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Pre-Kuṣāṇa Reliquaries from Pātaka, Swāt
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
Extract
Pātaka marks the site of a Buddhist establishment that lies about two miles to the west from Chindākhwara village, situated on the main Kabal–Parrai road, in the Kabal Tehsīl of the Swāt District. The site is situated in the midst of cultivated fields, at the foothills of the mountains that stretch between Koṭlai and Khiamdara. On the way, from the main road to the site, one encounters four dry beds of hill torrents, khwars. Immediately to the north of the site, there is a seasonal stream called Pātaka khwargai, descending from the nearby hills to the west of the site and forming the only source of water in this far flung area.
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References
1 The Swāt District is situated in the Malākanḍ Agency of the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.
2 For the details of relics in the reliquaries, see “Table” at the end, and Pls. II and III.
3 The rosettes are not only different in composition but in their design as well, some having round petals with uniform length while others have pointed ones of different length. In the latter example, the short petals alternate with the long ones.
4 Blue glass, used as tiles in the ambulatory, have been reported from the Great Stupa of Dharmarajika, Taxila, by SirMarshall, John, Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report 1914–15 (Delhi, rpt. 1990), p. 4 Google Scholar; and Great Stupa of Butkara I, Swāt, by Faccena, D., “Mingora: site of Butkara I” Reports and Memoirs, Vol. I, IsMEO (Rome, 1962), pp. 13–14 Google Scholar, fig. 20, and note 25, p. 166, Faccenna, , Sculptures from the Sacred Area of Butkara I (Swat, W. Pakistan), Vol. II.2, IsMEO (Rome, 1962), p. 9, Pl. IV a, bGoogle Scholar. This shows that blue glass was in use before the coming of Kuṣāṇas to India.
5 See Fig. 1.
6 See Burnouf, E., Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (Paris, 1852), p. 205 Google Scholar, quoted by Combaz, G.; “L’évolution du stupa en Asie: étude d’architecture bouddhique”, Mélanges chinoises et bouddhiques, (1932–1933), p. 175 Google Scholar.
7 See Fig. 2.
8 From Butkara I a coin of the same ruler is reported, but its Greek legend has an additional word KAI ΦIΛOΠATOPOΣ. Göbl, R. “A catalogue of coins from Butkara I, (Swāt, Pakistan)”, Reports and Memoirs, IsMEO (Rome, 1976), p. 14, Pl. I, No. 14Google Scholar.
9 The use of the lathe for turning reliquaries is also pointed out by SirMarshall, John. See his “Excavation at Taxila 1914–15”, Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report 1914–15, (Delhi, 1990), p. 4 Google Scholar.
10 See note 8.
11 The author is grateful to Dr Muhammad Rafiq, Associate Professor of the Department of Geology, and Mr Syed Muhammad Kaleem, a technician in the Taxidermitology laboratory of the Zoology Department, University of Peshawar. The former helped in the identification of beads and the latter in weighing the relics.