There were four decisive phases in Taxila's development: the Indian dynasty of the Maurya (c. 321-189 B.C.), the Greeks of Bactria (189-50 B.C.), the Parthians (50 B.C.-60 A.D.), and domination by the powerful Central Asian Kushan dynasty (until c. 230 A.D.). Thereafter the city's political decline, as a result of dynastic quarrels, led on to its economic and cultural decline, which was precipitated by the incursions of the Huns in the fifth century.

Taxila, which was excavated by British archaeologists in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, contains the vestiges of three successive towns and many small monastic sites, bearing witness to the refined nature of the city's spiritual and cultural life during its halcyon days.

THE FIRST CITY: BHIR

Bhir was the first urban community on the Taxila site (sixth to second centuries B.C.). When Alexander the Great arrived there in 326 B.C., he found the main street badly paved and unprepossessing and the architecture rudimentary, the houses built of stones bonded with mud, the roofs flat and the walls vividly painted but without windows on to the street. The town had a central refuse tip and a network of open drains, but no wells. The inhabitants drew water straight from the river, which was where they washed themselves and did their laundry.

In the third century B.C., Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, founder of the Mauryan dynasty, converted to Buddhism. He built the great stupa of Dharmarajika, placing therein the relics of the Buddha in a golden casket. Vandals many times mutilated the sacred edifice as they vainly searched for this casket. Over the years, the stupa was enlarged by the addition of large numbers of other religious structures (small votive stupas, chapels, etc.).

This monument was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 30 A.D., but it was rebuilt and its imposing mass (15 metres high and 50 in diameter) was shored up by several retaining walls, which resemble the spokes radiating out from the hub of a wheel and thus recall the dharma-cakra (the wheel of law), from which the site complex takes its name.

The surrounding wall of the stupa, embellished with painted and gilded statues of the Buddha, dates from early in the second century A.D. Further north, all that remains are the ruins of a monastery that had a hundred monks' cells. It was completely sacked by the Huns in 455 A.D.

THE PARTHIAN CITY: SIRKAP

Sirkap (second century B.C. to first century A.D.), the second town on the Taxila site, is half an hour's walk north from the site of Bhir. Excavations have brought to light the city walls, dating from various periods, including those built by the Parthians in the first century A.D., which were six metres thick, had tall bastions and were in places nine metres in height.

When Saint Thomas, who brought the Gospel to India, visited the Parthian king Gondophares in 47 A.D., he found a flourishing town where caravans from China, India and the distant western lands all met. Unlike Bhir, Sirkap was built according to a plan, with streets regularly laid out along two perpendicular north-south and east-west axes. Scattered among its huge, rectangular dwelling-houses, in the oriental style, with rooms arranged around an open central courtyard, were Jain stupas, Buddhist altars and private chapels. Like Bhir, Sirkap had neither wells nor mains drainage. The main thoroughfare was lined by a large number of open-fronted shops with wooden stalls. Numerous Greek-inspired objects have been excavated, including a silver head of Dionysos and a cornelian seal with representations of Eros and Psyche.