Gandhara stupa and Alexander E. Caddy: A contextual investigation of an archaeological campaign into Swat
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Date
2015
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Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya
Abstract
Indo-Pakistani archaeology has a long history in terms of the epistemological discourse of
internalism and externalism. The former may be related to methodical-theoretical developments
in the discipline, while the latter to the overall socio-cultural context. Gandharan
archaeology of the colonial period vividly exhibits both the features right from the beginning
till 1947.
The present study attempts to investigate the archaeological of Alexander Caddy to swat
valley in 1896. He visited the area and surveyed, photographed and dug a number of cultural
heritage sites, especially Buddhist stupa. The famous Loriyan-tangai stupa is intimately
linked with his name.
It is to be noted that Caddy’s mission was supported by the Bengal government in order to
obtain pieces of Gandhara art for the imperial collection of Calcutta Museum. He submitted
his report to the government, which was published and lost. But, recently, a copy of it was
recovered from the Malakand archives which is studied by Kurt Behrendt.
The present study critically analyzes the work of Caddy from externalist and internalist
viewpoints in order to appreciate its imperial, legal and methodical context with a special
focus on Loriyan-tangai stupa.
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Keywords
Caddy, Loriyan tangai, Swat, Buddhism, Gandhara
Citation
Khan, Rafiullah 2015. Gandhara stupa and Alexander E. Caddy: A contextual investigation of an archaeological campaign into Swat. 3rd Biennial Conference of the International Association for Asian Heritage, 27th - 28th December 2015, Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya & International Association for Asian Heritage (IAAH). p. 26.