An Inscribed Bowl from Terrace 57 at Tape ?otor, Haḍḍa (original) (raw)

AN INSCRIBED BOWL FROM TERRACE 57 AT TAPE ŠOTOR, HAḌḌA 1

Haḍḍa is the name of a present-day village in eastern Afghanistan, located twelve kilometers south of the modern city of Jalālābād, which was rebuilt by the Mogul king Jalāl ud-din Akbar in 1560 CE (fig. 1). But in the past, and specifically before the Mogul city, the capital of the region, which was known as Nagarahāra, was located fifteen kilometers northwest of Haḍḍa and more than five kilometers to the west of today's Jalālābād. It was with ancient Nagarahāra that the Buddhist site of Haḍḍa was connected. As for the ancient city of Haḍḍa, it is for the most part buried under constructions of the modern village, with the exception of a long portion of the western fortified wall with a ditch in front of it which was still visible until the beginning of the 1980-s. Indeed, it is on this village that a large monastic ensemble depended; it was made up of some twenty large monasteries scattered almost all around the village, where they found a propitious place on the plateaus and hills to serve as refuge from the seasonal torrents. By looking at the simplified physical map prepared by me (fig. 2), one can see that the village and the Buddhist monasteries surrounding it were all, almost without exception, built on tertiary mounds of conglomerate. Researchers who specialize in the Buddhist world of India and Central Asia, and particularly of northwestern India, know how significant a role

Kharwar (Kafir Kot), Afghanistan: Buddhist Clay-based Sculpture from the Early Period of the Śāhi Kingdoms

Sourcebook for the Shahi Kingdoms, 2021

This brief research inquiry revisits Giovanni Verardi's 2004 archaeological survey report from the Buddhist town of Kharwar (Kafir Kot), Afghanistan, to highlight the largely neglected site's importance for understanding the corpus of Buddhist clay-based sculpture attributable to the early period of the Śāhi kingdoms. It is published in the "Sourcebook for the Shahi Kingdoms," an online collection of resources for the study of Shahi cultural history produced in the context of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project "Cultural Formation and Transformation: Shahi Art and Architecture from Afghanistan to the West Tibetan Frontier at the Dawn of the Islamic Era" (P-31246). https://shahimaterialculture.univie.ac.at/sourcebook/

The Buddhist Stupa remains and inscribed ceramics from tor Dheral, District Duki Balochistan

Journal of Asian Civilizations, 2017

The Harappan settlement of Chanhu Daro in Sindh was still considered in the 80s, after Moenjodaro and Harappa, as the third major excavated Harappan town in South Asia. Although nowadays the list of Harappan settlements is far longer, the importance of Chanhu Daro for the study of craft specialization is not diminuished. The present article deals with a recent surface reconnaissance at the site, carried out more than 30 years after the last fieldwork by M. Vidale and G.M. Sher

Clay tablets of eastern Indian monastic world 2

Interrogating Early India evolving perspectives, 2019

The present paper focuses on the vast plethora of inscriptional treasures, depicted in numerous clay tablets, discovered from eastern Indian monastic sites. These so-called ‘miscellaneous finds’ have a crucial contribution in identifying several monasteries with bibliographical references, given by early medieval foreign travellers. Thus with the help of several clay tablets, Indian monastic sites got a firm archaeological and historical foundation. They also exhibit different aspects of social, economical, administrative, and religious life. Although studies focusing on the discovery and decipherment of clay tablets are exceedingly frequent, a complete work solely focusing on the inscriptional upsurge especially seen in clay tablets of early medieval time was yet outside of modern pedagogical attention. Thus, in this paper, the author has tried to draw an account of the clay tablets to bring out distinct information from these authentic historical sources.