When we, me and my family,
crossed curly road of Malakand Pass and stepped in But Khaila, the beautiful
Swat River welcomed us. We stayed there for a while and asked about Chakdara, we
were informed to go ahead. Chakdara is a town in Lower Dir, district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
After 4km, we found Chakdara by-pass, on the right side, road leads to Mengora
and on the left, to Chakdara, Dir, Chitral, etc. We turned left and crossed the
bridge of the Swat River and reached Chakdara. After travelling 2.5 km from
by-pass, turned right on the University Road, at the corner was a magnanimous
building of Dir Museum; fort like appearance, a grand facade, arched entrance,
two square corner picket towers, battlements on the parapet and a beautiful lawn
blossoming with flowers and shaded with trees in front of the building. After
taking tickets we entered the museum and started snapping the inaugural board.
Attendant Ali told for photography, pay 100 Rs more. So we paid the requisite
amount, he didn’t give us receipt, instead of entangling with him, we started
seeing pieces of museum, our prime goal. It was noon time and the sun was
shining brightly but there was a pitch dark inside the museum as there was load
shedding and the said museum had no alternate facility of UPS or generator.
Fortunately we had four emergency lights. On seeing the statues and other items,
I mumbled: How marvelous is Gandhara Art! Amsar, my eldest son, was near to me
and thus heard my words, asked what Gandhara is? Gandhara, the territory round
Peshawar and Rawalpindi, was in the time of Bimbisara, under the king named
Pukkusati. In the middle of the sixth century BC, the hordes of Cyrus, the
founder of the Achaemenian empire of Persia, knocking at the gates of India and
destroying the famous city of Kapisa near the junction of Ghorband and Panjshir
rivers north–east of Kabul. The district west of the river Indus became
tributary to the Persians and the name of Gandhara began to appear prominently
among the subject nations in the inscriptions of Darius (522-486), the most
illustrious among the successors of Cyrus. And then….Amsar interrupted and said:
‘Papa please makes it simple, I am not following’. OK, my son! Gandhara is an
area stretching from the west of River Indus to the north of Kabul River. It
includes the valleys of Peshawar, Swat, Dir and Bajaur and it extends westwards
to Hadda and Bamyan in Afghanistan and eastward to Taxila valley of the Punjab.
Dir lies almost in the centre of Gandhara and is teeming with relics of Gandhara.
So we are standing in the heart of Gandhara and this Museum has the distinction
of containing a good number and precious remains of Gandhara Art; the style of
Buddhist visual art that developed in this area between 1st century BC and 7th
Century AD. Zawar, my middle son, who was listening carefully, said: “It means
Gandhara is the name of ancient territory; things people used are now called
remains and the way of manufacturing of different items; clothing, utensil,
dwelling and worship places, in a specific way are collectively called Gandhara
art”. Yes, you are right. But who told you? It is written in my sociology book,
he added.
Nisar, my youngest son, inquired, how did we got all these things? In 1966-69,
Archaeological department underwent excavation and unearthed valuable and unique
remains. To accommodate these remains, state government of Dir constructed a
museum. Captain Rahatullah Khan, political agent of Dir, proposed and allotted
Rs 2, 50,000 for its construction. What is museum? My little daughter asked.
Museum is a building for storing and exhibition of objects illustrating
antiquities, natural history, art, culture, etc. Or you can say; it is the
history in the shape of goods, once our elders used.
I started explaining where I did stop. Saidal Khan designed the building in
local style of architecture and constructed it with bare stone (Malakandi stone)
an architectural element common in the area. Lt.General Azhar khan, governor of
NWFP, laid the foundation stone in 1970 while General Fazl-e-Haq, governor of
NWFP, inaugurated the museum in 30th May, 1979. The purpose of museum is
preservation and exhibition of archaeological heritage. There are about 2000
items, out them 75% are of Gandhara origin. Amsar said: One can call it -
Gandhara Museum? Yes you can!
The main gallery was teeming with Buddha’s belongings. Zawar asked: Who was
Buddha? There was a small state in the Valley of Himalaya, with capital at
Kapilvastu, ruled by Suddhodana, head of Sakya clan. God bestowed him a boy in
563 BC, which he named Sidhartha. He was reared and groomed in royal traditions.
On gaining age of puberty, he was married to a princess Yasodhara. One day
Sidharata went out of for a walk and there he saw an old man, an ailing one, a
dead that deeply mortified him feelings. He also saw a faqeer (saint) whose face
was blushing with satisfaction.
He vowed to get rid of pains. Later, a beautiful boy, Mohindar, got birth in his
home. But he was fed up from ostentatious and luxurious life. He regarded this
world as “the place of pain and sorrow”. One night, he left his place, wife and
baby and went away into the woods at the age of 28. He adopted many ways and
followed many spiritual masters to get the solution of worries but all in vain.
At last, after 7 years of ascetic life, one day he was meditating under banyan
tree in Gaya, he saw a divine light (nirwana) and found the solution of the
world’s problems that a man should lead a pious life. He started preaching at
Maghadh and came to be known as Buddha (the enlightened one). He advised eight
fold noble path; right views, right aspiration, right speech, right conduct,
right livelihood, right effort, right contemplation, right mindfulness. He
delivered his first discourse at Saranath and many people embraced Buddhism
including his entire family. Buddha died at the age of 80 years in Koshi Nagar.
His follower preached Buddhism in many parts of the world and thus it spread in
many countries.
We were talking and also seeing the Buddha gallery. There were solitary statues
of Buddha(3-4 century AD),many winged Atlantes (1-4 century AD),Yaksha ( god of
fertility holding cup in his hands), Buddha in reassurance and meditation
postures engraved on stones, death and cremation scene of Buddha, there was
great Variety of relic caskets, stupa models, etc. These collections portray the
entire life of Buddha including pre birth, birth, early life, school life,
wrestling matches, palace life, marriage life, renunciation of worldly life,
ascetic life, meditation, miracles, worship postures, demons attacks, Nirwana
(attaining enlightenment), first sermon at Sarnath, conversion of Kasyapa, Queen
Maya dream and its interpretation, death scene, cremation, distribution of
relics, construction of stupas on relic.
The miracle of Sravasti and taming of a wild elephant are the two commonly
represented miracles in the museum collection. A panel showed furious elephant
sent by his paternal cousin Devadatta to trample him but he was tamed by Buddha
in a merciful pose.
Ethnographical Gallery was set up in 1977 with about 500 items; it included
utensils, weapons, wooden architectural items, jewelry, dresses, music
instruments, ceramics, household objects, furniture, books and manuscripts.
In utensil portion, we saw brass ewer, wooden bowl, and wooden trays dating back
to 19-20th century AD. Weapon section contained sword, knives, pistols, machine
guns (British period), gun powder bags of 19-20th century AD. In another self,
there were wooden box, wooden shoes, wooden chair, wooden spoon, wooden sieve
wooden spinning wheel, etc of 19-20th century AD. In jewelry section, there were
ear pendant, finger ring, bracelet, anklet, necklace, buttons, amulets, etc. of
19-20th century AD. Garment section included bed sheets, cloak of wool, leather
shoes, woolen caps, shawl(a sheet of cloth used by women as veil) with
embroidery work, Kohistani shirts, Kohistani trousers, Kohistani caps, etc. of
19-20th century AD. In music section, there were wooden flute, wooden drums,
wooden harps, etc, of 19-20th century AD. In book section, there were many
manuscripts of the Holy Quran, books of Hadith (record of sayings and deeds of
Muhammad PBUH) and Fiqa ( Islamic jurisprudence).There we saw a sacred stone
having naturally engraved name of ALLAH(God),SubhanAllah!(God is the Purest)
We could not see the relic casket containing Buddha’s tooth which was lying in
the store for security reasons. Archaeologist found the casket in 2003 during
the excavation of a stupa at Shalkandi area of tehsil Munda in Lower Dir. The
casket which can invite worldwide attention is being put in store, this is how
we are spoiling our tourist industry and are snatching the bread and butter of
people connected with it. On inquiring where is the in charge of the museum Mr
Niaz Bacha to request him to show the casket. We learnt that he was away.
Finally, I offered my comments on the visitor book and added few lines
unwillingly on the request of the attendant.
Dir Museum is highly enriched with not only Gandhara remains but also has things
of local tradition and culture. If there is no electricity, in charge and the
things of keen interest are hidden, then how tourists will get courage to go
there. Dost Muhammad Khan, who has also set up Museum Defense council (MDC),
says: “There is need to bring such relic in the limelight for further research
and recognition but unfortunately security situation and lack of government
attention to this historical wealth has often over shadowed such success”.
I was astonished to learn that one of the previous governments tried to convert
Dir Museum into a government college. The attempt was foiled by the Dost
Muhammad Khan’s Museum Defense council. Establishment of college is good but not
at the cost of sacrificing history, art and cultural as ‘history teaches
everything, even the future’ (Lamatine); ‘art is the truest presentation of
nature’ (N.P.Willis) and ‘the foundation of culture is at last the moral
sentiment’ (Emerson).