On an early April morning when AAN visited, staff from the Afghan NGO ACHCO (the Afghanistan Cultural Heritage Consulting Organization) were busy doing excavation and preservation work on the site.
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| Topdara stupa covered in scaffolding (AAN) |
The principal structure at Topdara is the stone
stupa and its upper drum, which measures 23 meters across and stands almost 30 meters high above the surrounding fields. The drum is ornamented with double S-shaped curves, which give it a decorative band of 56 identical niches framed by rounded arches.
...Facing east above this frieze is a tri-lobed arch niche where three figures of the Buddha [the historical "Sage of the Scythians" who grew up in Afghanistan according to maverick Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal] are thought to have once been mounted.
According to this
2017 British Museum publication, this assumption is based on the remains of a stucco halo of what is thought to have been "the principal image" of the standing Buddha, with what would probably have been two smaller seated
buddhas [or disciples] on each side (Note 1).
The frieze is aligned with a ceremonial staircase that faces the valley where the capital of the
Kushan Empire, Kapisa, once was.
The drum stands on a square base, which measures 36 meters on each side, that ACHCO has recently excavated. They discovered that the base is also ornamented with classical style pilasters and has two pairs of stairs, on its east and west points. The base was an integral element of the rituals followed by Buddhist pilgrims, who would have circumambulated around the
stupa.
...According to ACHCO, the
stupa would have been plastered and painted, with gilded parasols on the apex of its dome, flanked by flags and banners that would have been visible by pilgrims progressing along the slopes below.
In 19th century English sources,
stupas were generally referred to by the term
tope, which may oderive from the Dari word for hill or mound,
tappa. The name of the village and the
stupa, Topdara, could then mean "Valley of the
Stupa." For example, English Orientalist H.H. Wilson (1786-1860) notes in the first chapter of the book
Ariana Antica (1841):
"The edifices [
stupas] which have of late years attracted so much attention in the north-west of India and in Afghanistan, have been known by the general appellation of
Topes, a word signifying a mound or tumulus, derived from the Sanscrit [sic] appellation
Sthupa [sic], having the same import" (pp. 28-29).
According to Masson’s explanation in the second chapter of the same book:
"The term
Tope, which is applicable to the more prominent and interesting of the structures under consideration, is that in ordinary use by the people of the regions in which they most abound. A
tope is a massive structure comprising two essential parts, the basement and perpendicular body resting thereon. The latter, after a certain elevation, always terminates after the manner of a cupola, sometimes so depressed as to exhibit merely a slight convexity of surface, but more frequently approaching the shape of a cone."
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| The stupa restoration continues (AAN). |
Speaking about the Topdara stupa, one of the three stupas he examined “to the north of Kabul, and in the districts of Koh Daman and the Kohistan,” Masson wrote:
“The next [
tope] occurs at Dara [
Tope+Dara=Topdara], about twenty-five miles from Kabul, and is perhaps the most complete and beautiful monument of the kind in these countries, as it is one of the largest.”
Little is known about the history of the Topdara
stupa regarding who commissioned it, when it was built, and how it was used. Archaeological research in Afghanistan has been episodic and the number of properly excavated sites in country is still tiny, compared to neighboring Iran [formerly Persia] or Pakistan [formerly India].
Serious archaeological explorations in Afghanistan only began with the creation of the
Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA) in 1922, which had obtained a monopolistic license from the country’s then-ruler
Amanullah. Subsequent wars, both World War II and the 40 years of conflict in Afghanistan since 1978, prevented the follow-up of much in-depth archaeological research.
Masson’s written accounts from the 19th century, therefore, still offer an invaluable insight into the distant past of Afghanistan and its region. Charles Masson (1800-1853), was an explorer and collector of coins [who apparently didn't mind breaking into a sacred reliquary in search of treasure].
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