Taxila

Taxila or Takshashila () is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Established during the Vedic period, Old Taxila was for a time the capital city of ancient Gandhāra. It was situated on the eastern shore of the Indus River—the pivotal junction of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia;Raymond Allchin, Bridget Allchin
''The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan''.
Cambridge University Press, 1982 p.127 it was possibly founded around 1000 BCE. Takshashila and Pushkalavati remained prominent cities in Gandhāra during the Mahajanapadas. The city was later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire and incorporated into the Hindush satrap, between 550 – 326 BCE. In 326 BCE, the city was claimed by Alexander the Great, after overthrowing the Achaemenids. He gained control of the city without a battle since it immediately surrendered to his Macedonian Empire. This was followed successively by the Mauryans (~317 – ~200 BCE), the Indo-Greeks (~200 BCE – ~55 BCE), the Indo-Scythians (~80 BCE – ~30 CE), and the Kushan Empire (~30 CE – ~375 CE), who destroyed the existing city, in the first century CE, to build their own on a site to the north of the ruins. Owing to its strategic location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries, with many polities vying for its control. When the great ancient trade routes connecting these regions ceased to be important, the city sank into insignificance and was finally destroyed in the 5th century by the invading Hunas. In mid-19th century British India, ancient Taxila's ruins were rediscovered by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham and extensively excavated by Sir John Marshall. In 1980, UNESCO designated Taxila as a World Heritage Site.

By some accounts, the University of ancient Taxila is considered to be one of the earliest universities or education centre in South Asia. Balakrishnan Muniapan, Junaid M. Shaikh (2007), "Lessons in corporate governance from Kautilya's Arthashastra in ancient India", ''World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development'' 3 (1):
Other scholars do not consider it to have been a university in the modern sense, in that the teachers living there may not have had official membership of particular colleges, and there did not seem to have existed purpose-built lecture halls and residential quarters in the city. In a 2010 report, the Global Heritage Fund identified Taxila as one of 12 worldwide sites that were "on the verge" of irreparable loss and damage, citing insufficient management, development pressure, looting, and armed conflict as primary threats. However, significant preservation efforts have since been carried out by the Pakistani government, which has resulted in the site's recategorization as "well-preserved" by different international publications. Because of the extensive preservation efforts and upkeep, Taxila is one of Punjab's popular tourist spots, attracting up to one million tourists every year.

Etymology

In ancient times, Taxila was known as in Sanskrit (per IAST) and as in Pali. The city's Sanskrit name translates to "City of Cut Stone" or "Rock of Taksha" in reference to a story in the ''Ramayana'' that states that the city was founded by Bharata, the younger brother of the Hindu deity Rama, and named in honour of Bharata's son, Taksha.

The city's modern name, however, is derived from the ancient Greek rendering noted in Ptolemy's ''Geography''. The Greek-language transcription of ''Taxila'' became universally favoured over time, and both the Sanskrit and Pali names fell out of use.

Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who visited the city via the Silk Road, had given its name's meaning as "cut-off head". With the help of a ''Jataka'', he had interpreted it to be the place where Gautama Buddha—during a previous birth as ''Pusa'' or ''Chandaprabha''—cut off his head to feed a hungry lion. This tradition still persists with the area in front of Sirkap (also meaning "cut-off head"), which was known in the 19th century as ''Babur Khana'' ('House of Tiger'), alluding to the place where Gautama Buddha had offered his head. In addition, a hill range to south of the Taxila Valley is called ''Margala'' ().

In traditional sources

In Vedic texts such as the Shatapatha Brahmana, it is mentioned that the Vedic philosopher Uddalaka Aruni (c. 7th century BCE) had travelled to the region of Gandhara. In later Buddhist texts, the 4th - 3rd century BCE Jatakas, it is specified that Taxila was the city where Aruni and his son Shvetaketu each had received their education.

One of the earliest mentions of Taxila is in Pāṇini's , a Sanskrit grammar treatise dated to the 4th century BCE.

Much of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, is a conversation between Vaishampayana (a pupil of the sage, Vyasa) and King Janamejaya. It is traditionally believed that the story was first recited by Vaishampayana at the behest of Vyasa during the snake sacrifice performed by Janamejaya at Takshashila. The audience also included Ugrashravas, an itinerant bard, who would later recite the story to a group of priests at an ashram

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