Endeavors to Legitimize Colonial Legacy: In Context of Alexander’s Exploits in Present day Khyber Pukhtunkhwa
Keywords:
Gandhara Civilization, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Bakhshali Manuscript, Pânini & Ancient TreatiseAbstract
Being located on the crossroads and heir to Gandhara Civilization, the present province of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (Pakistan) has a rich cultural history. By the dent of its location, the historic land of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa has been the scene of contacts among different peoples whether they were the invaders, the traders or the holy pilgrims. This historic interaction contributed much to the evolution of culture and civilization of the region. Being hostage to her geography, the land of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa especially its territory known to Colonial scholars as the Yusufzai country, remained arena of war for numerous invaders including Alexander of Macedonia who fought major battles on the historic land of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa against the native folks. So, none of the Orientalists/Colonial scholars right from M. Court to Aurel Stein, never lost any opportunity to identify the disputed site, connected with Alexander’s triumph over the natives. Nevertheless, they desperately failed to acknowledge the indigenous folks’ contributions to science and philosophy such as the Sanskrit Grammarian, Pânini and the ancient treatise of Indian Mathematics, known as Bakhshali Manuscript. Following critical discourse analysis, an attempt has been made to draw a link between the glorification of Alexander of Macedonia while paying no heed to the historic sites and luminaries of ancient Khyber Pukhtunkhwa in the Colonial scholarship whether by choice or default as a grand imperial design of the British Colonial Government of India.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10259079
References
In January 1784, the founders’ choice of the nomenclature was Asiatick Society and its journal as Asiatick Researches; however, it was rechristened as Asiatic Society of Bengal later (Edgerton 1946: 231).
When ‘Treasures Trove Act’ was passed in 1878 and onward, the Imperial Government of India took the responsibilities of the “Preservation and Restoration” of ancient remains which ultimately led to the creation of the post “Curator of the Ancient Monuments of India” by appointing Captain Henry Cole in 1881 as Curator for reporting on the matter of preservation and conservation, surveying the ancient buildings, documenting the condition of decline, and recommending to the Colonial Government on the “preservation and restoration of ancient monuments” all over India. It may rightly be termed the vintage point in the history of Indian ancient cultural heritage’s maintenance when priority was given to in situ preservation (Marshall 1916: 30; Mersey 1949: 93; Brown 1905/1995: 233; Dani 1983: 183; Hoock 2010: 347).
Credit also goes to M. Court, who discovered the Asokan Rock Edicts near Shahbaz-garha for the first time and published his discovery in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal V (56) in August 1836 (Court 1836: 481; Salomon 1998: 213).
In all Orientalists and British accounts, local population has been portrayed as barbaric and untrustworthy. In most cases, present local population has nothing to do with the land and its cultural heritage created in their region in the past (Abbot 1854: 341).
The site of Aornos has been described in 16 pages (95-111) out of 26 pages (86-111) (Cunningham 1871: 86-111) and again in 21 pages (58-78) out of 38 pages (47-84) while Hund located in the proximity of Sâlatura, has a detailed description spreading over 6 pages (52-57), and only 11 pages have been dedicated to the remaining Yusufzai country (Cunningham 1871: 47-84).
In “Proposed Archaeological Investigations” 1848, Cunningham wrote that he will follow the footsteps of Chinese pilgrim and traveler, XuanZang on the line of Greek scholar Pliny (Cunningham 1848: 535-536).
The Indian mathematical treatise popularly known as “Bakhshali Manuscrit” has accidently been discovered from the ancient town of Bakhshali in 1881. The town is popularly known as Bakhshalay or Bashkhalay, so in this paper the popular nomenclature will be used for sites/towns save quoting original sources.
The principal groups of ruins are at Shâhbâz-garhi, Sâwal-dher, and Sahri Bahlol…Rânigat, Jamâl-garhi, Takht-i-Bahi, and Kharkai...Topi, Ohind, and Zeda in Utmanzai; at Tûrli, Bakshâli, and Gharyâli in Sûdam; and at Matta and Sanghao in Lûnkhor. I have visited most of these myself...(Cunningham 1871: 5).
