Day 4 in Pakistan: Taxila and a spontaneous trip to Attock

On my fourth day in Islamabad, I paid for a driver to take me around Taxila. Founded around the year 1000 BCE, Taxila served for some time as the capital of Gandhara, the region from which Buddhism and a specific aesthetic sensibility around this religion spread to Tibet, China and beyond: the city’s shrines were even visited by the Chinese monk Xuanzang during his famous Journey to the West. In 325 BCE, Taxila surrendered to Alexander the Great without a struggle. It was successively ruled by the Mauryans, Indo-Greeks and Indo-Scythians until the old city was destroyed by the Kushan Empire in the common era. However, it was under the Kushan Empire that Gandhara reached the peak of its cultural and artistic influence, earning fame as a respected centre of learning.

According to the Ramayana, Taxila was established by Bharata, the younger half-brother of Rama, who named it after his son Taksha. Taksha also means “cut stone,” hence the etymology of Taxila being traced to the expression “City of Cut Stone.” It is also said that the Mahabharata was first recited at Taxila during King Janamejaya’s great snake sacrifice.

While Humza could not make it, my hosts from my first two nights in Islamabad joined me on the trip. Unlike me, they were not very happy about the beautifully clear blue skies. I did not expect their help to come in as handy as it did, but it turned out that my driver spoke much less English than I thought he would based on my conversation with his supervisor. In fact, he barely understood me. With my hosts’ help, we were able to communicate our itinerary for the day: visit the Jaulian Stupa, the Mohra Moradu Stupa, the Double Headed Eagle Stupa at Sirkap, the museum, and the Dharmarajika Stupa.

The visit to the Jaulian Stupa took me into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province for the first time. Due to the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan, this borderland province is now listed by some governments as a “do not travel” zone, but according to locals it is largely safe, especially near Islamabad. We found the trail to Jaulian Stupa furnished with new stairs, from whose summit we could see the canal and the hills beyond it. Jaulian is particularly famous for its carvings. Its stupas all have small Buddhas, divinities and animals carved into little niches that wrap all around their circumference.

We found Mohra Moradu closed for repairs, and the caretakers cared little for all the cards my hosts tried to use: my being a foreigner (true), my having an official assignment (not true) and them knowing the director (possibly true). We drove off with our tails between our legs. Our next stop were the ruins of Sirkap, a collection of extensively excavated foundations that indicate a once bustling, multicultural town. The ruins, which run along a long straight road, include an erewhile Jain temple and a round stupa in what used to be a private house. The most famous attraction at Sirkap is the Double Headed Eagle Stupa, named after a Hellenic carving on its base. There is also a tall wall whose layers show the building styles of the three empires that ruled the city.

We made sure to visit the museum before it closed for midday prayers. I wished it had more signs explaining what all the artefacts were, but it was an interesting and impressive place nonetheless. The last site we visited in Taxila was the Dharmarajika Stupa, perhaps the most photographed and well-known monument in the area. The compound is not known only for this stupa, which for its sheer size would be remarkable in and of itself, but also for its two pairs of large Buddha feet, which elegantly suggest just how large the original statues must have been.

It was early in the afternoon when we finished our tour, and my hosts suggested that we drive farther for lunch. They specifically remembered there being a nice restaurant above the confluence of the Indus and Kabul rivers near Attock, but when we got there, we found the building deserted. The only place to eat was a hole-in-the-wall eatery that had been set up at the foot of the crumbling hotel. It overlooked a particularly dry bend of the Indus, whose calm waters were being criss-crossed by colourful boats carrying visitors and whose sandy banks served as promenades for camels. To the left of the eatery stood a vacant but not abandoned amusement park – it was simply too hot to service this place in the blazing midday sun.

After finishing our meal of dhal and naan, we crossed the new bridge to see what we could see. The famous Attock Fort, built in the 1580s under the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, is an army base and thus inaccessible to visitors, so the best place to view it is from across the Indus in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. A little farther down the river, we visited the majestic old Railway Bridge, from which one can see the green mountains in the south. We crossed the bridge to see the quaint old railway station on the other side before calling it a day and turning the car back to Islamabad. It only occurs to me now that this is the first time in my life that I have seen the Indus.