The Butkara Stupa is an important Buddhist shrine in the area of Swat, Pakistan. It may have been originally built by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, but it is generally dated slightly later to the 2nd century BCE. A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... Special response teams are heavily armed and armored. ... The Mauryan empire (321 to 185 BCE), at its largest extent around 230 BCE. The Mauryan empire was Indias first great unified empire. ... Emperor Ashoka (a possible depiction) Ashoka the Great (Devanagari: अशोक; IAST transliteration: ) (304 BC–232 BC) was the emperor of the Maurya Empire from 273 BC to 232 BC. After a number of military conquests, Ashoka reigned over most of South Asia and beyond, from present-day Afghanistan and parts of... (3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events BC 168 Battle of Pydna -- Macedonian phalanx defeated by Romans BC 148 Rome conquers Macedonia BC 146 Rome destroys Carthage in the Third Punic War BC 146 Rome conquers...

The stupa was enlarged on five occasions during the following centuries, everytime by building over, and encapsulating, the previous structure.

Excavation

The stupa was excavated by an Italian mission (IsIOAO: Istuto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente), led by archaeologist Pierfrancesco Callieri from 1955, to clarify the various steps of the construction and enlargements. The mission established that the stupa was "monumentalized" by the addition of Hellenistic architectural decorations during the 2nd century BCE, suggesting a direct involvement of the Indo-Greeks , rulers of northwestern India during that period, in the development of Greco-Buddhist architecture ^[1]. Maximum extent of Indo-Greek territory circa 175 BCE. The Indo-Greeks (or sometimes Greco-Indians) designate a series of Greek kings, who invaded and controlled parts of northwest and northern India from 180 BCE to around 10 BCE. They are the continuation of the Greco-Bactrian dynasty of Greek... Gandhara Buddha, 1st-2nd century CE. Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century...

The nearby Hellenistic fortifications of Barikot are also thought to be contemporary. Barikot is a city of Pakistan, in the Swat region (ancient Udyana). ...

Notes

1. ^ "De l'Indus a l'Oxus: archaelogie de l'Asie Centrale", Pierfrancesco Callieri, p212: "The diffusion, from the second century BCE, of Hellenistic influences in the architecture of Swat is also attested by the archaeological searches at the sanctuary of Butkara I, which saw its stupa "monumentalized" at that exact time by basal elements and decorative alcoves derived from Hellenistic architecture".

References

• Report of the Italian Archaeological Mission (Pdf, Italian)

See also

• Chakhil-i-Ghoundi stupa

External links

• Photographs of the Butkara Stupa
• Article