The City and Stūpas in Taxila in the Time of Xuanzang

Abstract

ABSTRACT Xuanzang visited Taxila in the earlier half of the 7^th century. He recorded three major stūpas in the region in his report, “The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions.” The fi rst is the stūpa built at the spot where it was said that one of the Four Great Treasures will be revealed in thousands or hundreds million years. The second is the “Stūpa of the Sacrifi ced Head.” The third is the stūpa commemorating the spot where Kunāla put out his own eyes. J. Marshall identifi ed these three stūpas with archaeological sites, the fi rst one on the ridge above Baoti Pind, the second one on the Sarda hill, i.e., the Bhallar stūpa, and the third one on the northern slope of the Hathiāl hill, i.e., the “Kunāla Stūpa.” However, he did not identify any of them with the great stūpa in the remains of the Dharmarājikā Buddhist temple, which is the largest in the region. What is strange is that the “Kunāla Stūpa” is located only one kilometer from the Dharmarājikā stūpa. One cannot argue that Xuanzang did not mention the Dharmarājikā site because it had already been abandoned in his time, for he recorded the stūpa for one of the Four Great Treasures which had already been abandoned when he visited there. Considering the fact that according to archaeological data the Dharmarājikā site had already been abandoned at the time of Xuanzang’s visit in the 7^th century, the great stūpa there can only be identifi ed with the stūpa for the one of the Four Great Treasures. A more consistent explanation can be made if we think the city of Taxila was located around the central part of the present city of Rawalpindi in the Pothohār plateau. The other two stūpas might be identifi ed with the ruins in that plateau which A. Cunningham recorded in his old report.