Taxila gets new facility for researchers, students

Resource center set up by researchers working to document the history of the Gandhara Civilization

ISLAMABAD:

A collective of experts and activists working to document the history of the Gandhara Civilization have set up a resource centre at its historic capital Taxila.

A project of a local non-governmental organisation, the Gandhara Resource Centre (GRC) at Taxila Gardens seeks to advance its mission of research and heritage exploration of the more than 3,000-year-old civilizations including the details nestled in the nooks and crannies of the ancient city.

The centre’s activities would focus on the Gandhara civilization which encompassed a huge area from Afghanistan to Pakistan, said Sarah Mehmood, who is the director of Centre for Culture and Development, the NGO running the project. "This pilot project is an effort to kick start a special research to document Taxila's history," she said.

She said the centre would collaborate with universities so that the history and heritage of Taxila could be introduced to their students. She added that the GRC had engaged students to research on architectural techniques of the civilization which remains intact to this day.

Malik Aushtar Ali, the project manager, said the ancient Taxila University (also known as the University of Takshashila) had 10,000 students and 5,000 members of faculty 3,000 years ago at a time when people around them were ‘sunk in ignorance’.

In ancient times, scholars from Central Asia, Greece, Egypt and Europe would come to study at the university at Taxila, he said. He said that ancient universities of the subcontinent like the one at Somnath were set up by graduates of the University of Taxila.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2023.