Bhir Mound (6th-2nd centuries B.C.)

The Bhir mound is all that remains of a thriving city that flourished from the 6th to the 2nd centuries B. C. Built on a small plateau in the open fields, the city took advantage of the various trade routes crisscrossing central Asia. Though fortified, the city was no match for Alexander the Great, who conquered the area in the 3rd century B.C. It was here that King Ambhi received Alexander and his Greek armies. Little survives of the city beyond foundation stones, but these tell us that the streets were narrow and the house plans very irregular. There is little evidence of planning - most of the streets are very haphazard. The houses were probably made of stone rubble with wooden ceilings. Settlement at the Bhir mound site ended when the Bactrian Greeks built a new city called Sirkap

Taxila, the "City of Stones," was once a flourishing city along the trade routes of central Asia, mentioned in both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana for its wealth and magnificence. Its strategic position has made it vulnerable to conquest. In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great entered the city with his armies and was greeted by King Ambhi. The Greeks lauded the city as the "greatest of all the cities" in the area. Alexander annexed the area as part of his enormous kingdom, but his weak sucessors were unable to hold on to the prize. In 300 B.C. Taxila was conquered by the Mauryan Empire of India under Chandragupta. Taxila served as the capital of India's western province.

Ashoka (or Asoka), the great Indian king, ruled here as Governor under his father Bindusara. After the bloody conquest of Kalinga, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, Ashoka converted to Buddhism and as Emperor, constructed a large number of Buddhist monuments and monasteries throughout the empire, including some at Taxila. Dharmarajika Stupa is a particularly good example, where he enshrined relics of the historical Buddha.

Taxila's position in on the open Asian steppes left it open to conquest. As the Mauryan empire disintegrated the Bactrian Greeks, the successors of Alexander, conquered the area in 190 B.C. Their king moved the city to a new location - Sirkap - which they believed would be more defensible. The new city was built with a fortified acropolis and a large defensive wall of coursed rubble.

The Bactrian kings kept a foothold on the area till about 90 B.C., when the Scythians overran the area and occupied the city. Just a century and a half later, the Kushans, originally from China's Gansu province, invaded Ghandara (the name of the region around Taxila) and established a dynasty. The Kushan kings ruled well, supporting both the arts and Buddhism. Trade flourished with the Roman Empire, which led to almost unimaginable wealth. This era is justly described as Taxila's golden age.

The downfall of the Kushan kings came in 230 A.D. when the Sassanian Emperor Shahpur annexed it as part of his Empire. The Sassanian rule as very short, however, and power soon passed to the Kidara Kushana, an offshoot of the dispossessed Kushan rulers. They established a strong dynasty that endured till the second half of the 5th century. Though not as magnificent as the Kushan rulers of the past, the Kidara Kushana founded many Buddhist monasteries and reinvigorated Taxila with wealth and magnificence.

Taxila's downfall came in the 5th century A.D. when the White Hun hordes sacked the area, destroying monasteries and looting the city's treasures. When the famous Chinese Pilgrim monk Hsuan Tsang visited the area in the 7th century (while looking for Buddhist Sutras), he described it by saying "monasteries are half ruined. The country is depopulated and now a dependency of Kashmir."