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Peshawar
KNOWLEDGE OF Peshawar
PeshÄ?war (پیشاور) literally means City on the Frontier in Persian and is known as Pai-khawar in Pashto. It is the provincial capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. In ancient times the city was known as Purushapura when it was officially founded by the Kushans.
Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass and sits mainly on the Iranian plateau along with the rest of the NWFP. Peshawar is literally a frontier city of South-Central Asia and was historically part of the Silk Road.
The History of Peshawar is very relevant to the discussion about Durand Line and Peshawar which seems to occupy a prominent space on the discourse between Pakistanis and Afghans.
Peshawar occupies a region that was dominated by various tribal groups of Indo-Iranian origin and a variety of other groups, possibly of Elamo-Dravidian origin, maybe prior to Aryan settlement. The region had links to the Harappan civilization of the Indus river valley and to ancient Afghanistan (before it was called Afghanistan or even Aryana), especially the Kabul valley. The border known as the Durand Line was fixed by the British in 1893 and divided ethnic Pashtun territories into two parts. As a result, many Pashtuns have agitated for a re-unification of Afghanistan or Pashtunistan. The resulting "Pashtunistan" issue has often adversely impacted relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the issue has largely become dormant since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the massive influx of Afghan refugees into cities such as Peshawar.
An ancient city named Pushkalwati, founded by Bharat's son Pushkal, may have existed in this general area during early Indo-Aryan times before their movement past the Indus into India. The city that would become Peshawar, called Purushapura, was actually founded by the Kushans, a Central Asian tribe of Tocharian origin, over 2,000 years ago. Prior to this period the region was affiliated with Gandhara and was invaded and annexed first by the Persian Achaemenid empire and then the Hellenic empire of Alexander the Great. The city passed into the rule of Alexander's successor, Seleucus I Nicator who ceded it to Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya empire. Buddhism was introduced into the region at this time and claimed the majority of Peshawar's inhabitants before the coming of Islam.
The area that Peshawar occupies was then seized by the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides (c. 170 - c. 159 BCE), and was controlled by a series of Greco-Bactrian kings. It was later held for some time by several Parthian kings, another group of Iranian invaders from Central Asia, the most famous of whom, Gondophares, was still ruling c. 46 CE, and was briefly followed by two or three of his descendants before they were displaced by the first of the "Great Kushans", Kujula Kadphises, around the middle of the 1st century.
Peshawar formed the eastern capital of the empire of Gandhara under the Kushan king Kanishka I who reigned from at least 127 CE and, perhaps, for a few years prior to this. Peshawar also became a great centre of Buddhist learning.
Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass and sits mainly on the Iranian plateau along with the rest of the NWFP. Peshawar is literally a frontier city of South-Central Asia and was historically part of the Silk Road.
The History of Peshawar is very relevant to the discussion about Durand Line and Peshawar which seems to occupy a prominent space on the discourse between Pakistanis and Afghans.
Peshawar occupies a region that was dominated by various tribal groups of Indo-Iranian origin and a variety of other groups, possibly of Elamo-Dravidian origin, maybe prior to Aryan settlement. The region had links to the Harappan civilization of the Indus river valley and to ancient Afghanistan (before it was called Afghanistan or even Aryana), especially the Kabul valley. The border known as the Durand Line was fixed by the British in 1893 and divided ethnic Pashtun territories into two parts. As a result, many Pashtuns have agitated for a re-unification of Afghanistan or Pashtunistan. The resulting "Pashtunistan" issue has often adversely impacted relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the issue has largely become dormant since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the massive influx of Afghan refugees into cities such as Peshawar.
An ancient city named Pushkalwati, founded by Bharat's son Pushkal, may have existed in this general area during early Indo-Aryan times before their movement past the Indus into India. The city that would become Peshawar, called Purushapura, was actually founded by the Kushans, a Central Asian tribe of Tocharian origin, over 2,000 years ago. Prior to this period the region was affiliated with Gandhara and was invaded and annexed first by the Persian Achaemenid empire and then the Hellenic empire of Alexander the Great. The city passed into the rule of Alexander's successor, Seleucus I Nicator who ceded it to Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya empire. Buddhism was introduced into the region at this time and claimed the majority of Peshawar's inhabitants before the coming of Islam.
The area that Peshawar occupies was then seized by the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides (c. 170 - c. 159 BCE), and was controlled by a series of Greco-Bactrian kings. It was later held for some time by several Parthian kings, another group of Iranian invaders from Central Asia, the most famous of whom, Gondophares, was still ruling c. 46 CE, and was briefly followed by two or three of his descendants before they were displaced by the first of the "Great Kushans", Kujula Kadphises, around the middle of the 1st century.
Peshawar formed the eastern capital of the empire of Gandhara under the Kushan king Kanishka I who reigned from at least 127 CE and, perhaps, for a few years prior to this. Peshawar also became a great centre of Buddhist learning.
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