The Pursuit of Gandhāran Sculptures: A Record of Amateur Excavations in the Former Khyber Agency

Abstract

This article explores the history of clandestine activities concerning Buddhist antiquities in the former Khyber Agency of the British Indian Empire. To this end, the archives kept at the Directorate of Archives and Libraries at Peshawar prove that Gandhāran sculptures recovered during these clandestine excavations were transported to England in violation of the law in force. In addition, some sculptures belonging to senior officers have disappeared and are to this day unknown. This article envisions and considers some of these facts and therefore focuses particularly on the discovery, hasty excavation, and devastation of Buddhist ruins near the great stupa called Shpola which was part of the Khyber Agency under the British Kingdom.

Keywords:

• Pursuance of antiquities
• Buddhist remains
• Khyber Agency
• British period

Acknowledgements

The author expresses gratitude to the Director of the Directorate of Archives and Library, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar for permission to study the archival record preserved therein the record section. I am also grateful to Mr Muhammad Ismail, Research Officer, and Mr Jibran Ullah, the custodian of the record section of DOAL, for their cooperation in tracing out the required material consulted in the present research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Iqbal Javed, ‘An Overview of British Administrative Set-Up and Strategy in the Khyber 1849-1947’, IPRI Journal, XI/1, (2011), 77-95 (pp. 77-78); see also Baha Lal, ‘The Administration of the North-West Frontier Province 1901-1919’, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertations, submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies, (University of London,1968), p. 16.

2. Khan Zarawar & Fawad Khan, ‘The Shpola Stupa of Khyber Pass: The Twentieth-Century Record of a Proposed Conservation Project’, Pakistan Heritage, 13, (2021), 13-22 (pp. 13-16).

3. Fergusson James, ‘History of Indian and Eastern Architecture’, (London: John Murry, 1910), 1, p.92.

4. Hargreaves Harold, ‘Some monuments in the Punjab and North-Weste Frontier Province’, in Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for the year 1926-27, ed. by Sir Jhon Marshall, (Calcutta: Central Publication Branch, 1930); 120-127(pp.125-126).

5. Schneider Britta, ‘The beginning and development of Gandhāran collections in German public museums’, in Buddhism and Gandhara an Archaeology of Museums Collection, ed. by Himanshu Prabha Ray, (New York: Routledge, 2018), 213-231; (P.219).

6. See fig.04

7. Spooner Brainerd. D, ‘Section II. Exploration and research: Frontier Circle, in Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for the year 1922-23, ed. by D. Brainerd Spooner, (Calcutta: Central Publication Branch, 1923); 96-102, (pp.100-101).

8. Natesa Aiyer. V, ‘Shpola Stupa, Khyber’, in Archaeological Survey of India. Annual Report 1915-16, ed.by Sir Jhon Marshall, (Calcutta: Government Printing, India, 1918); pp.115-16, Pl. LX a &b.

9. Because the stupa was in the tribal area beyond the Jurisdiction of the ASIFC.

10. Instead of his designation as PA Khyber Agency (see fig. 04).

11. File No. 48-D/VII, S. No. 241, Bundle No. 36, (DoAL, Peshawar).

12. Spooner, 1923, pp.100-101.

13. Perhaps these were the same remains noticed by the Superintendent ASIFC during his first official visit to Sultan Khel in 1916 (see Natesa Aiyyar,1918, p.116).

14. Hargreaves, 1930, p.125.

15. One of these antique dealers was Sayyad Rauf Shah of Sultan Khel village (See Hargreaves, 1930, p.125).

16. Hargreaves, 1930, p.125.

17. Khan Zarawar et.al, ‘Gandhāran stucco sculptures from Sultan Khel (former Khyber Agency) in the collection of Peshawar Museum: A study in three parts’, in The Rediscovery and Reception of Gandhāran Art. Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, ed. by Wannaporn Reinjang and Peter Stewart. University of Oxford, 24th-26th March, 2021, (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2022), pp. 43-82 (p.52).

18. The last sheet of the folder is written in 1939, and henceforth we do not know the later history of the site.

19. File No. 49/D-VII, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar), p.30.

20. An ancient site at Landikotal, in the Khyber Agency.

21. The notification was prohibiting the bringing or taking into or out of the N.W.F. Province, the Gandhāra sculptures and objects of archaeological and historical interest. It was republished in the Government Gazette N.W.F.P. on page 750 of the Gazette of July 25^th, 1924. Under this notification anyone bringing such antiquities into the N.W.F.P. was not only liable to have them confiscated but to be fined Rs.500/ -in addition (see Khan Zarawar et. al 2022, Document No. 5 &6).

22. Zwalf Wladimir, ‘A Catalogue of the Gandhāra Sculpture in the British Museum’, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1996), vols. I & II, Cat. No. 544, 553, 597,602, 604, 605, 619, 621, 627.

23. Their names are not mentioned in the report.

24. Letter No. 2494, dated 23 October 1929, File No. 49/D-VII, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar).

25. Olivieri Luca Maria, ‘Sir Aurel Stein and the ‘Lords of Marches’ New Archival Materials’, ACT-Field School Project Reports and Memoirs Archival Studies, 1 (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2015), Document No. 142.

26. Jongeward David, ‘Buddhist Art of Pakistan and Afghanistan’, (Toronto: Coach House Printing, 2003), pp. 40-42.

27. Schneider, 2018, p. 221

28. Mahmud-Ul-Hassan, ‘Ramdas and other Miscellaneous Collections of the Buddhist Sculptures in Taxial Museum-Question of their Provenance’, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertations, submitted to the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, (Islamabad: Quaid-Azam University, 2018), pp.3-4.

29. Letter No. 3497, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar),

30. File. No. 49/D-VII, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar), p.56.

31. Letter No. 88/529, dated 5^th August 1931, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar)

32. Letter No. 2864/1-27, dated 18^th September 1931, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar)

33. Mr. K.A. Gai and Mool Chand are recorded in the donor’s plaque of Leady Reading Hospital, Peshawar for the year 1927. Again in 1935, A.K. Gai donated a handsome amount to that hospital. He is said to belong from the Parsees family and run a business and antiquities dealing in Peshawar. See https://www.google.com/search?q=Mr.+Gai+antiquarian.

34. Letter no. 5709, dated 23^rd September 1931, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar)

35. Lyons Islay and Herald Ingholt, ‘Gandhān Art in Pakistan’, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1957), p. 7, figs. No. 10, 38, 123, 144, 169, 196, 100, 217, 245, 246, 259, 276, 317, 329, 337, 349, 377, 431, 445, 448, 465, 471, 496, 531,

36. Letter No. 484, dated 8^th May 1936, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar)

37. Letter No. 13471-82-DD/12/18-DD, dated 5^th April 1939, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar).

38. Letter No. 1091, dated 5^th May 1939, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar).

39. Letter No. 2586, dated 10^th May 1939, File. No. D-VII/49, S. No. 222, Bundle No. 33, (DoAL, Peshawar).

40. See Fergusson, 1910, p. 92

41. Valeene Alexandra, ‘Differences and similarities in Gandhāran art production: the case of the modelling school of Ha֪ḍḍa (Afghanistan)’, in The Geography of Gandhāran Art. Proceedings of the Second International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, ed. by Wannaporn Reinjang and Peter Stewart. University of Oxford, 22^nd -23^rd March, 2018 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2019), pp. 143-163. See also Tarzi Zemeryalai, ‘Tapa-e-Top-Kalān (TTK) of Ha֪ḍḍa’, in South Asian Archaeology 1987. Proceedings of the Ninth International conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, ed. by Maurizio Taddei, (Rome: 1990), pp.707-726.

42. Taddei Maurizio, ‘Tapa Sardār. First Preliminary Report’, in East and West,18, 1/2, (1968), 109-124.

43. Marshall John, A Guide to Taxila’, (Calcutta: Government Printing, 1918), p. 111.