Frontline
March  2001 
Special Report


 
Afghan tragedy

Though Afghanistan has had a Muslim population for the 
last millennium or so, the Bamiyan sculptures have always 
aroused nothing but admiration  

The decision of the Taliban regime of Afghanistan to destroy the great rock–cut images of the Buddha at 
Bamiyan as well as all other pieces of historic statuary has shocked and dismayed all those who have any care for the preservation of humanity’s cultural heritage.

It is to be affirmed that there can be no justification for the Taliban’s conduct, even if, as they allege, their action is in accordance with the dictates of Islam. It has, however, to be noted that it has always been held by leading Islamic jurists that old temples should not be destroyed.

It also needs to be recalled that though Afghanistan has had a Muslim population for the last millennium or so, the Bamiyan sculptures have always aroused nothing but admiration from such Muslims as have described the images down the centuries. In his great geographical dictionary, the Mu‘jam-al-Baldan, written early in the 13th century, Yaqut speaks of the “two mighty idols cut in the live rock” at Bamiyan, which he calls the ‘Red Buddha’ and ‘Grey Buddha’. “Nowhere else”, he exclaims, “is there anything to equal these.” He also speaks of the sculptured likenesses of “every species of birds that Allah had created.” 

In his book ‘Aja’ib–al–Makhluqat, Zakariya Qazwini (d.1263) gives a report in the same vein. When Sultan Muhammad, the author of the geographical work, Majma‘u–l Ghara’ib, passed by Bamiyan in 1528, he was grateful for the shelter that the gigantic niches, cut in the rock for sculpturing the two great images, offered to large caravans during rain and snow storms. He enthusiastically describes the images themselves and two lesser images cut nearby. 

Bamiyan was situated within the Mughal empire, and Akbar’s minister Abu’l Fazl in the account of the empire in the A’in–i–Akbari (1595) duly noted the sculptured “colossal images” at Bamiyan, one said to be 80 “yards” high, the other 50 “yards”. (These are actually 53 and 38 metres high).

No ruler of Afghanistan, Muslim or other, is known to have tried to harm the Bamiyan images. Attributions of such an act to Chengis Khan (a shamanist, who massacred the Muslim population of Bamiyan, but had no grouse against Buddhism) and Aurangzeb, are entirely baseless; it is regrettable that statements to this effect should have appeared in the press.

In recent times, Afghan scholars of repute have worked on the sculptures and cave paintings of the same complex and neighbouring sites, there being some 750 artificial caves there. Among such scholars have been Ahmad Ali Kohzad, Abdul Hayy Habibi, Zamaryalai Tarzi and Ahmad Ali Motamedi. They devoted themselves to exploring and studying the complex, because they knew it was an inalienable part of the national heritage of Afghanistan.
Along with Bamiyan, countless priceless treasures of art, including Gandhara sculptures and Sasanian paintings, are also being defaced and destroyed by the Taliban. It is sad that this century has had to begin with such a great cultural tragedy. 

If there is no limit to the infamy that the Taliban have earned for themselves by this act, there is a lesson for us in India too. Mr AB Vajpayee, our Prime Minister, would have been far more convincing in his appeal to others to make the Taliban desist from their act, if he had not only the other day acclaimed as part of our “national awakening,” the wilful destruction of the Babri Masjid, a monument in its own right.

Nor are the US and western powers very persuasive in their outcry. Let the world remember who so powerfully armed the fundamentalist forces to overthrow a modern regime in Afghanistan. What the Taliban, armed to the teeth, have done can never be restored. They have probably destroyed many pieces of Afghanistan’s heritage which have not even been properly explored, studied or photographed. The loss to Afghanistan and to the world is, therefore, immeasurable. It is a warning to all of us as to where religious fanaticism can lead us, of whatever colour it may be. Such fanaticism should always be uncompromisingly opposed.

Statement issued by:
Prof. Irfan Habib (president,AHS); Prof. Shireen Moosvi (secretary,AHS);        Prof. Iqtidar Alam Khan (treasurer,AHS); Ishrat Alam (joint secretary,AHS); and members of the AHS executive committee: Prof. Satish Chandra, former chairman, UGC; Dr IG Khan, reader, AMU; SA Nadeem Rezavi, reader, AMU; Dr Ramesh Rawat, reader in Hindi, AMU. 

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