Taxila
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Taxila (Urdu: ٹپکسلا ) (Sanskrit: तक्षशिला, takṣaśilā) is an archaeological site, located in the Punjab (ancient Gandhara) province of Pakistan, west of the Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi, on the border of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province and just off the Grand Trunk Road. Its coordinates are Template:Coor d.
Image:TaxilaCoinBM.JPG Taxila (then called taksh-shila) was an ancient Hindu and Buddhist seat of learning, connected across the Khunjerab pass to the Silk Road, attracting students from all over the world. Ancient Takshashila was renowned all over the Buddhist world as home to the world's first university (Takshashila University). It flourished during the first-fifth centuries AD (see Gandhara). Located at the junction of three major trade routes, it was of considerable economic and strategic importance.
- Darius I added Taxila to the Achaemid empire (c. 518 BC).
- Alexander the Great added Taxila to his burgeoning empire in 326 BC and garrisoned the town with Macedonians, after King Taxiles (named by historians for the city of his rule) had willingly submitted to him, and aided in the battle against his rival Porus. Greek rule ended in 317 BC, and was formally ceded when Seleucus I Nicator exchanged his claim to the old Macedonian provinces in India for an alliance and elephants from the new local ruler Chandragupta Maurya to aid in the conflict with Antigonas.
- The Punjab then came under the rule of Chandragupta Maurya and his successors, including his grandson Asoka. Though Mauryan rule was largely productive, Taxila was briefly the center of a minor local rebellion, subdued only a few years after its onset.
- Soon after Asoka's death, Taxila was conquered by the Bactrian Greeks who supposedly established a Greek city at the nearby site of Sirkap, and ruled it until about 90 BC. During this new period of Greek rule, several dynasties (like Antialcidas) likely ruled from the city as their capital. During the lulls in Greek rule, the city managed profitably on its own, managed independently and controlled by several local trade guilds, who also minted most of the cities autonomous coinage.
- Next came the Scythians (c. 90 B.C.), the Parthians (c. 19 AD) and the Kushans (c. 78 AD) whose empire was eventually crushed by the White Huns (c. 460). Before the fall of these ancient invader-kings in India, Taxila had been variously a regional and national capital for many dynasties, and a true center of learning for Buddhists, Indians, and a possible population of Greeks that may have endured for centuries (the chronicles of Apollonius of Tyana, in the Life of Apollonius Tyana, demonstrate that the rulers of Taxila spoke Greek several centuries after Greek political dominance had faded).
- Sirkap archaeological site is also located at Taxila.
The British archaeologist Sir John Marshall conducted excavations over a period of twenty years in Taxila (see Sir John Marshall, A Guide to Taxila, Department of Archaeology in Pakistan, Sani Communications, Karachi, 1960).
Taxila has been listed by the UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites.
Image:Taxila Pakistan juillet 2004.JPG
