Indian Antiquary Vol 46

SR No.: 032538
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 508
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1917
On November 11 I left Meshed for Seistan. In order to reach it I had chose a route which, keeping off the main roads, gave opportunities for useful supplementary survey work and offered the further advantage of being the most direct. It first took us by littlefrequented tracks through hills held by Hazara and Baluch tribal settlements to Rui-Khaf. Thence we travelled south in an almost straight line parallel to the Perso-Afghan border, where it passes through a nearly unbroken succession of desert depressions and of equally barren hill ranges. Near a few of the little oases we passed, as at Mujnabad, Tabbas, and Duruh, I was able to examine remains of sites abandoned since early Muhammadan times. At Bandan we struck the high-road, and two days later, on December 1, reached Nasratabad, the Seistan "capital." The excellent Persian mules hired at Meshed had allowed us to cover the total distance of over 500 miles in nineteen marches. With the assistance of Afrazgul Khan a careful plane-table survey on the scale of 4 miles to 1 inch was carried over the whole ground. The disturbed conditions of Persia due to the War made themselves felt also on the Khorasan border, ever a happy raiding-ground for enterprising neighbours. But owing, perhaps, to the rapidity of our movements and the unfrequented route chosen, the journey passed off without any awkward encounters.
Once safely arrived in Seistan I received a very kind and hospitable welcome from Major F. B. Prideaux, H.B.M.'s Consul in Seistan, and could quickly set to work with all the advantages which his most effective help and prolonged local experience assured me. Ever since my student days I had felt drawn to Seistan by special interests connected with its geography and historical past. It had been more than chance that my very first paper, published as long ago as 1885, dealt with the ancient river names of this Iranian border-land. My present visit to Seistan, long deferred as it was, could for various reasons be only a kind of reconnaissance. Yet even thus I might hope among its numerous ruined sites to discover remains of the early periods when ancient Sacastana, "the land of the Sacas or Scythians," served as an outpost of Iran and the Hellenistic Near East towards Buddhist India. A strong additional reason was provided by my explorations in the Tarim Basin; for the striking analogy presented by various physical features of the terminal basin of the Helmand River was likely to throw light on more than one geographical question connected with the dried-up Lop Sea and the ancient Lou-lán delta.
It is a great satisfaction to me that in both directions my hopes have been fully justified by the results of my Seistan work. But it is only the most prominent that I can find space to record here in brief outlines. At the very start my archæological search was rewarded by an important discovery. It was made on the isolated rocky hill of the Koh-i-Khwaja, which rises as a conspicuous landmark above the central portion of the Hamuns or terminal marshes of the Helmand. The extensive and wellknown ruins situated on its eastern slope proved to be the remains of a large Buddhist sanctuary, the first ever traced on Iranian soil. Hidden behind later masonry, there came to light remarkable fresco remains, dating back undoubtedly to the Sassanian period. Wall paintings, of a distinctly Hellenistic style and probably older, were found on the wall of a gallery below the high terrace bearing the main shrine. Protected in a similar way from the ravages of man and atmospheric moisture they had unfortunately suffered much from white ants. The importance of theso pictorial relics, which I managed to remove safely in spite of various difficulties, is great. They illustrate for the first time in situ the Iranian link of the chain which, long surmised by conjecture, connects the Græco-Buddhis art of the extreme north-west of India with the Buddhist art of Central Asia and the Far East. This connection was reflectd with equal clearness by the architectural features of the ruins, which were also of great interest. (To be continued.)