32 Facts About Taxila

Taxila or Takshashila, is a city in Punjab, Pakistan.

Old Taxila was an important city of ancient India, situated on the eastern shore of the Indus River—the pivotal junction of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia; it was founded around 1000 BCE.

The Greek-language transcription of Taxila became universally favoured over time, and both the Sanskrit and Pali names fell out of use.

In later Buddhist texts, the Jatakas, it is specified that Taxila was the city where Aruni and his son Shvetaketu each had received their education.

Taxila's footprints were subsequently consecrated by Bahubali who erected a throne and a dharmachakra over them several miles in height and circumference.

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Region around Taxila was settled by the neolithic era, with some ruins at Taxila dating to 3360 BCE.

Taxila was sometimes ruled as part of the Gandhara kingdom, particularly after the Achaemenid period, but Taxila sometimes formed its own independent district or city-state.

Taxila was founded in a strategic location along the ancient "Royal Highway" that connected the Mauryan capital at Pataliputra in Bihar, with ancient Peshawar, Puskalavati, and onwards towards Central Asia via Kashmir, Bactria, and Kapisa.

Taxila thus changed hands many times over the centuries, with many empires vying for its control.

Around the year 50 CE, the Greek Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana allegedly visited Taxila, which was described by his biographer, Philostratus, writing some 200 years later, as a fortified city laid out on a symmetrical plan, similar in size to Nineveh.

Taxila's university remained in existence during the travels of Chinese pilgrim Faxian, who visited Taxila around 400 CE.

Taxila wrote that Taxila's name translated as "the Severed Head", and was the site of a story in the life of Buddha "where he gave his head to a man".

Taxila which was desolate and half-ruined was visited by him in 630 CE, and found most of its sangharamas still ruined and desolate.

Taxila adds that the kingdom had become a dependency of Kashmir with the local leaders fighting amongst themselves for power.

Taxila noted that it had some time previously been a subject of Kapisa.

Taxila became a noted centre of learning at least several centuries BCE, and continued to attract students from around the old world until the destruction of the city in the 5th century.

Taxila had great influence on Hindu culture and the Sanskrit language.

Students arriving at Taxila usually had completed their primary education at home, and their secondary education in the Ashrams, and therefore came to Taxila chiefly to reach the ends of knowledge in specific disciplines.

Taxila is most famous for ruins of several settlements, the earliest dating from around 1000 BCE.

Main ruins of Taxila include four major cities, each belonging to a distinct time period, at three different sites.

The earliest settlement at Taxila is found in the Hathial section, which yielded pottery shards that date from as early as the late 2nd millennium BCE to the 6th century BCE.

Taxila was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 in particular for the ruins of the four settlement sites which "reveal the pattern of urban evolution on the Indian subcontinent through more than five centuries".

Relics from Taxila were sent to Sri Lanka for the 2017 Vesak holiday as part of an effort to showcase the region's Buddhist heritage.

Taxila is home to Heavy Industries Taxila, a major Pakistani defence, military contractor, engineering conglomerate.

Taxila is served by the Taxila Cantonment Junction railway station.

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Taxila Junction is served by the Karachi–Peshawar Railway Line, and is the southern terminus of the Khunjerab Railway, which connects Taxila to the Havelian railway station.

Taxila is home to many secondary educational institutes including CIIT Wah Campus, and HITEC University.

The University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila was established in 1975 as a campus of the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, and offers bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees in engineering.

Ruins of Taxila include four major cities, each belonging to a distinct time period, at three different sites.

The earliest settlement at Taxila is found in the Hathial section, which yielded pottery shards that date from as early as the late 2nd millennium BCE to the 6th century BCE.

Taxila University is one of the oldest known universities in the world and it was the chief learning centre in ancient India.

Taxila heard from the Pacceka Buddhas, who took their meals in the palace, that he would become king of Takkasila if he could reach it without falling a prey to the ogresses who waylaid travellers in the forest.