Salt Range Temples, Pakistan

Michael W. Meister, W. Norman Brown Professor, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, and Curator, Asian Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has served as Chair, Department of South Asia Studies, and Director, South Asia Center

Along the Indus river and in the Salt Range mountains, temples dating from the sixth to the early eleventh century survive in upper Pakistan. A joint project with Professors Abdur Rehman, past Chairman of the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, and Farid Khan, founder of the Pakistan Heritage Society, has begun to analyse and document these important monuments in the history of South Asian temple architecture with funding from the University of Pennsylvania. Two seasons of excavation have been carried out at the site of North Kafirkot.

A preliminary review and analysis of this tradition, "Temples Along the Indus," has been published in the University of Pennsylvania Museum's journal, Expedition, 38.3 (1996): 41-54. (The text as well as a preliminary typescript of this article are available on the Web.)

We discovered an important new temple designated temple E through excavations undertaken at north Kafirkot in 1997. A report on both seasons of excavation has been published in Expedition. 42.1 (2000): 37-46.

(See also a full list of project publications below.)

Recent views of Kafirkot in Feb. 2000 following excavation are also available, as well as two hypothetical reconstructions of temple E based on neighboring temple A.

Salt Range Workshop

Further archaeological work and exploration was begun at the Salt-Range site of Amb, in association with the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of the Punjab.

Amb, temples A and B

Support for this project has been received from the Middle East Center, South Asia Regional Studies Department, the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies.

Sites

• Taxila, fifth-century encasement of Dharmarajika stupa
• Murti, stupa mound and Gupta-period temple-remains
• Katas, pilgrimage site, tank, and temples
• North Kafirkot, fortress, citadel, and temples;
  destroyed temple at Kanjari-kothi compared to temple B; the site of the newly discovered temple E is just south of temple A.
• Bilot (South Kafirkot), fortress, citadel, and temples
• Mari-Indus, four temples and habitation site
• Kalar, brick temple
• Amb, fort and two temples
• Malot, temple and gateway
• Shivganga, grove, tank, and temple ruins
• Nandana, fort, temple, and platform

For more views of these monuments, see also Selected Enlarged Views of Salt Range Temples.

Salt Range Temple Project Publications

• "Architectural Originality in the Punjab." Kalâ, Journal of Indian Art History Congress 6 (1999-2000): 27-35.
• "Chronology of Temples in the Salt Range, Pakistan." In South Asian Archaeology 1997, ed. Maurizio Taddei and Giuseppe De Marco. Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, 2000, pp. 1321-39.
• "Crossing Lines, Architecture in Early Islamic South Asia," Res, Anthropology and Aesthetics 43 (2003): 117-30.
• "Gandhâra-Nâgara Temples of the Salt Range and the Indus." Kalâ, the Journal of Indian Art History Congress 4 (1997-98): 45-52.
• "Malot and the Originality of the Punjab." Punjab Journal of Archaeology and History 1 (1997): 31-36.
• "Pattan Munara: Minar or Mandir?" In Hari Smiriti: Studies in Art, Archaeology and Indology, Papers Presented in Memory of Dr. H. Sarkar, New Delhi: Kaveri Books, 2006.
• "Temples Along the Indus." Expedition, the Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 38.3 (1996): 41-54. [.pdf available]
• "Temples of the Salt Range." In Religion, Ritual & Royalty, ed. N. K. Singhi and Rajendra Joshi, pp. 132-39. Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 1999.
• "Discoveries on the Indus." In The Ananda-Vana of Indian Art, ed. Naval Krishna and Manu Krishna, pp. 95-102. New Delhi: Indica.

In Press

• "Northwest India and the Punjab." In M. A. Dhaky , ed., Art and Architecture in India: North Indian Art and Architecture (Pre-Medieval).
• "The Problem of Platform Extensions at Kafirkot North," Ancient Pakistan.
• "Restoring Temples in the Kafirkots, N.W.F.P., and Katas, Panjab, to Discussions of the Origins of Nâgara." In M. S. Nagaraja Rao, ed. K. V. Ramesh Felicitation Volume.
• Temple Conservation and Transformation." In South Asian Archaeology 1999, ed. K.R. van Kooij and E.M. Raven, Leiden.

• "Archaeology at Kafirkot." In Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefevre, ed., South Asian Archaeology 2001, Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2005, pp. 571-78.

• "Discovery of a New Temple on the Indus." Expedition, 42.1 (2000): 37-46. [.pdf available]
• "Temples of the Indus & the Salt Range, A Fresh Probe (1995-97)." The Pakistan Heritage Society Newsletter 1 (1998): 2-5.

• "The Discovery of Siva-Mahesvara Figure at Kafirkot." Lahore Museum Bulletin 9/2 (1996) [1998]: 51-56.

• (with Shahbaz Khan) "Kallar - a Brick Temple." Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society, XXV (2000): 105-09.
• "Temples of the Salt Range and Kafir Kot: Ornamentation." Lahore Museum Bulletin XIII.2 (2000): 33-36.
• "An Extant Hindu Sahi Temple at Nandana." In Sohdra, History & Archaeology, by Abudl Aziz Farooq. Majlis-i-Sqafat Sohdra (Gujranwala), pp. 81-94.
• "Temples of North Kafir Kot." Indo Koko Kenkyu 22 (2001): 101-22.
• "A Seventh Century Temple at North Kafir Kot." Lahore Museum Bulletin XIV.1 (2001): 1-8.
• "Style of the Salt Range and Kafir Kot Temples in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis." Pakistan Vision III.1-2 (2002): 105-40.
  
  

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  last modified 3 March 2006
  
  Michael W. Meister, mmeister@sas.upenn.edu

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