارسدہ ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Peshawar Division Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

province in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Prior to its establishment as a separate district in 1998, it was a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

within

Peshawar District Peshawar District ( ps, پېښور ولسوالۍ, hnd, , ur, ) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is located about 160 km west of the Pakistan's capital Islamabad. The district headquarter is ...

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

make up majority of the population of the district. District headquarter is town of

Charsadda Chārsadda ( ps, چارسده; ; ur, ; ) is a town and headquarters of Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

, which was part of the

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

ex-metropolitan region.

Overview and history

The district lies between 34-03' and 34-38' north latitudes and 71-28' and 71-53' east longitudes. Charsadda is located in the west of the

and is bounded by

Malakand District Malakand District ( ps, ملاکنډ ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The District was formed in 1970 as a Provincially Administered Tribal Area, It had previously been a tri ...

to the north,

Mardan district Mardan District ( ps, مردان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Mardan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The district is named after Mardan city, which is also the headquarters of the district. The district is famou ...

to the east, Nowshera and

districts to the south and

Mohmand district Mohmand District ( ps, مومندو ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with merger of FATA with Khyber Pakht ...

to the west. The district covers an area of 996 square kilometers. Charsadda was once part of the kingdom of

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

, however around 516 BC Gandhara became part of the seventh

satrapy A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

or province of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

and paid tribute to Darius the Great of Persia, until its overthrow by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

in the 4th century BC. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC the Indian Emperor

Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE) was a ruler in Ancient India who expanded a geographically-extensive kingdom based in Magadha and founded the Maurya dynasty. He reigned from 320 BCE to 298 BCE. The Maurya kingdom expanded to become an empi ...

rose to power and brought Gandhara under his sway. According to a popular tradition, Emperor

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, ...

built one of his stupas there. This stupa was mentioned by the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim

Hieun Tsang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

, who visited in 630, according to him Po-Lu-Sha (as he called the stupa) was in circumference. A Brahminical temple to the east and a monastery to the north which according to Buddhist legends was the place where Buddha preached the Law. The name Gandhara disappeared after

Mahmud of Ghazni Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn ( fa, ; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi ( fa, ), was the founder of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At th ...

conquered the area and converted it to Islam in 1026.

Bactrian Greeks

This area was also ruled by the Bactrian Greeks between 250–125 BC which was succeeded by the

Indo-Greek Kingdom The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent ( ...

who ruled until 10 AD.

Shabqadar

Shabqadar Shabqadar ( ps, شبقدر , ur, ) is a town in the Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It lies north of provincial capital Peshawar. Overview and history Shabqadar is a tehsil headquarter of Shabqadar Tehsil in ...

is a tehsil of District Charsadda north west of Peshawar. A fort was built here by the Sikhs called Sharkargarh. The town was burnt by

Mohmand The Mohmand ( ps, مومند) or Mohmand is a prominent tribe of Pashtun people. They are based primarily in the Mohmand territory, which is located in Nangarhar, Afghanistan and Mohmand Agency, Pakistan. Most people of the Mohmand tribe spe ...

s in 1897 It has since been rebuilt.

Bibi Syeda Dheri

Bibi Syeda Dheri is a site half a mile to the north of Umarzai village in Charsadda tehsil here is a mound high. Believed to be the site of the stupa erected to commemorate the conversion by Buddha of goddess Hariti who used to devour children of the locality. There is also a shrine of a lady saint Bibi Syeda.

Shar-i-Napursan

Shar-i-Napursan is an archaeological site in Charsadda tehsil near the village Rajjar Excavations have unearthed two distinct settlements of the Buddhist period and two of the Muslim period. Coins of Manander, Hermaeous and Kanishka have been unearthed.

Palatu Dheri

Hashtnagar Buddha piedestal with Year 384 inscription

Palatu Dheri is another archaeological site near Charsadda tehsil. A mile from Shar-i-Napursan A mound which contains the remains of a stupa, which according to Hieun Tsiang, was built by one Deven and some coins which connect them both to the first century AD have been unearthed Other finds include the image of the goddess Kalika-devi. Three inscribed jars, which were presented by some laymen to "the Community of the Four Quarters", are now in the Peshawar Museum.

Charsadda

The city of

Charsadda Chārsadda ( ps, چارسده; ; ur, ; ) is a town and headquarters of Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

originally known as

Pushkalavati Pushkalavati ( ps, پشکلاوتي; Urdu: ; Sanskrit: ; Prākrit: ; grc, Πευκελαῶτις ) or Pushkaravati (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ), and later Shaikhan Dheri ( ps, شېخان ډېرۍ; ur, ), was the capital of the Gandhara kingdom, ...

is first mentioned in the Hindu epic story the

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

Bala Hisar of Charsadda

Bala Hisar was excavated twice by the head of the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...

, Sir John Marshall, in 1902 and by Sir

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...

in 1958. According to South Asian Archaeology Research Group of

Bradford University The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

Wheeler suggested that Bala Hisar "was founded by the Persians in the sixth century BC as a colony guarding the eastern edge of their empire".

Demographics

At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 1,610,960, of which 817,651 were males and 793,298 females. Rural population was 1,340,756 (83.23%) while the urban population was 270,204 (16.77%). The literacy rate was 50.72% - the male literacy rate was 66.17% while the female literacy rate was 35.04%. 873 people in the district were from religious minorities, mainly Christians.

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

was the predominant language, spoken by 99.13% of the population. The population of the district over the years is shown in the table below.

Administration

The district is administratively subdivided into 3

Tehsils A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

comprising a total of 58 Union Councils:

National Assembly Seats

The district is represented in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

by two MNAs who represent the following constituencies:

Provincial Assembly Seats