LEGENDARY HISTORY

In early Indian literature Taxila was given a legendary history which went back to the remotest antiquity. The R ām āyana, which has a glowing account of its wealth and magnificence, tells us that it was founded at the same time as Pushkal āvatī in Gandhāra by Bharata, son of Kaikayi and younger brother of Rāma, who installed two of his sons as rulers in the two cities: Taksha in Takshaśilā and Pushkala in Pushkalāvatī. The Mahābhārata relates that the city was conquered by King Janamejaya of Hāstināpura, who performed there the great snake sacrifice—the whole of the famous epic being recited during the performance.

In Buddhist literature, and particularly in the Jātakas, Taxila is often referred to as a seat of learning and the home of worldfamous teachers. According to the Dīpavaṁśa, one of its early kings was Dīpaṅkara, a Kshatriya, who was followed on the throne by twelve sons and grandsons. The Avadānakalpalatā also alludes to another of its kings, Kuñjarakarna by name.

But it was reserved for the Jains to make the most extravagant claims as to the age of the city. For they relate that millions upon millions of years ago Taxila was visited by Rishabha, the first of the Tirthaṁkaras, and that the footprints of the saint were consecrated by Bāhubalī, who erected over them a throne and ‘wheel of the law’ (dharmacakra). The wheel, they say, was several miles in height and circumference.

NO STRUCTURAL REMAINS OF PREHISTORIC DATE AT TAXILA

The truth disclosed by the hard facts of excavation is much more sober. The earliest of the remains uncovered on the site go back no further than the sixth century B.C. or thereabouts. If any settlement of the Stone, Copper or Bronze Age ever existed at this spot, it has yet to be unearthed. The oldest structural remains that have yet come to light are the rough stone buildings in the lowest settlement on the Bhiṛ Mound, which there is no reason to ascribe to an earlier date than the fifth or sixth century B.C. Towards the close of the latter century (c. 518 B.C.) Sind and the Eastern Panjab were added by Darius I to the Achaemenid empire, together constituting the Twentieth, or Indian, Satrapy mentioned by Herodotus.