Shahdheri
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Shahdheri
(JDheri Shahan, 'the kings' mound '). Village in the District and tahsil of Rawalpindi, Punjab, situated in 33 if N. and 72 49' E., 8 miles south-east of Hassan Abdal. To the north-east lie.aot extensive and well-preserved ruins, identified by Sir Alexander Cunning- ham as those of Takshasila, the Taxila of the Greek historians, These ruins lie in six distinct sites Blr, Hatial, Sir-Kap-ka-kot, Kacha Kot, Babarkhana, and Sir-Sukh-ka-kot. Of these, the mound at Blr rises above the banks of the Tapra Nala, the Tiber-nabon of the Pseudo- Kallisthenes. Hatial, a fortified spur of the Mar-gala ( beheaded 3 ) range, was probably the ancient citadel. Sir-Kap, or the fort of * the beheaded,' was a fortified city, united to the citadel by a wall of circum- vallation. The remaining three sites appear to be more modern ; but near Babarkhana lie the ruins called Siri-ki-pind, which would appear to be the great Sirsha-danam or ( head-offering J stiipa of Buddha built by Asoka and mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang. Takshasila, the Sanskrit form of the name, means 'the hewn rock,' or more probably 'the rock of Takshaka, 3 the great Naga king. At the Macedonian invasion, and for many centuries later, Taxila was a rich and flourishing city.
Alexander found it ruled by Omphis (Sanskrit, Ambhi), generally known by his dynastic title of Taxiles, who resigned his kingdom to the invader. About eighty years later it was taken by Asoka, and from it he governed the Punjab before his accession to the throne of Magadha. About 200 B.C.
it became a Graeco-Bactrian dependency, and rather more than half a century later passed to the Indo-Parthians, from whom it was wrested by the Kushans at the end of the first century A.I), About A.D. 50 Apolloniub of Tyana visited it, and says it was the capital of Phraates, whose dominions corresponded with the ancient kingdom of Porus, and describes its beautiful temple of porphyry. It was also visited by Fa Hian in A. 0/400, and by Hiuen Tsiang in 630 and 643. Both these pilgrims describe it as a place of gieat sanctity and the scene of Buddha's sacrifice of his head. After this Taxila disappears from history.
