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Art. XIV.—The Rock-Cut Caves and Statues of Bamian1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

M. G. Talbot ,
P. J. Maitland  and
W. Simpson Esq
P. J. Maitland
Affiliation:
Intelligence Branch, Q.-M.-Gen. Department
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Extract

The letter which is about to be read, not having been prepared for submission to the Society, may require a few introductory explanations.

Bámíán, a site of considerable fame in the travels and expeditions of the last sixty or seventy years, stands at a height of some 8500 feet, in a valley of the region occupied by Hazára tribes, on the chief road between Kabul and Turkestan, and almost close to the northern base of that part of the Indian Caucasus which is known, from one of its prominent peaks, as Koh-i-bábá.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , July 1886 , pp. 323 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1886

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References

page 325 note 1 Ritter quotes this from Hyde as if it were the work of Ibn Haukal bearing the same name; but this is a mistake.

page 325 note 2 I have sometimes thought that Friar Odoric had seen the great idol of Bámíán, from expressions he uses about the Terrible Valley: “In hac etiam valle ab uno latere ejus in ipso saxo unam faciem hominis maximam et terribilem ego vidi, quae in tantum terribilis erat quod prae nimio timore spiritum me perdere penitus credebam.” But other particulars indicate that he may rather hare passed by the Panjhír Valley. See Cathay, etc., pp. 157–158.Google Scholar

page 326 note 1 See also in Punjab Notes and Queries for February, 1886, p. 84.Google Scholar

page 328 note 1 Both this dragon and another in the neighbourhood are mentioned, as Sir F. Goldsmid kindly points out, in Dáúd Khán's Visit to Afghanistan, etc., 1872, printed by the Panjáb Government.

page 329 note 1 As this is going to press, I find that the originator of the suggestion was my friend Mr. W. Simpson. He is now less confident in the theory; but to me it seems a highly probable one.—H. Y.

page 329 note 2 Yaka Aulang. See Baber, Erskine's, p. 211,Google Scholar

page 335 note 1 I give in Pl. II. a rough copy of Sir Vincent Eyre's sketch. I do not think it was ever published, but if it ever appeared, the drawing is not well known to archæologists. Burnes gives a highly-finished lithograph in his work of this figure, but I do not think it is so accurate; this can be judged of so far by comparing the shape of the top of the niche with the outline given by Captain Talbot. It will be seen that Eyre's sketch is much nearer to the truth.

page 336 note 1 In the Lomas Rishi Cave a pointed arch will be found.

page 337 note 1 The subjects in this plate are reductions from illustrations I gave in a paper on the Buddhist Architecture of the Jalalabad Valley, read before the Royal Institute of British Architects.

page 338 note 1 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XIV. Part 3.Google Scholar

page 339 note 1 Ibid, Plate 3.