The Sculpture found in Pak
occupied Kashmir
By Sanjay
Godbole
MUzafferabaD, the historically important
city, is presently the Capital of Pakistan
occupied Kashmir. Here several age old and
ancient relics and remains have been unearthed
and brought to light. The classification
exercise of these remains into Hindu and
Buddhist categories, is presently in the offing.
Here, there is an ancient whitish knoll, where
broken pieces of terracottas, pot sherds,
ancient objects and beads of numerous shapes and
designs frequently surface during explorations
and expiditions. It is here only that many age
old and ancient sculpture have been reported and
the work of erreting a small museum of these
precious items is in progress, in Muzafferabad.
Dr. Sabir Afaqi, an erudite professor was the
Head of Department, of Urdu, Persian and Arabic
studies, at the University of Kashmir
Muzaffarabad. He has translated into Persian, a
book depicting the ancient history of Kashmir,
titled “Rajtarangini”. Sabir Sahib, was also the
President of Kashmir Gujar Association. I Ie
provided me from Muzafferabad a photograph of
Kashmiri Sculpture, for my persual and for
studying the same.Dr. Sabir is of the opinion
that many ancient remains and antiquities of
historically and archaeogically importance do
exist in the near viscinity of Muzafferbad and
even these old remains are possibly connected
with many events and occurances thereof since
the Mahabharata era.
Dr. G.B. Deglurkar, an eminent authority on
Iconography, has opined that the Sculpture which
was found at Muzafferabad recently, belongs to
the class of sculpture categorized as “Hero
Worship” type. The sculpture can be described as
under :-
Under the decorative arch, there
is a Warriar in a fighting and Combatant stance.
He holds in his hand a Sword like weapon. In the
front of the Sculpture, there is a niche in the
wall for illuminating the Sculpture with the
help of a Lamp. Below the nich, mere is an
ornamental decoration of the temple. On.
account of the aureaole behind the sculpture, it
could be surmised that unless the sculpture is
that of a deity, could possibly be of a noble
soul or a majestic personality like a “Virgal”
type Sculpture of Southern India. The sculpture
can be assigned to eighteenth century.
(The author is a noted archaeologist,
based in Pune).
Source: Kashmir
Sentinel
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