Peshawar Museum

Established in the Grand Victoria Memorial Hall in 1906, the Peshawar Museum is famous the world over for housing a unique & rare collection of Gandhara Sculptures, coins, epigraphs & other antiquities recovered from the excavation of ancient sites located in the Peshawar Valley, a region known as Gandhara in the past. The Museum also contains a variety of ethnological & Islamic collection which includes miniature paintings of the Mughal & Rajpoot studios, specimens of calligraphy, manuscript and hand written Quran, ethnological & cultural material, dresses, arms & Jewelry of different tribes of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.The Gandharan artifacts are the exclusive trait of the Peshawar Museum which speak the past glory of the Peshawar Valley. Gandhara was at the Crossroad of Civilizations Buddhism crossed the throshald of Gandhara due to the missionary activities of Mauryan King Ashoka(272-37 Bc) who after adopting Buddhism as his new faith used all his imperial resources to propagate & promote it. A Buddhist saint & scholar Madhyantika was deputed to Gandhara to preach the gospel of this religion to the Gandharans. Buddhism remained a dominant religion in Gandhara till the middles of 5th century A.C. During this period Gandhara was ruled over successfully by the Indo- Greeks, Sethian, Parthians & Kushans who left indelible impression of their art & culture on the local culture. The art of Gandhara was infact the dynastic art of the Kushans. The region of Kushana king Kanishka (1st Centenary A.D) was the golden age for the expansion of Buddhism. Under his royal patronage, Buddhism became a progressive & leading religion of the world. It was his reign that the archaic Buddhism was replaced with a liberal & progressive Mahayana School in Gandhara. In the new school his human image was evolved, carved out in large number & placed in sacred religious buildings for warship purpose. Gandhara was known as the second holy land & its fame reached to distant lands. This was the genesis of Gandhara Art which is also known as Greco- Buddhist Art & Romano Buddhist Art as it was deeply influenced by the Greek & Roman Motifs.