The Mother-Goddess of Gandhara

It is forty years since Alfred Foucher carried out his archaeological mission in Gandhara and, while it cannot with justice be said that the area has been archaeologically neglected ever since, there are points connected with material culture, art and religion that cry out for attention. When Foucher conducted his investigations he based these on the itinerary of Hiuan-tsang and he was searching for Buddhist relics. Unfortunately he saw stupas and monasteries in every mound, and in fact stated that ‘chaitya’ (sanctuary) and ‘dheri’ (mound) were synonymous, this largely because Hiuan-tsang had said that there were about a thousand monasteries between Peshawar and the Indus.