Taxila
ٹيکسلا | |
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Coordinates: 33°44′45″N 72°47′15″E / 33.74583°N 72.78750°E | |
Country | ![]() |
Province | ![]() |
Division | Rawalpindi Division |
District | Rawalpindi District |
Tehsil | Taxila Tehsil |
Elevation | 549 m (1,801 ft) |
Population (2023 census) | |
• Total | 136,900 (population of Taxila including Taxila Cantonment)[1] |
Time zone | UTC+5:00 (PKT) |
Postal code | 47080 |
Dialing code | 596 |
Criteria | iii, vi |
Designated | 1980 |
Reference no. | 139 |
Taxila or Takshashila (Punjabi and Urdu: ٹيکسلا; Sanskrit: तक्षशिला, romanized: Takṣaśilā; Pali: Takkasilā; Ashokan Prakrit: 𑀢𑀔𑀲𑀺𑀮𑀸, Takkhasilā; Ancient Greek: Τάξιλα, romanized: Táxila)[2] is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Old Taxila was for a time the capital city of ancient Gandhāra, situated on the eastern shore of the Indus River—the pivotal junction of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia;[3] it was possibly founded around 1000 BCE. The city was part of the Achaemenid empire's Hindush colony, between ~550 - 326 BCE. In 326 BCE, the city was conquered by Alexander the Great who gained control of the city without a battle since the city was immediately surrendered to the Macedonian Empire. This was followed successively by the Maurya Empire (~317 - ~200 BCE), the Indo-Greek Kingdom (~200 BCE - ~55 BCE), the Indo-Scythians (~80 BCE - ~30 CE), and the Kushan Empire (~ 30 CE - ~375 CE), who destroyed the existing city, in the first century CE, to build their own on a site to the north of the ruins.[4] Owing to its strategic location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries, with many polities vying for its control. When the great ancient trade routes connecting these regions ceased to be important, the city sank into insignificance and was finally destroyed in the 5th century by the invading Hunas. In mid-19th century British India, ancient Taxila's ruins were rediscovered by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham and extensively excavated by Sir John Marshall. In 1980, UNESCO designated Taxila as a World Heritage Site.[5]
By some accounts, the University of ancient Taxila is considered to be one of the earliest universities or education centre in South Asia.[6][7][8][9][10] Other scholars do not consider it to have been a university in the modern sense, in that the teachers living there may not have had official membership of particular colleges, and there did not seem to have existed purpose-built lecture halls and residential quarters in the city. In a 2010 report, the Global Heritage Fund identified Taxila as one of 12 worldwide sites that were "on the verge" of irreparable loss and damage, citing insufficient management, development pressure, looting, and armed conflict as primary threats.[11] However, significant preservation efforts have since been carried out by the Pakistani government, which has resulted in the site's recategorization as "well-preserved" by different international publications.[12] Because of the extensive preservation efforts and upkeep, Taxila is one of Punjab's popular tourist spots, attracting up to one million tourists every year.[12][13]
whc.unesco.org
was invoked but never defined (see the help page)."In the early centuries the centre of Buddhist scholarship was the University of Taxila."
"Kautilya was also a Professor of Politics and Economics at Taxila University. Taxila University is one of the oldest known universities in the world and it was the chief learning centre in ancient India."
"Thus the various centres of learning in different parts of the country became affiliated, as it were, to the educational centre, or the central university, of Taxila which exercised a kind of intellectual suzerainty over the wide world of letters in India."
"This shows that Taxila was a seat not of elementary, but higher, education, of colleges or a university as distinguished from schools."
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