Survey Notes: Bajaur, Tirāt (Swat), Hund and Sāwal Dher

Abstract

Written towards the end of 1992, when a hurried survey of the sites mentioned below was completed, these notes were lying with me unattended. Shortly ago when I had the opportunity to read them again, I realised that part of the information vouchsafed in them could be helpful in decoding some knotty issues of the history of Apraca/Aprācha and Oḍis/Uḍis, the rulers of ancient Bajaur and Swat respectively. This realization prompted me to share this information with other scholars. Except for brief notices of classical writers, the history of ancient Bajaur (correctly Ba+johaṛ meaning ‘water-pond’) and Swat mainly depends upon the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions found upon several relic caskets unearthed by plunderers. The precise location of the sites where from these were dug out has naturally
gone unrecorded. The language of these dedicatory epigraphs is the normal north-western Prākṛit often referred to as Gāndhārī. The cursive nature of the writing, crowded at places, has caused difference of opinion among scholars regarding the reading and consequently the meaning of certain words. The survey provides further help in elucidating some of these controversial points. Throughout the surveys I was accompanied by (the late) Asad Ali, photographer of the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar. His untimely death has deprived me of photographic back-up.