Pushkalavati ( ps, پشکلاوتي;

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: ; Prākrit: ; grc, Πευκελαῶτις ) or Pushkaravati (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: ;

Pāli Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhi ...

: ), and later Shaikhan Dheri ( ps, شېخان ډېرۍ; ur, ), was the capital of the Gandhara kingdom, situated in what is now Pakistan. Its ruins are located on the outskirts of the modern city of

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

, in Charsadda District, in the

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, ...

, 28 kilometres (17 miles) northeast of

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 ...

. Its ruins are located on the banks of

Swat River The Swat River ( ur, , ps, سوات سیند) is a perennial river in the northern region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. The river's source is in the high glacial valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains, where it then flows into the s ...

, near its junction with Kabul River, with the earliest archaeological remains from 1400 to 800 BCE in Bala Hisar mound. Pushkalavati became an

Achaemenid 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 emp ...

regional capital around 600 BCE, and it remained an important city through to the 2nd century CE.

Etymology

Pushkalavati (

: पुष्कलावती, ) means "Lotus City" in

. According to Hindu mythology as per 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 ...

'', it was named Pushkalavati because it was founded by Pushkala, the son of Bharat. The region around ancient Pushkulavati was recorded in the Zoroastrian ''

Zend Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the litu ...

'' as ''Vaēkərəta'', or the seventh most beautiful place on earth created by Ahura Mazda. It was known as the "crown jewel" of Bactria, and held sway over nearby ancient Taxila'.

Ruins

The ruins of Pushkalavati consist of many stupas and the sites of two ancient cities.

Bala Hisar

Bala Hisar site () in this area was first inhabited in the 2nd-millennium BCE. The C14 dating of early deposits in Bala Hisar, bearing "Soapy red"/red burnished ware, is 1420-1160 BCE, and this early phase lasted from 1400 to 800 BCE, the second phase took place until around 500 BCE featuring bowls in typical "grooved" red burnished ware. In later 6th century BCE, Pushkalavati became the capital of the

Gandhara satrapy following the

Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley The Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley occurred from the 6th to 4th centuries BCE, and saw the Persian Achaemenid Empire take control of regions in the northwestern Indian subcontinent that predominantly comprise the territory of modern-d ...

. The location was first excavated in 1902 by the archaeologist John Marshall. 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 ...

conducted some excavations there in 1962, and identified an occupation from the Achaemenid period and various Achaemenid remains. According to Arrian, the city then surrendered in 327/326 BCE to

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

, who established a garrison in it. In 630 CE,

Xuanzang 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 ...

visited the area and described a stupa built by

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, s ...

, which remains unidentified and undiscovered.

Peucela and Shaikhan Dheri

The Bactrian Greeks built a new city (Peucela ( el, Πευκέλα) or Peucelaitis ( el, Πευκελαώτις) at the mound currently known as Shaikhan Dheri (), which lies one kilometre north from Bala Hissar on the other side of Sambor River, the branch of River Jinde. This city was established in the second century BCE until the second century CE, occupied by

Parthian Parthian may be: Historical * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

s and Kushans. Two early Buddhist manuscripts recently found in the region, known as ''avadanas'', written in Gandhari language around 1st century CE (now in the British Library Collection of Gandharan Scrolls) mention the name of the city as Pokhaladi. Charsadda Buddhist statues

In the 2nd century CE, river changed its course and city was flooded. The town moved to the site of the modern village of

Rajjar Rajjar 1 is a town and union council in Charsadda District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located at 34°10'13N 71°45'18E and has an altitude of 285 metres (938 feet).Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 AD, the name Gandhara was not used anymore, and in all probability the following period is when Pushkalavati became known as Shaikhan Dheri, as ''deri'' means mound/hill in Pashto. The former city's ruins were partly excavated by

Ahmad Hasan Dani Ahmad Hassan Dani (Urdu: احمد حسن دانی) FRAS, SI, HI (20 June 1920 – 26 January 2009) was a Pakistani archaeologist, historian, and linguist. He was among the foremost authorities on Central Asian and South Asian archaeology ...

in 1960s. There are still many mounds at Mir

Ziarat Ziarat (Urdu and ps, ) is a city in the Ziarat District situated in the Balochistan. It is from the capital city of Eastern Balochistan Quetta. It was established as a district on 1st July 1986, before then it was part of Sibi district. Th ...

, at Rajar and Shahr-i-Napursan which are still unexcavated.

Pushkalavati and Prang

The city of Pushkalavati was situated at the confluence of Swat and Kabul rivers. Three different branches of Kabul river meet there. That specific place is still called Prang and considered sacred. A grand graveyard is situated to the north of Prang where the local people bring their dead for burial. This graveyard is considered to be among the largest graveyards in the world.

Pushkalavati in the Ramayana

In the concluding portion of the (

) Uttarakhanda or Supplemental Book, the descendants of

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

and his brothers are described as the founders of the great cities and kingdoms which flourished in Western India. Bharata the brother of

had two sons, Taksha and Pushkala. The former founded Taksha-sila or Taxila, to the east of the Indus, and known to Alexander and the Greeks as Taxila. The latter founded Pushkala-vati or Pushkalavati, to the west of the Indus, and known to Alexander and the Greeks as Peukelaotis. Thus according to Hindu legend, the sons of Bharat founded kingdoms that flourished on either side of the Indus river.

References

External links

Investigating ancient Pushkalavati
Pushkalavati Archaeological Research Project

{{Gandhara Archaeological sites in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Buddhist sites in Pakistan Populated places in Charsadda District, Pakistan Former populated places in Pakistan Places in the Ramayana Gandhara