A day at Takshasila
By R. RAJAMANI
Date: 18-01-1998 :: Pg: 26 :: Col: a - The Hindu
( Taxila, stood on the banks of the river Vitasa in
the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian, Charaka,
the author of famous treatise on medicine, and Chanakya, writer of Artha Shastra --
these august names are assosiated with Taxila. Promising minds from far flung regions
converged there to study the Vedas and all branches of secular knowledge)
 R. RAJAMANI was at Taxila recently and the visit proved that it is the place
school text books have portrayed - sentinel and a trade post at the foot of the Hindukush
Himalayas. But what struck him most was the way this heritage site was preserved.
TAKSHASILA or Taxila, as the Greeks called it over 2,000 years
ago, was at one of the entrances to the splendour that was India. Its antiquity is rooted
both in mythological texts like the Ramayana and the other puranas, as well as in firm
historical evidence relating to the post-Harappan and late Aryan period. It stood both
like a sentinel and a trade post at the foot of the Hindukush Himalayas ranking in
importance and access point to the invader of the subcontinent only next to Purushapura or
Peshawar. It has seen so much of our ancient history that one considered it a privilege to
visit the place recently, courtesy of Pakistani friends hosting a meeting this writer was
attending.
Taxila is all that the school textbooks have told us about. It
was an outlet westward for overland trade before the Mauryan Empire. But early records of
trade and access to India through this outpost is found in records of the period before
530 B.C., when the Achaemenid emperor of Persia, Cyrus, crossed the Hindukush mountains.
More lucid accounts are available from the fourth and third Century B.C. thanks to the
Greeks, and mainly Herodotus. Buddhism and the Gandharas held sway over Taxila and this
combination remained undisturbed for some time inspite of the invasions by Persians and
later the Greeks. Alexander's entry in 327 B.C., was through this town and the Greek
influence was felt profoundly thereafter in town planning, buildings, religious places,
the arts, dresses, martial training, coinage etc., of Taxila. Then followed the Mauryan
reign which temporarily filled the vacuum created by Alexander's return. This was a golden
period which saw the laying of a highway from Taxila to Pataliputra (which was to shine in
later days as the Grand Trunk Road). But no border post can remain tranquil for long and
Taxila took a heavy share of the repeated invasions and conquests by the Bactrian Greeks,
the Shakas, the Kushans, the Sassanians, etc. It had its share of glory as the capital
city of the Gandharas.
 But political developments apart, it is the secular
absorption of cultures in the various forms of art including the planning of human
settlements and in house building as well as in being a crucible for international
overland trading that Taxila became well-known. The connections with Greece, Iran and
Afghanistan on the West and the rest of the subcontinent to the East extending right upto
Pataliputra saw the burgeoning of trade in Taxila which steadily became heavily urbanised.
It was the collection point from various parts of various handicrafts and commodities.
Precious stones like turquoise and lapis lazuli came from the West and silk from China via
Central Asia. Scholarship came from the Buddhist monks and their viharas, stupas and
monasteries.
This then was the Taxila we set out to see after over 20
centuries. The excavations carried out in the earlier part of this century are well
preserved. The township is a marvel of the concepts of human settlements incorporating
wide roads for chariots to pass, individual houses with masonry walls, places for worship
and common meetings etc. The undulating terrain and the magnificent backdrop of the hills
combined to make one feel that there was a definite concept of the beauty on the whole
while planning the individual areas. There were individual house plots having their own
religious area and small stupas. One of them had three small doorways, each carved in a
different style. The influences of Persian, Greek, Buddhist and Hindu origin were seen.
Even the legendary double-headed eagle of Western origin was observed in one of the
enclosures. Truly, it was and hopefully is, a confluence of cultures which has rubbed off
on the whole of this subcontinent for eons.
The visit to the Buddhist stupa and monastery site was equally
pleasing and rewarding. Access was not as smooth as in the case of the township
excavations but the walk to and fro was made joyous by seeing hundreds of schoolchildren
from schools in Pakistan coming to see this bit of ancient history. We had an able guide
who was quite accurate and interesting in the accounts he gave us. It was heartwarming to
see that this heritage is treated with respect and preserved as well as it can be, in the
circumstances. The preservation is of the same quality as one noticed in other ruins in
India like Lothal.
 At the Buddhist stupa site, the stupas were covered
by overlays of mud and grass but the entrances and base showed evidence of the stucco
embellishments. In the monastery area, one could not help noticing the incipient spiritual
vibrations noticed in most places where holy men and women have lived, studied, meditated
and laid to rest. There was tranquillity in our minds as we walked around silently and
retreated to the unheard yet vivid strains of buddham saranam and sangam saranam
gacchami.
The visit to the Taxila museum was the highlight. The rich
treasures from the excavations dating to the different periods of history have been
faithfully collected, stored and preserved. Specimens of Gandhara art with Greco-Persian
influence abound here. Stone and stucco images of the Buddha, intricate pieces of
jewellery with embedded stones of precious quality, Aramaic inscriptions, the utensils and
implements of the era, images showing the way men wore robes or women wore their lovely
tresses - these and more treasures gave an authentic and exhilarating peep into the past.
The pleasing ambience of the setting of the museum among stately trees and the allowances
to solitude, uninterrupted by the unwanted or raucous attention of vendors and tourist
operators, ensured that we carried back to our hotel the most pleasant of memories of our
combined legacy.
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