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Taxila: Jaulian
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Map of Taxila
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Taxila (Old Indian Takshaçila):
the ancient capital of the eastern Punjab, the country between the
rivers Indus
and Hydaspes.
The site consists of several parts, which belong to three periods:
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Far away from the noise of the city of Taxila-Sirsukh,
the monastery and university of Jaulian was situated on a mountain top
that rises some 100 meters above the surrounding country - on a cool and
dustless site. This picture shows part of the central court. In front of
the cells must have been a verandah. |
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The entrance, leading to the central court. Like other monasteries
in
Gandara
and the Punjab, the cells surrounded a rectangular central court with a
bathroom (jantâghara), an assembly hall (upasthâna-sâlâ),
a store-room (koshthaka), a kitchen (agni-sâlâ),
a refectory (upâhâra-sâlâ), and a latrine
(varchah-kutî). There was no well at Jaulian, but there were
sources at the foot of the hill.
Jaulian does not really differ from the settlement at Mohra
Moradu, which is just over a kilometer away.
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The settlement had been restored shortly before it was abandoned, after
the invasion of the White Huns at the end of the fifth century. Therefore,
the decorations are better preserved than those at Mohra Moradu, but unfortunately,
they are of a poorer quality. This picture shows the outer wall of the
building - well preserved. |
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The main stupa (on the photo to the right) is badly damaged, but is surrounded by twenty-one beautifully
decorated votive stupas. They betray Greek influence, although no longer as obviously as in Sirkap, which was founded by a Bactro-Greek
king. The motifs that had been adapted by the Buddhist artists of the
second and first centuries BCE, had by now become part of the Punjab
culture, and artists made variations. Still, you need only a little bit
of imagination to recognize that the decorated cube in the center of
the third photo above is derived from a Greek, Corinthian column. |
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A teaching Buddha. "Their feet are naked for walking and they cut their
garments to resemble the exomis," writes the Greek author Philostratus
in his vie romancée of the Greek philosopher Apollonius
of Tyana, who is reported to have visited Taxila (Life
of Apollonius, §3.15).
An exomis is a Greek mantle that leaves a shoulder and an arm uncovered.
The next two photos show a meditating Buddha and an atlant in a rather contorted posture. |
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©
Jona Lendering for
Livius.Org,
2004
Revision: 28 May 2008 |
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