HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TAXILA CIVILIZATION

MYRA FATIMA

Writer is student of NUML University Islamabad.

CONTENTS

1. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION?

2.DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION

3.ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN PAKISTAN

4.TAXILA CIVILIZATION

5.HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

6.ANALYSIS

7.CONCLUSION

8.REFERENCES



1 WHAT IS CIVILIZATION?
Civilization refers to a society or group of people or the process of achieving a higher state
of social development.An example of civilization is the Mesopotamian civilization, Indus
valley civilization, Taxila civilization and many others are present around the world to study.
Although every civilization show the culture of its society that what are the social values which the people of any society follow?. An example of civilization is an industrial society that has the social value related to its arts, sciences, values, desires, believes traditions ,customs and way of living as well as machines and technologies.

2.DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION
(A)“Civilization refers to a society,community and group of people living in different societies or the process of achieving a higher state of social development”.
(B) “Civilization refers the total culture of a particular people, nation, period, etc..”
(C) “It is the condition of being civilized the social organization of a high ordermarked by the development with the use of writtenlanguages and by advances in the arts and sciences, government.”
(D) “Civilization is basically the type of culture of any society developed by a particular nation or region.”

3.ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN PAKISTAN
Ancient civilizations are the basis of the world as we know it todaybuilt on the ruins of 10,000 years of advanced cultures such as the Greek, Roman, Mesopotamia, Mayan, Indus, Egyptian culture civilization, and many others that we know primarily through archaeology ,through signs and through the historical place and architecture of these societies and also through the some written records present in different civilization and on world cultures related books.
There are the two very oldest civilizations found in Pakistan as these civilizations represent the culture and history ofGandharaand buddhist dynasty.
Sindh Indus valley civilization represent the old culture of “Hinduism”and Taxilacivilization  represent the culture of “Buddhist Dynasty”. There are number of world heritage sites present in Pakistan some of them are small some are huge ,so that these two civilizations are the biggest representatives of their culture traditions and customs.
In Sindh history ,Sindh was not always called by this name in fact it has been given several names over the course of its history. The name“Sindh” derives from“Sindhu”which is a Sanskrit word used for describing the ocean or water in large quantity. This term was commonly used during the rule of Aryans but as the ancient Persians began to rule this land.They changed the name of the river into according to their religion“Hindu”.
After the arrival of the Greek Empire, the name of this river was changed into “IndosRiver”. The “O” in the name was replaced by “U” as it is now called the “Indus River”.Taxila civilization is world most old civilization.Sindh civilization is also world one of the most oldest civilization.
The Indus civilization is known to have consisted of two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjodaro.There are following historical places found in Sindh.AboutTaxila city and its culture values are present in a detail. 

 PICTURE OF OLD TAXILA CIVILIZATION

4.TAXILA CIVILIZATION
There following detail mention below about the taxila civilization in different parts:
(a)About city:
Taxila is a city situated 31 km to the west of Islamabad and to the 36.40 km to the northwest of Rawalpindi off the Grand Trunk Road. Taxila is located with the city WahCantt other close neighboring cityiskhanpur.WahCantt and Taxila are the twin cities. It is a city with a huge population and this city also links the closest city Hassanabdal.
Taxila is the seven tehsil of Rawalpindi district. It is a city spread in the Potohar plateau of Punjab. Taxila was historically known as “Takshashila”.It is the first name of taxila then the city name is converted into taxila.
(b)Budhhisht dynasty:
The city dates back to 5 century BCE. The recorded history of Taxila starts from 6th century BC, when this Gandharan,the worshipers of gautumbuddh come in the kingdom andbecame part of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia.
In the Pakistan province of Punjab people mostly speak their provincial languages mostly punjabi and its roots languages like siraiki,pahari and etc, also the national language urdu.The culture of taxila show the strong historical background of the city.It is the world most old civilization and old archeological of the world.The city is also famous because it was the world centre of bhuddism culture and religion.The people of this time worshiped concrete statues,many statues of Buddha show the various stages of his life.
(c)Taxila museum:
Taxila museum is the Pakistan most famous museum.Most of the statues are currently present at the Taxila museum as well as various stupas and old statues are present in he city however the best types and figures of these statues have been taken abroad and are displayed in the worldmuseums.the museum represent the civilization by showing the signs of the civilization.In these signs there are following types of things are present which show their culture for example , statues of different stupas,walls,girlsstatues,jewellery,crockery different war tools which is used by Aryans in different wars and encounter with mangols and etc.There are 5 small stupas in the city:
.Dharmarajika stupa.
. Glen of Giri.
.Dharmarajika stupa.
.Jaulianstupa.
.MohraMoradu.




(d) University of Ancient Taxila:
One of the oldest most recognized universities of the world is also present in Taxila city. This university came into being in the Gandhara period. The university had 10,500 students including  from Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China and come to study in this university to get education and learn different values according to their culture. Experienced and qualified teachers taught them the different languages,philosophy,medicine,politics,warfare, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance, arts, cultural crafts, sciences and complex.Over allTaxila is a an educated city, known as the centre of learning and culture in the pastperiods.The city also have the industrial significance because of the “Pakistan ordinance factory”(POF) is located in wahcantt and cement factory is located in hassanabdal.TheSrikap valley is made by king Demetrius after he invaded ancient India around 180 BC. Demetrius founded in the northern and northwestern modern Pakistan an Indo-Greek kingdom that was to last until around 10 BC. Sirkap is also said to have been rebuilt by king Menander I.The valley is located near taxila university.

5. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
There are the following ancient civilization present in Pakistan some of the show the culture with its historical places these historical places are not only found in Taxila or Sindh but also present in whole country which are the representatives of their culture tradition and religion signs and values of their community and society.
These civilizations also used the different buildings, temples ,grave yards and prayers places to show their civilization and culture through the architecture and signs by constructing different designs which are related to their culture by making them in the wall of buildings.For example in Sindh civilization there are following buildings and graveyards represents the Indus valley civilizations.their names are following 
(a) Jain Temples
(b) MakliNercopolis
(c)Chawkundi Tombs
(d) Frere Hall
(e)Mohenjo-Daro,Harrappa
The true meaning of the term civilization has changed many times during its history and even in today society it is used in many different ways. It is commonly used to describe the significance of human societies "With a high level of cultural and technological development in a society groups" as opposed to what many consider to be less "advanced" societies the term. This definition of civilization however is unclear and subjectiveand it carries with its assumptions no longer accepted by modern scholarship and modern society.
It is also due to their values and customs are old and not acceptable because of today technology is now refers the modern societies and these societies are now more advanced .People are more now aware of their customs, it is also because people are now understand the social values more lightly and sensibly.In a simple word its means that every society significance and life ideology should be changed and merged according to the society technology.The places which show the old civilizations are present in wahcantt one of the place name is “wahgarden”,this garden is present near grand trunk road.
In the historical perspective there are many number of different civilizations of worlds represents their culture many of them are famous which are today also the biggest representatives of their culture and their names in world are also know by the whole world.It is only due to the successful ancient technology they used it may be not good and satisfying in today societies, but it was fantastic according to their old age and “Egyptian art” is one of them.It is not only show their brilliant technology of architecture but their food security and saving processes are also the mysterious now in today world, that which technology they used to save them?and how can they build these biggest pyramids and which machinery and technology is used by these civilizations to build these huge long pyramids?All of these questions are mysterious for today world. Although all of these world civilization have the element of mystery which is present in their societies.

6. ANALYSIS
The historical significance of the city overall has impact on the lives of the people of the area, there are no ruminants of the Buddhist culture in the lives of the natives of Taxila and they lives are dictated primarily by the Punjabi culture, whether these are their own personal individual lives or their lives in a social capacity.
Civilization refers the social values of every society and term culture is most used to interpret history,Historical component of culture is not unanimously acknowledge.In historical terms, it should be clarified that the possession of a great cultural heritage.
Taxila civilization is the representative of bhuddisht culture and is the sign which reflects the social values of bhuddisht culture .While the taxila civilization found world most old civilization which means that the buddisht culture is too old.
According to the scientific research three cities found during digging the ground of the city are found in the shape of reverse and torment are came in these nations because of betrayal and bad habits along 1000 years ago. Civilization signs are also present even today and the new society can find it during digging.Today the civilization custom and values of taxila are not follow by the people of this area, it means that the civilization is ended but its effects are still present on the people and on their behaviour.Irritability is found in their behaviour ,the one reason of this may be because Aryans and Bhuddhistis warrior nation.The race are the same only difference is that most of them are converting into Muslims later.

7.CONCLUSION

Pakistan is the country located in the centre of Asia and having the multi- culture, it is significantly represents the different culture not only the culture which is present at domestic level but also having the external cultures .External culture means that when the country  is separated from India, many of the people come from different areas of subcontinent in which different group of people coming from different societies and states for example Iranians,Turkish,Indians,Afghan and Chinese etc .With these many of people comes with different cultures and traditions and mix in Pakistani culture especially from neighbouring countries of Pakistan after independence.
It is often said that culture is the collective behaviour of the educated segment of society.Every culture or civilization is the clear representative of its society and people of these society always tries to follow their traditions and culture because civilization is the mirror of their figure and show the social values of the society.The civilization is the necessary part of every society it is because without the element of culture no society and groups of people can survive. It is also said us by our religion Islam. One of the Quranic verses defines that .

"We can give you the sign of tribe,caste and name not because you are superior from the  rest but for that ,so you can identifyeach others"
Identification is the compulsory element of society and to identify the sign of old civilization few of the steps are important to follow by new societies historical places are the precious capital of every society and it is the duty of the government to save it but in Pakistan there are following black sheep present which can only thinks about their personal sake many of old costly statues are sale by the organizer to abroad and put the profit in their pockets.why the government cannot protect them and make the strategy to save them?This is only because we cannot understand the value of these civilizations.      

8.REFRENCES
This topic information and guidelines are taken from many resources including  articles,books and websites:
(a)Article:“Civilization”by Cristian Violatti ,published on 04 December 2014
(b)Book:Title,“Concise history of pakistan” Writer:(Muhammad razakazmi)
(c) Website: “History.pak.com”