Oldest City of Pakistan, Peshawar



Peshawar is the oldest city in Pakistan and one of the oldest in South Asia. Few remains found are as old as 8 thousand years which proves that this city was inhabited by Dawaris. Dawaris were conquered by Aryanis. It is also stated that Shiri Krishna inhabited this city. Reign of Shri Krishna traces back to 3280 B.C, to know about how old this time is, it appears that when Hazrat brahim Aleh salam was born this city existed with a history of 1500 years. Peshawar was conquered by many nations including Darawris, Aryanis, Greece, Persians, Afghans, Mughals and Sikhs and then it came under the reign of British Raj.

Very few cities in the world have been under the influence of so many nations. Reason for its attraction laid in the geographical location of Peshawar. It had access to central Asia, Turkey and then Europe through Turkey. It also had easy access to silk route.   (The Silk Route was a historic trade route that dated from the second century B.C. until the 14th century A.D)   Iran located in South West was also accessible through it.  Though Baluchistan shares border with Iran but it was not opted for access to Iran as it had dry atmosphere and people in those times preferred journey near water channels. It fascinated so many nations for all its geographical importance but unfortunately it wasn’t given its due share of attention by the conquerors except in the reign of British Raj.

 In 1834, Ranjit Singh conquered Peshawar and appointed Italian General Jean Biptaees as Governor of Peshawar. He selected present Gorgatri which was that time called “Bagh” as his court, he would decide cases of theft, adulteration and other charges on spot. His favorite punishment was death sentence. Every day 8 to 10 people would be hanged and their dead bodies would be kept hanging till several days on the western gate. Due to the fear of this western gate people started calling it as Gorgatri which means bundle of graves.

We find many names of Peshawar. Under rule of Greece it was named Caspatoras, Puspathorus, Paskapoor,Koshanpura, Parshapoor, Pashkolawatee, Porshpoora (it was the name that remained for 1000 years.)   Zahir ud din Baber named it Baagraami. It is said that Akbar named it Peshawar, but in many references it is ascribed to Sikhs.

Today's Shah Jee ki dheri

Golden period of Peshawar stared when Kushans made it his capital. It was a huge empire and its capital was Peshawar, its founder was called Kanishka. He had teeth of Sidharth Gotum Budh as a sacred token. There was prediction about him as well of Sidharth Gotuma Budh, making of this stupa was foretold by Gotuma Budh. It is referred to in Vinaya Sutra: “The Buddha, pointing to a small boy making a mud tope….[said] that on that spot Kanishka would erect a tope by his name."  So Kansihka made 500 ft tall stupa. This stupa was visible to people coming to Peshawar from far away and it was placed on Kings Tower (Shah jee ki dheri). It is about six kilometers from today’s Peshawar. This stupa got damaged several times by thunder bolts due to the structure it had. The brick structure that it had was 200 ft and then metals like copper gave it coverage of 300 ft which made it light attracter .There was a monastery around this stupa and there were more than 500 monks in that monastery, there was a sacred stream as well in its vicinity. Even now followers of Buddhism visit Shah jee ki dheri but its plight is miserable. If Government renovates it for tourists it could be a very attractive spot for Buddhists who would love to see the place once built by their great king Kanishka.

Even after demolishing of this stupa people had attachment with this place and they used to bury their dead ones here. It has many tombs of saints too.