The Bajaur casket, also called the Indravarma reliquary, year 63, or sometimes referred to as the Avaca inscription,
is an ancient reliquary from the area of
Bajaur in ancient
Gandhara
Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...
, in the present-day
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...
, Pakistan. It is dated to around 5β6 CE.
[Metropolitan Museum of Art.] It proves the involvement of the
Scythian
The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...
kings of the
Apraca
The Apracharajas ( Gandhari: π¨π¨€π¨Ώπ¨ͺπ¨π¨ͺπ¨), also known as Avacarajas ( Gandhari: π¨π¨¬π¨π¨ͺπ¨), Richard Salomon, ''An Inscribed Silver Buddhist Reliquary of the Time of King Kharaosta and Prince Indravarman'', Journal of t ...
, in particular King
Indravarman, in
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
. The casket is made of
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...
.
The inscription which is written in
Kharoshthi:
The inscription was highly useful in clarifying the little-known
Apraca
The Apracharajas ( Gandhari: π¨π¨€π¨Ώπ¨ͺπ¨π¨ͺπ¨), also known as Avacarajas ( Gandhari: π¨π¨¬π¨π¨ͺπ¨), Richard Salomon, ''An Inscribed Silver Buddhist Reliquary of the Time of King Kharaosta and Prince Indravarman'', Journal of t ...
dynasty.
Notes
References
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See also
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Cetiya
Cetiya, "reminders" or "memorials" (Sanskrit ''caitya''), are objects and places used by Buddhists to remember Gautama Buddha.Kalingabodhi jΔtaka, as quoted in John Strong, ''Relics of the Buddha'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), ...
*
Bimaran reliquary
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Kanishka reliquary
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Rukhuna reliquary
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Apracharajas
The Apracharajas ( Gandhari: π¨π¨€π¨Ώπ¨ͺπ¨π¨ͺπ¨), also known as Avacarajas ( Gandhari: π¨π¨¬π¨π¨ͺπ¨), Richard Salomon, ''An Inscribed Silver Buddhist Reliquary of the Time of King Kharaosta and Prince Indravarman'', Journal of t ...
*
Bajaur
{{Gandhara
Archaeology of Pakistan