Entire world knows that India is one of the most ancient and glorious civilizations known to mankind. Most of its antiquity is depicted either in books or in the shape of archeological and anthropological remains spread over the vast expanse of the land. But historians, antiquarians and archaeologists agree that though many of these archaeological remains have been excavated, exposed, examined and analyzed by eminent scholars yet a large fund of our civilizational treasure still remains buried underground, and is not known to us. We do get sporadic hints in existing historical record like mythological and scriptural lore about the existence of treasures of heritage of the hoary past. But identification of precise sites and follow up action that would entail capital investment and induction of expertise and scrutiny etc. would be required to give them proper exposure. We have the Archaeological Survey of India, a well structured organization with branches in the states to take care of heritage objects. But as we have seen, the ASI is mostly focused on known ruins and heritage sites or monuments and their repair and restoration exercise. Somewhat less attention is paid to new excavations and archaeological finds that could shed much light on obscured facets of our ancient history. For example, in his monumental work Rajatarangini, Kalhan tells at many places about the temples, shrines, viharas, stupas and pillars and other monuments ordered by the king or the queen or their guru or their ministers and commanders. He very often writes that such and such a temple or vihara was consecrated by such and such a king or minister or queen to such and such a deity and proceeds to give the number of priests and mendicants who served at the shrine. But most of the sites remain unidentified and hence unexplored. This is a loss to the historians and antiquarians and we would be many times richer if we had got these excavated and studied.
Kalhan tells us that it was King Ashoka, the Great, who had embraced Buddhism, had undertaken to dispatch Buddhist monks as missionaries and propagators to all the four sides of his kingdom viz. Central Asia, South Asia and South East Asia as far away as Mongolia and Japan. Buddhist missionaries with Buddha’s message of peace travelled the vast Asian tracts along the fabulous Silk Road as part of the caravans carrying merchandise across that part of the globe. Kalhana and other Kashmirian historians have recorded the arrival of Buddha’s message and faith to Kashmira Mandala and the patronage it received from contemporary royalty. Modern historians have conducted expansive investigation into Kashmir’s contribution to the expansion of Buddhism in the region. But unfortunately no attention has been given to the exploration of the route and the stations over which the Buddhist monks carried the message of their master to Kashmir and then to Kapisa, Gandhara (modern Kabul and Qandahar) and across the Badakhshan mountains to Balkh, Bamian, Tirmiz and then to the Central Asian Steppes as is evident from numerous statues of Buddha excavated in Penjikent valley in modern Tajikistan. Existence of a grand Buddhist monastery even today in Mongolia in its full grandeur as it stood even during the days of Chingiz speaks of great fervor and tenacity among the Buddhist monks who carried their master’s message to this distant region. Kashmirian monks are reported to have brought Buddha’s message to Tibet and the name of the Kashmirian Buddhist monk Kamalshree is a household name among the Buddhist scholars of greater Tibet (Lhasa) and Lesser Tibet (Ladakh).
In their lop-sided study of expansion of Buddhism in Northern India including the present day State of Jammu and Kashmir, historians and archaeologists have committed the grave mistake of not paying full attention to the route those ancient sages and savants had adopted. Identification of a site at Ambaran on the right bank of Chenab near Akhnoor with more than 2,000 years old Buddhist Monastic complex and its architectural remains were excavated during 1990-2001 by the Srinagar Circle of ASI under Dr B.R. Mani, the then Superintending Archaeologist, Srinagar Circle of ASI. The team established that the site was abandoned sometimes around 7th century AD because of flash floods in the river and decline of Buddhism in the area.
In all probability, Buddhism must have been introduced in the lands known to Kalhana as Madradesh, the region between Chenab and Ravi, much before it was carried on to the Kashmir valley by Majjhantika during king Ashoka’s reign. Ancient Pali works carry evidence that tells us that prominent disciples of the Buddha like Mahakappina, Khema and Bhadda Kapilani hailed from Madradesha, whose capital was the modern-day Sialkot, and an area contiguous to Jammu.
With excavations made by the ASI team in 1990-2001 at Ambaran, researchers and scholars of Indological and Buddhist studies began evincing interest in conducting more researches in the field. They established that the remains of the monastery and some artifacts recovered from the ruins established that it belonged to Kushan period and was the earliest monastery to have been found in J&K State. But Ambaran attracted attention of the entire world of culture and civilization after His Holiness the Dalai Lama formally visited the site in Akhnoor on November 9, 2011.
We have touched upon Buddhist history in passing. But the point that we need to make is that despite the historical importance of this first ever known Buddhist heritage complex in Madradesha (Jammu region), nothing has been done on the ground for last thirteen years either to explore fully the story of Buddhist advent in Jammu, and the route of its movement or the details of the remains that have come to light at Ambaran. Existence of this heritage site could be the stimulus for looking out for similar sites along the route of the movement of the Buddhist missionaries namely bhikshus in the vast region straddled between Ravi and Chenab. The ASI should formulate a project and constitute a team of experts including academia to make rewarding investigation. May be we are able to find more sites in the region promising rich description of the traces of Buddhist civilization in Northern and North-Western India. It would be in fitness of things to recommend the site for award of national heritage status.
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