The City and Stūpas in Taxila in the Time of Xuanzang

A new interpretation challenges the traditional identification of stūpas in Taxila, Pakistan, based on 7th-century Chinese traveler Xuanzang's account. Research suggests that the Dharmarājikā stūpa, the largest in the region, is likely the 'stūpa for one of the Four Great Treasures' mentioned by Xuanzang, rather than the previously assumed Baoti Pind site. This reinterpretation stems from archaeological evidence indicating the Dharmarājikā site was abandoned by Xuanzang's time, yet he documented an already-abandoned stūpa. The study proposes that Taxila's city center may have been located in Rawalpindi's Pothohār plateau, aligning with A. Cunningham's 19th-century observations and offering a more consistent spatial framework for the three stūpas described by Xuanzang.

NAIKI, S. (2022). 玄奘が見たタキシラの都城と仏塔. Bulletin of the Society for near Eastern Studies in Japan, 64(2), 217–232. https://doi.org/10.5356/jorient.64.2_217