A recent archeological excavation at the Buddhist monastery of Badalpur by the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisation (TIAC) unearthed stupas, coins and grinding stones and other glimpses of the Buddhist civilisation.
Talking to APP, TIAC Director Professor Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Khan, who was leading the team along with Dr Sadeed Arif, said the site is inscribed on the world heritage list and located in district Harripur in Taxila valley.
The monastery is rectangular in plan and measuring 22/22 meters with monks’ cells and a water tank in the centre, he said.
The monastery is made up with lime stone and built up in semi-ashlar and semi-dipper style with mud motor in site and kanjor stone used in molding.
Dr Ashraf told that the site has an imposing rectangular main stupa on the west which measures 71 meters by 60 meters. The dome of the stupa is missing, but its drum is added to the base which is about six meters high.
Two offering stupas were built in front of the main stupa.
The discovery of coins is an outstanding feature amongst the antiquities found during the recent excavations at the Buddhist site of Badalpur, he said.
Besides coins a large number of pottery, bones, and grinding stones have been found from this site, Dr. Ashraf said.
These coins represent the major era of great ‘Kushan’. The site of Badalpur was first mentioned by Sir Alexander Cunningham, the then Director General of Archeological survey in India in 1863-64.
Dr Ashraf said the objective of this excavation was to determine the chronology of the site through archeological finds, promote cultural and religious tourism, protect the site from further encroachment, and preserve the culture heritage for future generations.
This Buddhist site was visited by monks and pilgrims from Central Asia, China and India.
